Of Roberto De Santo
A showcase of excellence as well as the work that was presented. The restoration technique on the eighteenth-century silver group of Santa Domenica was illustrated during the Ferrara International Exhibition. This is the main event in Italy in the sector and thus made it possible to promote the wisdom demonstrated in restoring sculpture to its former glory.
This is the sculpture of the Neapolitan school and dated 1738 preserved inside the Diocesan Museum of Tropea. The work was recently restored by the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the city of Reggio Calabria and Vibo Valentia. A safeguard intervention that is part of the three-year public works program 2021-2023.
It was the technicians of the Superintendence who illustrated the phases of the restoration thanks to a video. In a post they define the work as “one of the most interesting and significant artefacts” preserved in Tropea.
«The importance of the artefact from a historical, artistic, demo-ethno-anthropological and devotional point of view – underlined by the Superintendence – determined the restoration intervention aimed at stopping the ongoing degradation phenomena and correcting and restoring the features of the artefact».
The work
The sculpture, presented almost as a group, is 150 cm high, 73 cm wide and 55 cm deep and is made of cast, embossed and chiselled silver, and mercury-gilded copper alloy.
The technique with which it was carried out is lost wax casting for the anatomical parts in silver and for the decorations in copper alloy. The drapery, the miniature of the city of Tropea and the moldings of the base are instead made of embossed and chiseled silver plate.
On the artefact there are punches within a rectangular frame with the initials FA which allow it to be attributed to the workshop of the Neapolitan silversmith Francesco Avellino and to date it to 1738 as indicated by other crowned punches, with the writing NAP and the chronological indication. The Saint is depicted full-length, with the features of a young woman, in an upright position and with her gaze turned upwards; she carries with her, in her left hand, the symbols of martyrdom, the cross and her book to represent her faith and the palm of victory over death.
At her feet there are also beasts depicted, one attacking her while the other licks her foot, in memory of an attempt at martyrdom during which the hungry beasts attempted to attack her but were instead tamed by the saint. The scene is completed by the presence at the bottom of a model that portrays the fortified city of Tropea within its walls, in memory of the birthplace of the saint and of the protection afforded by her. The group at the bottom is anchored to an octagonal base with a wooden structure on which, at the edges, moldings in a gilded copper alloy plate are nailed and in the center by a band of plate, decorated with floral motifs, with an opening in the area front to be able to observe the relic.
The depiction of Santa Domenica in this artefact denotes a high level of expertise and characterization of the character. The young woman, with a slight twist of her torso, with her right hand on the city and her gaze towards Heaven, transmits a certain dynamism that makes us imagine her elevation to the joys of Heaven after having suffered martyrdom on earth. The woman wears sumptuous clothes enriched with floral fabrics and rich in decorations and her pose is of great elegance and even her hair is styled with refinement.
