Use and ReuseElizabeth Marriott

Intro to Conservation (AH312) included a fresco lab where the students created a copies of figures from the Sistine Chapel.

Shown here are photographs of the painting, a fullscale cartoon, and the wooden frame of the fresco itself which contains the arriccio, the first layer of cement that precedes the painted layer of the fresco.

Shown here is the exposed arriccio of a fresco in San Damiano, Assisi. In the case of this fresco, the intonaco, the painted layer, has flaked off revealing the drawing underneath.

The paint of the angel’s wings has faded revealing a painted landscape beneath. This means that Lippi originally painted the angel without wings, although it is unclear who made the addition. Lippi died while painting this apse meaning that the wings could be his own addition or that of his assistant who finished the cycle.

Annunciation,Fra Filippo Lippi; Santa Maria Assunta, Spoleto

This photograph shows two overlapping fresco decorations. Although frescos are traditionally painted over a blank layer of slightly coarser cement, here a new cycle using a later aesthetic has been painted directly over the first layer of intonaco.

San Damiano, Assisi

The marble in the abandoned city was reused throughout the Baroque era to build contemporary palaces.

Shown here are the ruins of Ostia Antica, an ancient Roman port a few miles outside of Rome. The town was gradually abandoned after the Tiber changed course in the 4th century CE.

This type of appropriation and reuse was a common occurrence even before the 16th century. One of the most famous examples of Roman reuse is the Arch of Constantine in 315 CE.

Constantine’s sculptors combined various first and second century Roman monuments with contemporary sculpture.

Santa Maria Assunta, Spoleto

Shown here is what is known as a Cosmati floor. For example, the large red circle in the top right was made by re-cutting a porphyry column into disks.

San Zeno Chapel; Santa Prassede, Rome

Roman architecture was also incorporated more directly into new construction. Shown here is a section of Roman entablature set above two collumns to frame the entrance to a chapel.

Here, above the Roman architecture, mosaics completed during the late eighth century depict the Virgin and Child, Saints Prassede, her sister St Pudenziana and their brother Saints Timothy and Novate are represented in the inner ring of medallions. The outer ring shows Christ and the apostles. During the Baroque era, Pope Urban VII commissioned mosaic portraits of himself and Pope Paschal I.

San Zeno Chapel; Santa Prassede, Rome

Pasquino the “Speaking Statue,” with political posters pertaining to the 2013 elections; Piazza Pasquino, Rome, 3rd Century CE

This statue is was unearthed in the 15th century and installed in the this piazza. In the 16th century for St Mark’s Day Cardinal Oliviero Carafa draped the statue with a toga and Latin inscriptions. This inspired anonymous critiques of the pope’s rule to be posted, a tradition that still continues today.

The Baroque Church Santa Prudenziana was built over a first century Roman Insula. The fragments and other artifacts recovered from this site will be incorporated into a small display about the churches history.

Marble fragments excavated in a Roman Insula under Santa Prudenziana

Finally, the majority of Ostia Antia was excavated under Mussolini between 1938 and 1942. At this time, the brick ruins were quickly capped with cement to prevent the deterioration of the buildings. In the 1970’s, archaeologists returned to the site and continued to conserve and excavate the city so that currently about two thirds of the city is excavated and in stable condition.

Ostia Antica