Pinin Brambilla Barcilon Archive
Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera, Donato Bramante, Ripped wall paintings
Description
Reports, draft mappings, phototypes (positive, negative).
Consistency of archive
Foldons No 83 and No 84 of the Pinin Brambilla Barcilon Fund preserve the photographic documentation of the restoration dated 1976 relating to the torn and detached frescoes by Donato Bramante of the Pinacoteca di Brera and coming from Casa Panigarola formerly Visconti, in Via Lanzone 4, in Milan, commonly called Men of Arms.
A total of 132 black and white photographs are preserved. The restoration campaign is carried out on the occasion of the exhibition Processo per il Museo: Brera, curated by the then director of the Pinacoteca, art historian Luigi Russoli. The speech was published in issue 3 of the journal ‘Quaderni di Brera’, Donato Bramante: Men of Arms, also drafted by Pinin Brambilla for the section dedicated to restoration.
The photographs in the archive cover the phases before, during and after the restoration. There are no photographs of the diagnostic analysis, but there are some photos taken with grazing light, a useful technique to read more easily the damage and lifting of the pictorial film. Some photographs are pinned, either to indicate the different colours used, or to indicate the days of execution of the fresco highlighted with the naked eye. Many of the photos are macro details of the pictorial surface or details of the figures, while to a lesser extent we find the full-length photographs of the Men of Arms.
The descriptive report of the restoration is not preserved, but some photographs contain notes from the contents that can be found in the description of the intervention described in the bibliography.
Bibliography
Franco Russoli (edited by), Process for the museum: Brera, Milan, Sisar, 1977
G. Mulazzani, M. Dalai Emiliani, S. Matalon, P. Brambilla Barcilon, A. Gallone, Donato Bramante: the Men of Arms, in "Quaderni di Brera", No 3, Florence, 1977
consistency
Quantity 133|4|2|51
Type positive(s) on paper up to 21x29 cm;negative(s) on 35 mm film;document(s);slide(s)
Description positive b/w 18x24 cm negative on 35 mm film restoration project colour slides with 5x5 cm frame.
Reordering sign
APBB_CTRS_F83_2; APBB_CTRS_F84_2
Proposal for intervention (no. 2 editions) and photographic documentation relating to the restoration of a series of torn wall paintings by Donato Bramante, from Casa Panigarola and depicting: Heraclitus and Democritus; Man with a Greatsword; Graduated man; Singer; Man with a bat; Man with halberd; Man-at-arms.
Simplified description
The works belonging to the cycle "Uomini d'arme" by Donato Bramante are torn frescoes (a restorer transported the pictorial layer from the original support, the wall, to a different support, in this case the canvases) of 1486-1492.
Originally they decorated the rooms of Casa Panigarola in Milan, but in 1901 they were taken to the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, where they are now preserved.
The restorer Pinin Brambilla Barcilon restored the works in 1976-1977.
The restoration was carried out on the occasion of an exhibition organized at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.
Previous restorations had modified the works.
Only one of these frescoes, "L'uomo d'arme", was transported with the technique of detachment (separation of the painting from the original support), also removing the plaster.
The other frescoes were torn (transportation of the only pictorial layer from the original support to a different support) and glued on canvases.
The restorer Pinin Brambilla carried out the cleaning (cleaning the surface of the artwork from the dirt deposited over time) and repaired the gaps (missing parts).
It reinforced the old frame (structure that supports the canvas of the painting) and the support canvases.
It made the colors brighter, damaged by previous restorations.
Reference bibliography
Franco Russoli (edited by), Process for the museum: Brera, Milan, Sisar, 1977
G. Mulazzani, M. Dalai Emiliani, S. Matalon, P. Brambilla Barcilon, A. Gallone, Donato Bramante: the Men of Arms, in "Quaderni di Brera", No 3, Florence, 1977
CCR and accessibility
