This paper illustrates the principal results of a dissertation project for a doctorate research degree in
Technology, Conservation and Restoration at the Department of History of Arts and Performing Arts, at the University of Florence. The research investigates the materials and tools employed by the Italian artist Giorgio Morandi, one of the masters of Italian modern art.
The research develops a novel transdisciplinary approach to investigate the artist’s two ateliers: Casa Morandi in Bologna, and Casa Giorgio Morandi in Grizzana-Morandi in the Apennine mountains. Morandi mostly painted inside his ateliers where he kept the objects that he had accumulated over the years. These crucial places have been mentioned many times by scholars and researchers who have been astounded by wide variety of models, instruments, tools and objects. Indeed, despite the fact these materials are still located in the ateliers, surprisingly they have not been investigated until today.
Within this multidisciplinary research project, we decided to consider the atelier as the crossroads of a
complex network of relationships of different disciplines: a boundary object that is plastic enough to be shown under multiple lenses while maintaining his coherence. Historical research based on different sources (several archives, friends’ written memoirs, letters, pictures) helped us to piece together the changes that occurred to the ateliers during artist’s lifetime and after his death, and contributed to clarifying Morandi’s usage of the space, within his artistic activity.
With regards to the atelier in Bologna, we decided to create a digital archive aimed at establishing a consistent dialogue between the space of the studio and its content. We adopted strategies, usually associated with the excavation of archeological sites, to map the entire body of Morandi’s atelier: from the main areas to the smallest of items. We used cataloguing methodologies to describe objects and materials, and we linked them to their morphological description, biography, and function. We also carried out non-invasive scientific analyses on nine paintings which are property of the Morandi Museum in Bologna. The study is conducted thank to the collaboration with E-RIHS mobile labs (Molab). It is the first extensive investigation carried out on a group of the artist’s paintings. The study enabled us to compare the results with what we have obtained from the archival and the field research. This allowed us to describe the evolution of Morandi’s palette over his artistic path, and revealed novel information about
Morandi’s oeuvre. We discovered evidence regarding the care that Morandi devoted to his self-made
materials (powder pigments, empty tin tubes, modified brushes), as well as ready-to-use materials (such as industrial oil tubes), or those he preferred to commission from woodworkers and paint shops (such as frames or canvases).
The exploration of the ateliers has revealed new information regarding the artist’s approach to models (selection and surface treatments), his strategies regarding composition and light management, his methods for the selection and adaptation of tools and objects, and the complex series of actions that constitute his artistic technique.
Key: Artist’s atelier, technical art history, materials, artistic technique
Maria Laura Petruzzellis is a conservator of Modern and Contemporary Art. She graduated with a Master Degree at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence. She recently received her PhD in Technology, Conservation and Restoration at the Department of History of Arts and Performative Arts at the University of Florence with a dissertation on Giorgio Morandi. She was the Peggy Guggenheim Collection fellow for the “NANORESTART” European Project (2016-2019), and the NICAS Research Associate for the Mellon funded project: “A Global Infrastructure for heritage Science” (2021-2022) in Amsterdam. She is now Assistant Conservator at Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-laura-petruzzellis-conservation/
The research develops a novel transdisciplinary approach to investigate Morandi's atelier in Bologna, where the artist painted for most of his career. From major areas to smaller objects, the cataloging process established a coherent dialogue between the atelier space and its contents. Exploration of the work space revealed new information about the artist's approach to models, composition, tools, and light management. Those data have been positively compared with insight from non-invasive analyses performed on nine painting from the Morandi Museum in Bologna. Moreover, the complex series of actions that constitute the painter’s artistic technique have been described.