Page 39 - Studio International - January 1967

pal frescoes damaged were: the cycle of Old Testament
scenes in the Chiostro Verde by anonymous followers of
Uccello, together with the two Uccellos in the refectory
of S. Maria Novella, The Flood and The Creation, and the
frescoes by Andrea di Firense in the Spanish Chapel; the
Vespucci Pieta, the St Jerome and parts of the sinopia
drawings for the Last Supper, all by Ghirlandaio, and a
fresco of St Augustine by Botticelli, in the Ognissanti; in
Santa Croce, fragments attributed to Orcagna, various
detached pieces by followers of Giotto, and the Last Supper
b Taddeo Gaddi on the end wall of the Museo dell'Opere
da Santa Croce. There are, of course, a great many
frescoes of lesser importance which have also been
damaged by the flood. But it is not yet possible to assess
the exact extent of the damage. The reason for this is
that the buildings, when flooded, do not dry immediately.
Water soaks into the structure, is absorbed, and then
works through. Great difficulties will therefore be en-
countered from rising damp in frescoed walls, from move-
ment of the structure, and from chemical changes within
the plaster, spread over a period of years. Discoloration,
spots, flaking and fungus efflorescence can be expected
on frescoes which were not touched by the flood water,
and the behaviour of frescoes which were actually sub-
merged cannot be predicted, since the question is com-
plicated by a factor which no previous restorers have had
to cope with on such a scale. Florence is covered with oil.
The storage tanks for central heating equipment were
kept in the city's cellars. The most popular form of heat-
ing in Italy is oil-fired (electricity is very costly). As water
flooded the basements, it ruptured the tanks, releasing
millions of gallons of crude heating oil. When the waters
receded, they left a wash of oil on every object which had
been submerged. This soaked into anything porous—

Above left
The flood level in this courtyard may be gauged from the dark
stain, left by the oil as the water receded, between the springing
of the arches in the arcade.

Left
The approach to Ponte Vecchio from the northern side of the
city, two weeks after the flood. In the background, a mobile
pumping unit cleaning out a cellar. In this street, as in many others,
the road surface subsided and underground pipes burst.
Opposite
An American restorer working on one of the many re-mounted
frescoes damaged in the Santa Croce Museum—a Crucifixion by
an anonymous member of the School of Giotto. This panel was not
badly warped, and the jagged blank edge visible in the foreground
was not the work of the flood; but it was covered with oil and
soaked. The chairs give some hint atthe primitiveness of the
working conditions—generally, restorers could find nothing else
to supporttheir work on.