«The copy is not faithful to the original»

The city of Lecce risks being left orphaned once again statue Of Sant’Oronzo? The risk – to tell the truth – today appears remote. In recent weeks, controversy has abounded over copy of the statue of patronwhich returned to the column last April 13, because it was too different from the original, dating back to 1739. And now a warning from the Codacons.

The Codacons note

In recent days, the lawyer Giuseppe Ursini, representative of the consumers’ association, has warned the Municipality of Lecce, the Superintendence, the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Salento «for the reconstruction of the statue of Sant’Oronzo at the expense of the company Fonderia Nolana del Giudice and the officials responsible for checking the correct creation of “the faithful copy” of the statue in question”.
The battle that the Codacons of Lecce undertook the day after the delivery of the statue of the patron saint to the Salento capital is based precisely on the wording of conformity. «In the note from the Superintendency of Fine Arts of 14 August 2019 – underlines Ursini – the requirements clearly emerge: the copy of the work must be designed on the basis of a photogrammetric or laser scanner survey to guarantee fidelity to the original, fully respecting its dimensions , the volume and the aesthetic result”.

In September 2023, the Municipality of Lecce had entrusted the creation of “the faithful copy” of the statue to Fonderia Nolana Del Giudice srl with a spending commitment of 177,876 euros collected through the Art Bonus instrument received from various private individuals, including the Bank Popolare Pugliese which had paid half of the approximately 200 thousand euros needed and the Ediltunnel company from Lecce which had contributed 70 thousand euros.
After examining the finished statue, the Superintendence approved the work last February 12th, endorsing the decision «not to reproduce all the marks left by the countless interventions on the surface to avoid creating a fake, therefore approving the finishing samples of the copy sent as the material and chromatic effect obtained is suitable and compatible with the specific case”.
«From what we read, the copy of the statue of Sant’Oronzo – underlines the lawyer Ursini -, should have been created through the passage of 3D scanning and the milling of high density polystyrene blocks using a six-armed anthropomorphic robot. The model thus obtained would have had to be finished manually with a very thin layer of stucco.”
The Municipality of Lecce, in the settlement notes, had therefore declared that “the service was regularly performed and there is correspondence between the value of the service performed and what was actually carried out”.
During the official presentation of the statue which arrived from Nola in the square last 11th April (and was hoisted onto the Roman column on 13th April) the judgments on the discrepancy of the work which presented, at sight, some underlined stylistic differences would have caught the eye, also noticed by the art critic, Vittorio Sgarbi. «Sant’Oronzo is a bad reproduction of an original – reports Codacons – which was hospitalized and was waiting for a copy of the same dimensions, made in such a precise technique as to make it indistinguishable as happens in many places, from the original, vice versa, this did not happen. The reproduction is smaller than one meter. The city feels vilified for this copy. It is right that the sculpture is brought back to its original dimensions, it is right that it is hospitalized in a point close to the original statue, it is right that anyone who attempted a shortcut should be penalized in some way or make up for the mistake they made. Nanotechniques and nanotechnologies could allow an almost perfect copy with 3D.”
The differences, complained by Consumers, concern “cheekbones, eyelids and nose, even the positioning of the right hand and the three blessing fingers would seem different from the original”. Hence the hypothesis of “failure to control by the offices” which could constitute “treasury damage” if the misconduct is ascertained. The too many years of work that led to a copy that presents several discrepancies due to an expense considered excessive, pushed Codacons to send the documentation, for information also to the Anac, the anti-corruption body, to officially ask them to monitor the issue and consequent developments.
The explanation – provided at the time – by Professor Raffaele Casciaro, professor of Museology and art criticism at the University of Salento and scientific consultant of the Municipality of Lecce, is different. «The copy of the statue of Sant’Oronzo is a translation – the scholar had observed -, that is, a new work and deliberately not identical to the original. Compared to the 3D scan of the original hand – underlined the teacher – it was useless to reproduce even the defects and damage that were present on the original statue and the same goes for the saint’s face. The original feet were also not aligned with the trunk. In short, the statue is made to be seen from afar and it made no sense to faithfully copy some details that we are not even sure belonged to the original reproduction.”
And while there is discussion about the copy, the original statue of the patron saint of Lecce continues to be preserved in the atrium of Palazzo Carafa (Via Rubichi side) where it has been located since the end of the restoration. Municipality, Cura and Superintendency will have to decide where to place it.

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