Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
About the artist:
Giacomo Serpotta lived and worked in Palermo
from the end of the 17th Century until 1732, the year of his death.
After an apprenticeship in Rome,
where hes influenced by the main artists of Baroque art, including Bernini,
Serpotta is back in Palermo
where he worked with the greatest architects of the time.
He was so skilled, that he was able to combine the modernity
of the Roman Baroque art with the local tradition.
Giacomo Serpotta's art is essentially based on the stucco technique,
a mixture of lime, plaster and sand,
used in Palermo until the second half of the 17th century to decorate minor parts of altars and chapels and the relief panels of the vaults.
We created a support using a block of gasbeton glued to the base with epoxy resin (2: 1).
A second block has been positioned obliquely respect to the first to obtain the right angle; we also used terracotta bricks mixed with lime mortar ( 3: 1) to keep the block in position.
The wall and the block were subsequently prepared with a mortar based on marble powder and lime paste, worked with the "marmorino" technique using trowels and floats.
A trompe l'oeil column was also created as a background using ivory black in lime water.
The mannequin was made by assembling pieces of wood that were specially cut and adapted with wire iron nails and pliers; the tow served to insulate the metal parts, near the joints.
Following the indications provided by the studies on Serpotta, we have prepared a first mortar layer consisting of 3 parts of sand and 1 of slaked lime and inserted pieces of brick previously wet to fill the structure.
Then, we applied several mortar layers, progressively using sand with a finer grain size, helping us with metal spatulas, and wetting gradually to allow a greater adherence.
The finish, or rather, in the case of Serpotta,
"l'allustratura"
The finishing layer was made in two steps using a mixture of : lime paste (1 part), plaster (½ part), marble powder (½ part), and a spoonful of stand oil.
Both layers were applied with metal and plastic spatulas, thoroughly wetting the surface on which to apply the new layer.
At last, a microcrystalline wax layer, diluted with turpentine essence, was spread by brush and polished with cotton cloths.
This final touch gave the stucco the typical softness of the marbles that made Serpotta so famous.
The restoration of the Oratorio di Sant'Orsola in Palermo (Sicily),
dating back to the beginning of the full maturation phase of Serpotta,
has also made it possible to obtain further data relating to the composition of the materials used by the artist
and the methodology he applied for the construction of both large apparatuses and individuals artifacts.
Serpotta designed everything graphically: sketches for the sculptures, executive drawings for the architectural moldings and executive drawings of the whole plant.
His three-dimensional sculptures were composed of at least 3 successive layers, with an organic armor, as found in several cases.
Serpotta realised much of the equipment directly on the construction site but,
some hypothesized that he also made a part of the decoration in his workshop, using elements made with mold dies, which were then assembled in situ.
Precisely this happened, for example, with the complex and beautiful skeletons of the chapel of the Purging Souls.
Thanks to the restoration, the original glazing was meticulously recovered.
It has been possible to verify that it does not depend exclusively,
as often reiterated by the specific artistic literature,
on the materials (such as marble dust),
but is a characteristic of Serpotta's technique, which was characterized by the use of plaster for the rendering of compact, smooth and shiny surfaces, comparable to those of marble sculptures.
It was also possible to observe how the artist made holes with a stick to increase the chiaroscuro contrast.
References:
S. Lo Giudice, I colori del bianco: Gli Stucchi del Serpotta a Palermo, catalogo della mostra, Palermo 1996;
Lo stucco: cultura, tecnologia, conoscenza: atti del convegno di studi: Bressanone, 10-13 luglio 2001, Edizioni Arcadia Ricerche, 2001;
Donald Garstang, Giacomo Serpotta e i serpottiani : stuccatori a Palermo 1656-1790, Palermo, Flaccovio, 2006;
P. Palazzotto, M. Sebastianelli, Giacomo Serpotta nella chiesa di Sant’Orsola di Palermo, Studi e restauri, n. 5, collana diretta da P. Palazzotto, Congregazione S. Eligio, Museo Diocesano di Palermo, Palermo 2011.
...coming from the Oratory of the Rosary in San Domenico in Palermo,
work by Giacomo Serpotta (1717)
The preparation of the support
Serena di Gaetano & Laura Porcu
a.a. 2011/2012
Master Degree in Conservation (University of Turin, Centro di Conservazione eRestauro La Venaria Reale)
..from the paper puppet ...
The construction of the 3D mannequin starting from a two-dimensional image :
...to Pinocchio...
The body layers: