Giulia Puma 1 , Emanuele Pellegrini 2
1Université Côte D'azur - Nice (France), 2Scuola IMT Alti Studi, Lucca (Italy)
Sujet en anglais / Topic in english
The session focuses on the issues of dispersion/unity of the work of art, taking into account the materiality of the works as well as their meaning and reception. We suggest the altarpiece may serve as an ideal starting point to explore the dispersion/unity question in a very open way, as much as we hope to widen the subject to other types of dispersed ensembles. Our goal is to take advantage of the CIHA Congress to bring together an international panel of experts around a common methodological question, that of the work of art’s original unity, of its loss in time, and of the scientific ways to restore it, or at least try to.
The session focuses on the dismantling suffered by altarpieces over time, their dispersion, and their (possible) reconstruction. Analyzing both material and immaterial nature of the artworks, the aim is to consider altarpieces as objects of investigation as a whole, by questioning the modalities of the reunion (physical and/or digital) of the dispersed sets, but also the conservation stakes. The dismantling of altarpieces represents a pool of long histories, which involves taste variations, new demand on the art market, preservation and management of art objects, and invites to reconsider the epistemology of art history. At the same time questioning the lost unity of art objects implies different level of investigation from conservation/restoration processes, to geography of art, given the displacements on a global scale, restitution and exhibitions as opportunities for the temporary reconstitution of the object’s lost unity.
The history of exhibitions is also a fertile place for observing the efforts made by specialists (curators, connoisseurs, art historians) to hypothesize reunion of dismantled ensambles.
Some events related to the subject have been held recently : the meetings at Villa I Tatti under the supervision of M. Israëls, which preceded the publication of Israels 2009 (Sassetta. The Borgo San Sepolcro Altarpiece); the various thematic issues dedicated by the scientific journal Predella to the « fortune of the primitives » throughout many centuries; the exhibition dedicated to the physical and digital reconstruction of the Griffoni Polyptych in Bologna in 2021 (Cavalca, Natale 2020).
