ABSTRACT

The conservation of one of Spinello Aretino frescos in Balia hall of Palazzo Pubblico of Siena shows several and interesting questions: beyond paint restoration, the main issue was building support stabilization, made up a brick partition wall put just before a tight cavity inaccessible for any operator. The methodological approach was multidisciplinary and experimental. The copious preliminary study phase was managed taking advantage of know-how coming from different sectors other than restoration, as materials engineering, aeronautical engineering, robotics engineering. The multidisciplinary approach is a method recognized by cultural and scientific community since Venice Charter proclamation, so that we can consider it an ‘orthodox’ method. However in last decades, against sudden technological development and also theoretical debate weakening, technical aspects often prevailed on conservation questions, so preservation way replaced the conservation reasons and objects, in an ‘heretic’ method reversal. This restoration work represents a singular example of how experiences coming from different branch of knowledge can cooperate to safeguard our patrimony. In fact, materials and robotics engineering allowed to carry out a hard restoration, following the disciplinary criteria of preservation and showing an interesting perspective of advanced technology applied to cultural assets and an interaction between different branch of knowledge aimed to preservation of an artwork.

Parole chiave/Key-words: Restoration, Spinello Aretino, fresco, Siena, innovative technologies