Pier Maria Plumes. A masterpiece brought back and restored

The Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, directed by Paola Marini, presenting to the public, after restoration, a painting on the table of great artistic value, dating from the late fifteenth century, preserved in a private collection Venetian.

The work had not been performed in public since 1961, when it was shown at the exhibition dedicated to Andrea Mantegna Mantua with the hypothetical attribution to Francesco Bonsignori, Veronese painter of strict compliance Mantegna; the attribution to Bonsignori was eventually ousted from that prevailing in the most recent studies, to Jerome Mocetto.

The conservation work, led by Claudia Vittori and directed by Roberta Battaglia as an official of the then Special Superintendence for Historical, Artistic and Ethno-anthropological and the Museums of the city of Venice and the municipalities of Gronda Lagunare, made it possible the original buoyancy understanding of the blade, and his partial repayment: born as a large single surface blade for church, depicting the Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints John the Baptist, a bishop, Lucia, John the Evangelist and the donor, the board has been heavily transformed during the eighteenth century probably as a result of severe damage due to causes not precisabili: sectioned into three panels, reassembled triptych form, was covered by a thick, dark overpainting intended to conceal the figurative parts found fragmentary .

The project also provided the foundations of the new opera stylistic interpretation that is now being reassigned, based on an accurate reading of the formal linguistic components, the Treviso painter Pier Maria Plumes.

It was felt that the importance of the recovery achieved by the restoration and the interest of attibutiva proposal deserved the presentation of the work within the path of the permanent collection of the Galleria dell'Accademia. You have chosen to exhibit next to the painting private collection work signed by plumes, the Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Andrew, kindly loaned by the Civic Museums of Treviso, who, though belonging to a more advanced stage of its production, which gives specific evidence to support this proposal conferring.

The exhibition is accompanied by educational apparatuses related to the restoration and a volume of Roberta Battaglia where, in addition to giving an account of the technical aspects related to this intervention, it traces the development of the painting collecting, discussing the complex issue of its ecclesiastical original destination, it is argued the proposal conferring supporting it with the review of small group of works signed by Pier Maria Plumes, in an attempt to define a coherent and unified artistic career.

The entire project, including the restoration, study and appreciation of the ancient work, is certainly a case in point of protection combined with the enhancement, strongly integrated activities that can not be carried out separately.