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After twelve years of obscurity and two years of painstaking restoration, the large crucifix painted by Bernardo Daddi around 1340 returns to its throne in the Bardini Museum. More imposing than Cimabue’s Christ (3.90 x 4.33 meters) in the church of Santa Croce, the work measures 4.76 x 4.20 meters and will be presented to the public on October 3 with the inauguration of a series of exhibitions entitled “Le Stanze dei Tesori” (Treasure Rooms)—dedicated by the Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze for the series Piccoli Grandi Musei.
The Daddi crucifix is part of the incredibly rich collection that the antiques dealer Stefano Bardini (1836-1922) donated to the city of Florence along with the building in Piazza dei Mozzi, which now holds the museum. The restoration was undertaken by Nicola MacGregor and Elisabetta Codognato, thanks to 26,000 euro in financing given by the Lions Club of Poggio Imperiale.
Ginevra Utari, student of Andrea De Marchi and professor of Art History at the University of Florence, has written a probing artistic and historical study which confirms the paternity of the masterpiece, until now unknown. Given its importance and dimensions, the crucifix would have been, in fact, the “Crux de medio ecclesiae”—or, the crucifix over the main altar—of Florence’s Duomo, which had mysteriously disappeared in the first half of the 15th century.
Coinciding with the exhibition, the results of the research will be published in one volume by the Museum’s curator, Antonella Nesi, entitled “La Croce di Bernardo Daddi, vicissitudini di un’opera d’arte,” published by Centro Di. It is a project sponsored by the Ente Cassa, which also financed the restoration of the grand Salone dei Dipinti, where the crucifix will be exhibited in the exact location Bardini displayed it in 1884.
Bernardo Daddi was known as one of the most prolific Florentine artists, and almost surely died in 1348 during the Black Death. Private and public collections all over the world contain numerous works which attest to the role of primary importance attained by this successor to Giotto, after whose death Florence commissioned several significant works. Among others, the polyptych for the main altar of Santa Reparata, later transferred to San Pancrazio, and now shared by the Uffizi Gallery and the church of Madonna di Orsnamichele. The Bardini crucifix is the fruit of his mature years.
Unfortunately, documentation is nonexistent. Nor is it known how Bardini procured it, from whom, and at what price. The only proof is a few photographs taken around 1888—the year in which Bardini inaugurated his commercial atelier in Piazza dei Mozzi. According to restoration criteria of the time, he had the end pieces—which were probably damaged—substituted with fragments from another work, obtaining a sort of antiquity pastiche, however majestic, but always refusing to sell it. Since then, the crucifix has remained in his atelier, now the museum.
The only time it was moved was in 1999, at the start of the building’s restoration. The work was packed into a crate, but in order to avoid the paint detaching itself from the surface, was protected by a glued-on layer of vellum. Ten years later, in 2009, it was exhumed for the occasion of the Museum’s reopening. It was with great disappointment that it was discovered to be impossible to display—and that it was first necessary for the work to undergo a radical restoration in order to remove all the glue and vellum. Now Daddi’s masterpiece is finally ready to be given back to the world along with the other treasures of the Salone created by Bardini.
The Daddi crucifix is part of the incredibly rich collection that the antiques dealer Stefano Bardini (1836-1922) donated to the city of Florence along with the building in Piazza dei Mozzi, which now holds the museum. The restoration was undertaken by Nicola MacGregor and Elisabetta Codognato, thanks to 26,000 euro in financing given by the Lions Club of Poggio Imperiale.
Ginevra Utari, student of Andrea De Marchi and professor of Art History at the University of Florence, has written a probing artistic and historical study which confirms the paternity of the masterpiece, until now unknown. Given its importance and dimensions, the crucifix would have been, in fact, the “Crux de medio ecclesiae”—or, the crucifix over the main altar—of Florence’s Duomo, which had mysteriously disappeared in the first half of the 15th century.
Coinciding with the exhibition, the results of the research will be published in one volume by the Museum’s curator, Antonella Nesi, entitled “La Croce di Bernardo Daddi, vicissitudini di un’opera d’arte,” published by Centro Di. It is a project sponsored by the Ente Cassa, which also financed the restoration of the grand Salone dei Dipinti, where the crucifix will be exhibited in the exact location Bardini displayed it in 1884.
Bernardo Daddi was known as one of the most prolific Florentine artists, and almost surely died in 1348 during the Black Death. Private and public collections all over the world contain numerous works which attest to the role of primary importance attained by this successor to Giotto, after whose death Florence commissioned several significant works. Among others, the polyptych for the main altar of Santa Reparata, later transferred to San Pancrazio, and now shared by the Uffizi Gallery and the church of Madonna di Orsnamichele. The Bardini crucifix is the fruit of his mature years.
Unfortunately, documentation is nonexistent. Nor is it known how Bardini procured it, from whom, and at what price. The only proof is a few photographs taken around 1888—the year in which Bardini inaugurated his commercial atelier in Piazza dei Mozzi. According to restoration criteria of the time, he had the end pieces—which were probably damaged—substituted with fragments from another work, obtaining a sort of antiquity pastiche, however majestic, but always refusing to sell it. Since then, the crucifix has remained in his atelier, now the museum.
The only time it was moved was in 1999, at the start of the building’s restoration. The work was packed into a crate, but in order to avoid the paint detaching itself from the surface, was protected by a glued-on layer of vellum. Ten years later, in 2009, it was exhumed for the occasion of the Museum’s reopening. It was with great disappointment that it was discovered to be impossible to display—and that it was first necessary for the work to undergo a radical restoration in order to remove all the glue and vellum. Now Daddi’s masterpiece is finally ready to be given back to the world along with the other treasures of the Salone created by Bardini.
