Preserved since 2009 in the Museo Nazionale d’Abruzzo, which promoted and supervised its restoration, the sculpture, one of the most precious of the Italian Renaissance, had been pulled out of the rubble and transported out of the basilica in the aftermath of an earthquake on April 6, with damage to its base and projecting parts.
The complex restoration of the work, which depicts the Madonna on her knees, made of polychrome terracotta and gilded in 1506, was conducted by Munda in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio, and involved the removal of altered paints and retouches, as well as the filling of cracks and fissures. The Municipality of L’Aquila financed the earthquake-proof base in order to guarantee adequate levels of safety and protection in the event of seismic events, and to allow the work of art attributed to the 16th-century painter and sculptor, one of the most prolific and appreciated in the Abruzzo region, to be fully exploited.
The design phases of the technological base and refurbishment were carried out under the constant guidance of the Superintendency’s officials, coordinated by architect Cristina Collettini.
“With this official handover,” said Munda’s managing director Federica Zalabra, “the activities of the Abruzzo National Museum have been completed, not only a place of conservation and enhancement, but an institute capable of receiving and interpreting the demands of the territory through one of its scientific activities, restoration. In the coming months we will promote a study day, open to all, with the presentation of the results obtained”.
“The sacred work,” observed the archbishop of L’Aquila, Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, “invites those who contemplate it to prayer, elevating its dimension towards the divine. Saturnino Gatti’s is an extraordinary work: Mary is depicted as a mother who prays and offers us Jesus. I thank those who worked fruitfully to restore the statue to its beauty”.
