The Cini Foundation and San Marco Group, a leading company in the building paints and varnishes sector, announce their partnership with the aim of enhancing the historical and artistic heritage of the area where the company was founded.
This collaboration comes as part of the preliminary studies for the restoration of the Chiostri on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, where the Group carried out stratigraphic analyses of the walls and chemical analyses of the plasters.
The first project, which will be completed by spring 2024, concerns the famous facsimile of The Wedding at Cana by Paolo Veronese (1562), created in 2007 thanks to an exceptional digital reproduction operation by the Factum Foundation. The San Marco Group will support a 12-month study grant aimed at the creation of software and an app for mobile devices capable of integrating a localised lighting system with an audio-guide equipped with visual support for the iconographic apparatus and high-definition details of the work. The aim is to enable autonomous enjoyment also by an audience with impaired vision.
A second grant, also lasting twelve months, will be awarded, thanks to the support of the San Marco Group, for the digitisation of a selected corpus of ancient volumes in the Giorgio Cini Foundation Library. The project, scheduled for completion by 2025, will consider three different editions of 16th-century colour recipe books and two rare incunabula (including Petrarch’s Canzoniere of 1473): all of which are particularly precious and exemplary, in content and form, of a skilful use of colour.
The third intervention, scheduled for 2025, consists of the restoration of the painting Jacob’s Dream by Valentin Lefèvre (1664-1674) – an artist of Belgian origin who worked in the lagoon city – located on the ceiling of the monumental staircase by Baldassarre Longhena in the Giorgio Cini Foundation. The restoration work, already authorised by the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Venice, includes checking the conservation conditions of the back of the canvas, removing the frame and all the elements supporting the work.
Subsequently, cleaning, plastering, painting integration, consolidation of the frame structure, the frame, the textile support and the paint film will be carried out. Upon completion of the work, the painting will be repositioned in its historical location.
With this articulate collaboration, San Marco Group continues the path begun by its founder Alessandrina Tamburini, the creator of numerous initiatives aimed at the dissemination and sharing of culture and beauty.
CREDITS
Cover: Facsimile of The Marriage at Cana by Paolo Veronese, Factum Foundation, 2007 in the Palladian Refectory of the Giorgio Cini Foundation, photo by Matteo De Fina, courtesy of Giorgio Cini Foundation
Photo 2: View of the Cini Foundation, Island of San Giorgio, courtesy of Giorgio Cini Foundation
Photo 4: Facsimile of The Marriage at Cana by Paolo Veronese, Factum Foundation, 2007 in the Palladian Refectory of the Giorgio Cini Foundation, photo by Matteo De Fina, courtesy of Giorgio Cini Foundation
Photo 5: Jacob’s Dream, Valentin Lefèvre, 1664-1674, photo by Sara Papa, courtesy of Giorgio Cini Foundation
Photo 6: Illuminated page from Il Canzoniere, Petrarch, ed. 1473, courtesy of Giorgio Cini Foundation
