Restored bronze Silenus with Infant Bacchus returns to Uffizi

The Gallerie degli Uffizi in Florence has unveiled the restored bronze sculpture "Sileno con Bacco fanciullo" by Jacopo Del Duca, created between 1571 and 1573. The six-month restoration, carried out by restorers Flavia Puoti and Veronica Collina in collaboration with the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, addressed both aesthetic and structural issues. The bronze surface was cleaned using a combination of chemical solvents and mechanical tools, including a micro-drill with brushes, while cracks were filled with pigmented microcrystalline wax to restore chromatic uniformity. The base, which had suffered deformations and lesions, was stabilized using heat sources and clamps. The sculpture was commissioned by Ferdinando I de' Medici and originally placed in Villa Medici in Rome in 1588, alongside Bartolomeo Ammannati's "Marte Gradivo." Both works were later moved to the portico of the villa and finally transferred to the Uffizi in 1787 under Pietro Leopoldo di Lorena. The subject derives from a Roman marble copy of a late 4th-century BC bronze attributed to Lysippos, known as the Silenus Borghese, discovered in Rome in the second half of the 16th century in the garden of Carlo Muti, an area once occupied by the Gardens of Sallust.