Word: procacci
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Though the loss in Florentine art was incalculable, Superintendent of Galleries Ugo Procacci gave assurance that "the Florence of the 15th century has withstood the fury of the elements and will be saved." The Italian economy was not so fortunate. Premier Moro said that the disaster had wiped out the nation's recent economic gains and warned Italians to be ready for "austerity and sacrifice...
Scholars had long had to take Vasari's word for it, since the frescoes seemed to have disappeared without a trace. But one who had not forgotten about them was Ugo Procacci, Florence's superintendent of galleries and formerly the Uffizi Gallery's chief restorer. While bundling off Florentine art treasures for safekeeping after the outset of World War II, he was struck by a five-paneled altarpiece in the Church of Santa Croce. Underneath the thick overpainting, his restorer's eye told him, might lie a masterpiece. So even in the haste of the moment...
...Heart Skipped." Could the polyptych be by Giotto and come from the Badia? Vasari had described such a work on the high altar. Later cleaning proved Procacci's hunch correct; handwriting analysis narrowed the date of the sticker to about 1810. Procacci was then able to reconstruct what had happened: the altarpiece had been removed in 1810 by Napoleon's troops from the Badia; then in 1815, through a clerical mistake, it had been returned instead to Santa Croce. Digging through the old floor plans of the Badia, Procacci made a second discovery. The church had been rebuilt...
...until 1958 did Procacci get final authorization and money to tear down the Badia's 17th century east wall. The first chisel strokes opened a hole in the inner wall no bigger than a grapefruit, just large enough for Procacci to put his hand through. The inner surface was smooth, which meant it had been frescoed. "When I saw that there was a lit tle color," he recalls, "my heart skipped a beat...
...masons chipped away, the golden rays of the halo surrounding the head of the announcing angel were slowly revealed. Giotto's frescoes, hidden from sight for over 300 years, had been found. "Our expectations were enormous," he remembers. But the rays heralded a false dawn. Says Procacci: "When we saw that the face of the angel was missing, it broke our hearts." Procacci is convinced that the face of Mary in the Annunciation fresco that Vasari so admired was similarly cut out before the wall was covered in the 17th century...