Canova Monument
Marble, as Antonio Canova so acutely perceived, is a living substance. Responsive to the elements, to fluctuations in temperature, to air, water, heat and light, his sculptures are essentially as vulnerable as the human forms they seek to re-create. The striking monument raised to him in the church of the Frari, containing his heart and based on his original design for a memorial to Titian, is now seriously threatened by the microclimate which surrounds it. The first stage of Venice in Peril's project for restoring this exceptional work was to commission a report from Venetian scientific experts on the underlying problems, so that our programme of recovery can be carried out as thoroughly as possible.
A major threat, as the scientists reveal, is posed by the atmosphere both inside and outside the church. Humid and heavy with marine salt, this becomes more of a danger to Canova's great marble pyramid because of the variable conditions created by increasing visitor numbers within the building and by the often dramatic shifts in the weather outside. These climatic zigzags partially explain the bizarre leopard spots beginning to mar the surface purity of the figures beside the doorway of the pyramid. As so often in Venice, a city raised on water, a pervasive damp has begun to permeate the monument's lower levels and seep into the statues themselves.
Dew, meanwhile, created by the combined impact of the climate and the crowds of worshippers and visitors, has started to coat the marble. But does the composition of the stone itself, as used by the 19th-century sculptors, render it more vulnerable ? Has earlier conservation treatment - last carried out some 20 years ago - contributed to the problem it was intended to solve ? This scientific inquest and the answers it may provide to the mysteries of the monument are vital to Venice in Peril's first steps in restoring this unique and arresting sculptural ensemble.
Jonathan Keates
February 2010
Venice in Peril adopted this restoration through the UNESCO-Private Committees programme and as a result of a grant from The Leading Travel Companies Conservation Foundation the Fund has been able to carry out the extensive preliminary investigations: thermographic survey; analysis of soluble salts; measurement of humidity; micro-climatic survey; archival research. Unfortunately these preliminary tests have been inconclusive and it is necessary to carry out more investigations to ascertain the cause of the degradation of the monument.
Update on the investigations May 2011:
The preliminary investigations are now in their 3rd stage and should finally lead to a solution.
The terracotta tiles in the recess behind the door situated half way up the monument have been removed so that a core sample can be drilled vertically from the centre structure supporting the pyramid where it is thought moisture is rising from the subsoil and possibly rainwater is filtering under the side wall. Canova's heart is in an urn under the slab at the back.
There has been a second core drilling in the centre intersecting the first, a second slab of lumacchella marble has been removed from the front of the monument in order that readings of humidity can be taken.
A major threat, as the scientists reveal, is posed by the atmosphere both inside and outside the church. Humid and heavy with marine salt, this becomes more of a danger to Canova's great marble pyramid because of the variable conditions created by increasing visitor numbers within the building and by the often dramatic shifts in the weather outside. These climatic zigzags partially explain the bizarre leopard spots beginning to mar the surface purity of the figures beside the doorway of the pyramid. As so often in Venice, a city raised on water, a pervasive damp has begun to permeate the monument's lower levels and seep into the statues themselves.
Dew, meanwhile, created by the combined impact of the climate and the crowds of worshippers and visitors, has started to coat the marble. But does the composition of the stone itself, as used by the 19th-century sculptors, render it more vulnerable ? Has earlier conservation treatment - last carried out some 20 years ago - contributed to the problem it was intended to solve ? This scientific inquest and the answers it may provide to the mysteries of the monument are vital to Venice in Peril's first steps in restoring this unique and arresting sculptural ensemble.
Jonathan Keates
February 2010
Venice in Peril adopted this restoration through the UNESCO-Private Committees programme and as a result of a grant from The Leading Travel Companies Conservation Foundation the Fund has been able to carry out the extensive preliminary investigations: thermographic survey; analysis of soluble salts; measurement of humidity; micro-climatic survey; archival research. Unfortunately these preliminary tests have been inconclusive and it is necessary to carry out more investigations to ascertain the cause of the degradation of the monument.
Update on the investigations May 2011:
The preliminary investigations are now in their 3rd stage and should finally lead to a solution.
The terracotta tiles in the recess behind the door situated half way up the monument have been removed so that a core sample can be drilled vertically from the centre structure supporting the pyramid where it is thought moisture is rising from the subsoil and possibly rainwater is filtering under the side wall. Canova's heart is in an urn under the slab at the back.
There has been a second core drilling in the centre intersecting the first, a second slab of lumacchella marble has been removed from the front of the monument in order that readings of humidity can be taken.
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