COMENIUS
Civic and Diocesan Museum.
Introduction about the collections of works that the visitor can admire.
The current Civic and Diocesan Museum of Sacred art, housed in the ancient “Palazzo dei Priori”, is characterized by a one-colour graffiti fresco fasade. It was created in 1995 by uniting two important collections: the Civic Museum, formed in the early 1920s by the “Friends of Art Society”, and the collection of Sacred art formerly displayed in the Saint Albert Room in the Bishop’s Palace, put together in the 1960s in memory of Monsignor Francesco Niccoli, the last Bishop to live in the town. As a whole, the new Museum complex, which over the years has grown thanks to acquisitions, donations, and major deposits, contains culturally very important pieces, which are fundamental for a knowledge of the history of art in Colle and the entire Diocese.
Works displayed:
-The “Virgin and Child Enthroned in Majesty”, painted in the early 1290s, by and anonymous artist conventionally called “The Badia a Isola Master”, who was a follower of Duccio di Boninsegna. It is the Virgin on a marble throne with the Child. There are two leaning out angels (like in Duccio’s Majesty). All the figures are on a gold background.
- The “Birth of the Virgin” the only painting on panel by Cennino Cennini.
In this painting a typical medieval room is depicted: in the foregroound there are some figures with a baby, the Virgin, on their lap, behind them St.Anne lying in the bed after giving birth to the Virgin. In the background a balustrade which separates the outer spaces from the interior one.
The interior shows medieval everyday objects and furniture: the bed is set on a wooden basement (pancale) and covered with brocade (broccato) blanquets. There is a niche (nicchia) used as a cupboard in the left wall. Walls are covered by tapestry according to the medieval habit as a shelter against dampness (umidità?)
This artist from Colle is well known not for his works of art, but for his “Book of Art” a reference book for the artists of his time.
After the golden parts, the backgrounds, the clothes and the objects were painted, the pigments turned into fine dusts were mixed with egg yolk and thinned with water.
Cennino Cennini had described a palette of colours. He said that there were seven natural colours: four deriving from the earth (black, red, yellow and green) and three natural colours but to be artificially modified (white, light blue and a type of yellow).
Colours were obtained by purifying coloured earths, by grinding stones, by chemical reactions (alchemy).
Two or more layers of a material called “bolo”, were spread. Bolo was made up of red clay earth soil coming from Arenaria mixed up with fish glue. Then, to create the gold background, a small portion of this Bolo, was moistened and thin gold leaves were laid one by one. They were very thin, just consider that over one hundred gold leaves were obtained from one florin. There were two painting techniques described by Cennino Cennini in his book about art: painting on a wooden panel, and frescos that means to paint on a wet plaster.
Using the technique of painting on a wooden panel, the artist got a series of boards of seasoned wood that were linked together and treated to form a smooth surface. Then the panel was covered with eight layers of a mixture of rabbit glue (made up with rabbit cartilages) and chalk. After, it was covered with linen cloth. Finally the drawing was traced on the panel with a brush dipped into some ink. The technique of fresco consisted in two phases: 1- the drawing of the chosen subject, called sinopia, was carved out on a first layer of raw and wet plaster, called arriccio, made of rough sand and lime. 2- the pigments watered down without egg yolk (just water) were laid on the so called intonachino, a plaster made up of fine sand and lime. But just small portion at a time could be painted, because the plaster had to be kept wet to absorb the colour. Each painting session was called “giornata”.