Giotto's Bardi Chapel in Santa Croce Restored: New Insights into the Master's Spatial Inventions

Fatti principali

• The Bardi Chapel cycle by Giotto and workshop in Santa Croce, Florence, has been restored after a four-year campaign.
• The restoration was promoted by the Opera di Santa Croce with the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and funded by public and private donors, including the Giving4Giotto campaign.
• The cycle depicts six scenes from the life of Saint Francis based on Bonaventura da Bagnoregio's Legenda maior, plus the Stigmata, saints, and Virtues, covering 180 square meters.
• Dating is debated; the presence of Saint Louis of Toulouse, canonized in 1317, provides only a post quem terminus.
• The restoration revealed Giotto's spatial inventions, expressive intensity, and the collaboration of workshop assistants.
• Conservation work included consolidation, removal of altered materials, replacement of synthetic fillings, and laser cleaning of the vault.
• The chapel's history includes whitewashing before 1730, 19th-century cenotaphs, accidental rediscovery in 1851, and a 1957-1959 restoration by Ugo Procacci and Leonetto Tintori.
• The unveiling coincides with the eighth centenary of the death of Saint Francis.