He's about seventy centimeters tall, over half a millennium, and yes, even if he's just a kid, the years are starting to take their toll. It is the Putto with dolphin, one of the most successful bronze statues by Andrea del Verrocchio, the master of Leonardo da Vinci. The next exhibition of Palazzo Strozzi and his will be dedicated to Verrocchio cherub will obviously have a prominent place. But first he will have to go through thoughtful care of the restorers because, to paraphrase an old song, “meanwhile time goes by and you don't feel like a child anymore”.
The origins of the Putto
Il Putto with dolphin Verrocchio modeled and created it, but Lorenzo de 'Medici wanted it around 1470. La Careggi villa it must have been even more splendid than today and its gardens, like many of its sisters, were equally well kept. But there was something that Lorenzo's eye was missing and concerned the fountain where he often entertained with the academics neoplatonists. There was Marsilio Ficino, who had founded the academy by the will of Cosimo the Elder, and there were the Police, the Landino, Leon Battista Alberti. Yet while discussing hyperuranium or orphism, Lorenzo had to imagine a "bronze putto, choking a fish".
Are these words of Giorgio Vasari which, in his Screw, reviewing that of Verrocchio he adds: “which putto is really marvelous". So wonderful that the proudest descendant of Lorenzo, Cosimo I, he had him “placed, as we see today […] at the spring which is in the courtyard of his palace”. Yes, because as soon as Cosimo saw it he decided that it was worthy of a Duke and that he would deserve to stay in Palace of the Signoria, his new residence. And here it will remain there for four hundred years.
The centuries, the wear and the new splendor
Four centuries at the mercy of the elements, however, are difficult to bear, even if you are a bronze child. Not by chance in fact, in 1959 it was decided to put it away. The insiders of the time had evidently realized that the Putto with dolphin it was gradually losing its brilliance. In its place was inserted a copy and the cherub original museum on the second floor of Palazzo Vecchio. However, the problem of its maintenance remained and interventions were carried out, which at the time had to be considered valid as well, but they were not.
This was because what was not done today Nicola Salvioli is about to perform, Modenese restorer who will bring back the Putto with dolphin to its bronze splendor. The restoration currently underway is in fact the first real scientific-conservative intervention never performed on the Putto.
The goal is to remove residual materials from previous "restorations", often made with aggressive substances and techniques. Next, the removal of calcareous sediments, caused by the water that for over five centuries wet the body of the sweetheart. It is therefore a complex operation, which will be carried out under the direction by the curator of the Museum of Palazzo Vecchio, Serena Pines, and the 'High Surveillance by Jennifer Celani (Superintendence of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Florence, Pistoia and Prato). However, it is also necessary to give credit to those who made this restoration possible, that is Friends of Florence. The Non-profit foundation of American origin (but with a lot of participation of Italian philanthropy) since 1998 it has economically supported restoration interventions on the great Florentine works and beyond. It did so for example with one of the most important restorations in recent history: the one dedicated to Door of Paradise di Lorenzo Ghiberti.
Andrea del Verrocchio, Leonardo's master
Now it's up to the Putto with dolphin return to shine and, for those who want a taste, it is already possible to "admire" it even if in an unconventional way. The management of Palazzo Vecchio has in fact decided to make visible to the public le restoration operations within the museum itinerary. However, there won't be much to wait for the others. The Putto with dolphin it will indeed be one of the central works of dedicated exhibition to its creator, Andrea del Verrocchio, which will be inaugurated in Palazzo Strozzi the next 9 March and will end on July 14.
“… Goldsmith, prospective, sculptor, carver, painter and musician; but indeed in the art of sculpture and painting he had a rather harsh and crude way ”. So Vasari wrote about it, in what appears to be anything but a compliment. Yet, it was Vasari himself who recognized an extraordinary application in the arts, obtained thanks to his "infinite study".
A dedication that made him emerge which one superfine master and forger of incredible talents. The greatest of the time passed in his workshop: Botticelli, Ghilandaio, Perugino and obviously, Leonardo da Vinci. For this reason, on the occasion of the XNUMXth anniversary of Leonardo's death, Palazzo Strozzi thought that to celebrate his genius, it was necessary to start from the origins. And the origins of Leonardo are that shop he had entered on an indefinite day of 1470. Perhaps, just as Ser Piero da Vinci was begging him to take his son under his wing, Verrocchio was listening to him distracted from his work on that Putto with dolphin. And he fixed the tuft that must have looked wet, because that was where the water sprayed from the nostrils of that carpa that, for mysteries worthy only of the Florentines, it would become over the centuries un Delfino.
