Opera Tua, the project of Coop Alleanza 3.0: until October 14, vote for the work The Annunciazione con i Santi Caterina e Sebastiano by Alessandro Araldi.
The protagonists of the stage dedicated to Emilia-Romagna of “Opera tua”, the project that marries support for culture, through the enhancement and recovery of local masterpieces, with the excellence of the food and wine products of the Fior fiore Coop line, are the Annunciazione con i Santi Caterina e Sebastiano by Alessandro Araldi from the Monumental Complex of the Pilotta in Parma and the Natura morta by Felice Boselli from the Pinacoteca dei Musei Civici in Piacenza.
The works to be restored were chosen with Fondaco Italia , a company active in the promotion of cultural heritage, in collaboration with the Association of Italian World Heritage Sites and local institutions.
Also this year, “Opera tua” can count on the patronage of the Touring Club Italiano, a non-profit association that has been dealing with tourism, culture and the environment for over a hundred years.
The Annunciation with Saints Catherine and Sebastian is an oil painting on panel dating back to the first half of the 16th century, measuring 197 x 145 centimetres and originally displayed in the Church of S. Luca degli Eremitani in Parma, while it is now located in the Monumental Complex of the Pilotta. It is the work of the Parma artist Alessandro Araldi. From 1500 onwards, the artist worked mainly for the Benedictine monastery of San Paolo: he created the frescoes in the choir of the abbey church (now lost) and, after a probable stay in Rome (around 1510), the decoration of the chapel of Santa Caterina di Alessandria and some rooms in the abbess’s apartment (1514), in which he shows influences of Pinturicchio, but also of Marco Palmezzano, Francia and Costa il Vecchio.
Preliminary technical documentation through multispectral images and diagnostic investigations will ascertain the state of conservation of the work, in order to plan the structural intervention to be carried out. The work was created on wood, therefore over time it is subjected to phenomena of movement and shrinkage of the wooden support, which if not carefully controlled through a restoration intervention aimed at the functional stability of the support, could endanger the preservation of the painted surface. The restoration will consequently have to deal with the consolidation of the pictorial film in order to avoid future losses of color. This will be followed by the cleaning operations of the pictorial film, obscured by ancient varnishes and surface deposits. This operation will have the purpose of re-establishing the lost chromatic values of the painting. The operations will end with the interventions of pictorial reintegration of the pictorial layers and with the application of a protective.