Legend, history, art and diagnostics
A volume has just been published by Pendragon that traces the history of the Bolognese icon known as the Virgin of Saint Luke, which dominates the city from Monte della Guardia where it is kept. The volume traces back the sources that generated the legend, comparing them with documentary data, and investigates the origin of the iconographic “type”, which developed in Constantinople, thereafter coming to propose a reasonable dating and cultural provenance for the Bolognese image.
Large space is then dedicated to the history of its keeping, focusing in particular on the last restoration work, carried out in two stages and directed by Franco Faranda, author of the publication. Between the first and second intervention, the diagnostic investigations were performed by Art-Test. The various interventions are described in detail also because they proved to be fundamental for the restoration work, carried out by the Camillo Tarozzi company. Many of the results obtained had already been revealed by the set of imaging documentation performed with various techniques and some, such as Multilayer, available only recently and intellectual property of Art-Test.
The results of the investigations carried out by Art-Test are reported and discussed in the pages relating to the restoration work and, where necessary, have been transcribed from the final report that Art-Test released at the end of its work. (See in particular pages 71, 73, 82, 84, 105 of the volume)
