Restoration, safety and rearrangement of the museum: after over a year of work and an investment of around 1.1 million, the Orsanmichele complex in Florence is ready to reopen to the public on 19 January (it will be visible every day, except on Tuesday).
During the 400 days of closure, the church and museum of Orsanmichele underwent a series of restoration and extraordinary maintenance operations on the sculptures, wall paintings, stone vestments and some statues. In the new exhibition, the 13 statues that were originally located in the external niches, created by artists such as Lorenzo Ghiberti, Donatello, Andrea del Verrocchio, Baccio da Montelupo and Giambologna, return to interact with the public thanks to structures that keep them raised, framing them with a backdrop that reflects its location in the external tabernacles. In the church, the entire tabernacle of Orcagna, the altar with the group of the Virgin with Child and Saint Anne by Francesco da Sangallo and the panel by Bernardo Daddi were completely dusted. In the apse part, the walls were restored and the plaster was restored. Furthermore, thanks to the removal of the old sacristy against the north-east wall, some portions of the frescoes depicting San Domenico and San Francesco have become visible again. The bases of the six pillars of the spans were then restored, as were the paintings on the faces of three pillars depicting Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Barnabas and Saint Peter, and a maintenance campaign was carried out on the vaults. During the works at the museum, it was possible to undertake some restoration and extraordinary maintenance interventions on works such as the statue of Sant’Eligio by Nanni di Banco, of San Matteo by Lorenzo Ghiberti, of two bronzes of Santo Stefano by Ghiberti and of San Giovanni Evangelist by Baccio da Montelupo. In view of the repositioning of the Four Crowned Saints, the ancient marble pediment, which remained fractured following the transfer of the work from the tabernacle to the museum in 2001, was restored.
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