Let us first of all remember the Eugenio Pardini exhibition which, at the «Santacroce», is wide-ranging and notable for its thematic variety, amply demonstrating the deep-seated sensitivity of an artist who in the provinces elevates himself high above the others thanks to his quality, his compositional finesse and use of color; all things considered, a worthy and positive opus, a narrative know-how with an honesty which too many, in this day and age, forget.
UMBERTO BALDINI
(Pitigliano, 9 November 1921 – Massa, 16 August 2006) was an art historian and Italian specialist in the theory of the restoration of art.
With a degree in art history obtained under professor Mario Salmi, he joined the Florence Monuments and Fine Arts Office as an inspector, and in 1949 became the director of the restoration committee. In this role, he found himself having to manage the dramatic emergency of the Florence flood in 1966, which damaged many great works of art. The result of these interventions was worldwide recognition for the techniques and methodologies of the so-called “Florentine school” of restoration.
In 1970 he became director of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure (which specializes in restoring art); from 1983 to 1987 he was called upon to be director of the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro in Rome and, in those years, curated the significant renovation of the Brancacci Chapel in the Basilica del Carmine in Florence.
He was then nominated president of Florence’s Università Internazionale dell’Arte, and director of the Horne Museum in the same city.
Teoria del restauro e unità di metodologia (2 vol). Florence, Nardini Editore, 1978-1981.
Metodo e Scienza: operatività e ricerca nel restauro. Florence, Sansoni, 1982.
Masaccio. Electa, 2001.
This post is also available in: Italian