The reintegration of losses in a wooden late baroque polychrome crucifix: issues and ways to approach the selection of materials

Abstract

This work will review two different interventions of plastic and pictorial reintegration that a wooden late baroque polychrome sculpture has undergone. The Crucifix of Monte Giove, restored in the laboratory of the University of Urbino Carlo Bo, has unveiled large losses of the wood, some of which have altered the plastic forms and polychromy, and a shrinkage crack that has caused a deep vertical split in the torso and an alteration of the original volume. These issues have presented an opportunity for further discussion and study, relating to the potential solutions for each type of damage: the use of magnets to make the reconstructed elements movable and reversible and a filler for the wood’s crack to solve both the structural and the aesthetic issues. These two choices have been discussed analysing the critical approaches, the materials selection and the aesthetic results.

Keywords

• wooden sculpture
• lacuna
• polychromy
• reintegration
• reconstruction