Two years have passed since the strongest earthquake by intensity to strike central Italy in the last thirty years, and the wounds across the disaster area spanning the regions of Abruzzo, Lazio, Marche and Umbria are tangible and evident, as is the tragic, unspeakable memory of the lives lost: it was 7:40 on the morning of 30 October 2016 when the earth unleashed its force. Beyond the visible damage to private, public and religious buildings, it is the resigned certainty that many years will pass before reconstruction is complete that sorely tests the social, spiritual and cultural identity of the affected communities.
This article is devoted to one of the most precious testimonies of Norcia's heritage[1], one of the "symbols" of this earthquake, alongside the open wound left by the collapsed Basilica of San Benedetto: the altarpiece depicting the Incoronazione della Vergine, completed by Giacomo Santoro (Jacopo Siculo)[2] in 1541 for the Observant conventual church of the Santissima Annunziata[3][4], to which the townspeople have long shown a deep devotional and cultural attachment.
During the seismic crisis this masterpiece drew media attention, at national level too, because it was the subject of a successful recovery operation from the Auditorium of San Francesco. On the evening of 5 November 2016[5], the operators of the SAF unit of the National Fire and Rescue Service, under the close supervision of Marica Mercalli, Superintendent for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Umbria, dismantled the massive wooden structure, which was then lifted by the telescopic arm of a mobile crane and moved out through the gash torn in the roof of the former Franciscan church, which had crashed to the ground[6]. During this difficult and spectacular recovery operation, the voluntary contribution offered by the CooBeC firm of Spoleto, responsible for the most recent restoration of the work, proved essential. In particular, the expert advice of the head restorer Bruno Roberto Bruni was decisive in effectively managing the detachment of the wooden structure from the apse wall of the former church of San Francesco. Indeed, it was precisely the iron frame designed during the last restoration, anchored with sturdy arms into the apse wall, that prevented the heavy wooden altarpiece from crashing to the ground with ruinous consequences. The two robust wooden beams placed above the altarpiece, moreover, withstood the impact of the tremor, keeping the roof debris from striking Jacopo Siculo's masterpiece.

Compared with far worse outcomes, the conservation assessment of the panel revealed only localised mechanical damage to the arched top, dislodged by the mechanical stresses produced by the tremor. The carved cherubs projecting from the arched crown at the top nearly all became detached from their support and fell to the ground, but they were recovered with a view to their future restoration. Minor damage was recorded in the upper mouldings of the pilasters, while the painted panel shows only two limited, though deep, scratches.
The altarpiece is currently held in the regional facility for the conservation, maintenance and restoration of cultural heritage evacuated from the earthquake zone, at Santo Chiodo in Spoleto, and its fate will go hand in hand with the very hope of the community of Norcia: that of soon welcoming it back in a new public setting.
The episode just recalled is only the latest, and most contentious, conservation chapter in the history of the monumental Incoronazione della Vergine (the painted panel measures 448×262 cm)[7]. After the post-unification appropriation and the conversion of the Franciscan convent into the seat of Norcia's civic hospital, in 1866, the work remained in situ until 1907 when, in response to a loan request for the "Mostra d'Antica Arte Umbra"[8] coming from Perugia, the central painted panel was rashly dismantled and separated from its frame, predella and plinths. The shipment was then abandoned once the difficulties of logistics and installation at the exhibition venue of the Palazzo dei Priori (Pinacoteca civica Vannucci) became clear, given its monumental dimensions.
After a period spent resting on the floor of the church, the altarpiece was moved to the Palazzo Comunale, where it remained until 1952, when the fire that destroyed the Teatro Civico left the adjoining town hall unusable. Placed in storage in the former church of the Misericordia, built with rubble stone from the collapses of the devastating earthquake of 1703 (today dedicated to Santa Rita, and itself collapsed in 2016), the work was again put on display in the Sala del Consiglio Maggiore after repair works.
The 1979 earthquake led, in 1982, to the start of maintenance and restoration work on the piece at the Coo.Be.C. workshop, directed by Bruno Bruni, under the close supervision of Giordana Benazzi of the Superintendency for the Artistic and Historical Heritage of Umbria, funded by the Comunità Montana della Valnerina and the Municipality of Norcia[9]. Only in 2005, after a decade of work and 25 years of exile, and thanks to the civic commitment of the Norcia cultural association "Una mostra, un restauro", was the altarpiece installed in the Auditorium of San Francesco[10]. The restoration was never published in a scholarly forum, despite having been a precious opportunity to grasp the complexity of Jacopo Siculo's masterpiece.

Beneath the central panel is a predella divided into three panels depicting san Gerolamo penitente, Cristo in pietà con la Vergine e san Giovanni evangelista, the Stimmate di san Francesco and, at the far left and right respectively, l'Angelo annunciante e la Vergine annunciata. Between these last two was set a carved and gilded wooden antependium, made of two horizontally laid boards of close-grained walnut and a frame of the same wood. The gilded frame consists of a curved arched top crowning the painting and two massive semi-hexagonal columns on which it rests. The valuable diagnostic X-ray investigation allowed the restorers to study more closely the assembly and mechanics of the constituent parts, in particular of the central panel, made of eight vertical poplar boards 20 centimetres wide, interconnected by sturdy wooden dowels (pegs) inserted into their thickness and fixed with animal glue. To even out the imperfections of the wood, inserts were applied to the front, housed in shaped recesses and secured with wooden nails (clearly visible on the back).
The restoration repaired the support and the carpentry of the painting from the damage suffered during its troubled history. In an earlier maintenance operation, in fact, carried out by Luigi Bartolucci in 1910, the gaps between some of the boards had been filled with overflowing stucco, later made good. The Coo.Be.C. remedied these splits by applying poplar inserts, restoring the mechanical function of the crossbars.
The study of the technique and of the pigments making up the paint layer brought to light the richness and refinement of this Franciscan commission: after a ground of gesso and glue, Jacopo Siculo laid down a thin resinous film, followed by a third greyish layer composed of an oil-resin binder, lead white and carbon black serving as the base for the application of the colours. Chemical analyses revealed a profusion of precious materials and pigments in an oil binder: azurites, lapis lazuli, cinnabars, greens, with the gilding laid over red bole in leaf prepared with great delicacy and mastery.
On the painted surface too, naturally, the marks of time were visible at the moment of restoration: in particular, a long furrowed craquelure emerged, due to the shrinkage of the binder and to a slipping of the colour, together with lifting and wrinkling along the edges of the boards. There were numerous traces of holes made to attach the ex voto offerings with which the great panel was studded, and, as usual, superimposed layers of altered and yellowed varnish, as well as the tough deposit of dust and dirt that dulled its original colouring[11].
The predella presented similar conservation conditions: it is made up of five parts, each of them independent at the time of restoration because of its dismemberment and of the different display arrangement that had favoured their appearance as individual images.
The lateral elements are composed of three poplar boards, adze-finished and joined together with iron nails. The moulding, both lower and upper, was prepared with Bologna gypsum, bole and gilding. The general state of conservation is fair, except in the last board, where there is a warping along the central axis and some stuccoed losses[12].
Once the restoration of all the parts was complete, they were reassembled, reconstructing the largest Renaissance altar structure in Umbria and one of the most important for its historical and artistic value. In all likelihood, the same equipped facility in Spoleto will host the restoration work on the piece, and this time too the recovery of Jacopo Siculo's Incoronazione della Vergine will bear witness to a significant gesture of further hope for the community of Norcia.

Notes

[1] Cf. Giovanna Sapori, La pala di Norcia nel percorso di Jacopo Siculo, in Jacopo Siculo, l'Incoronazione di Norcia, edited by Giordana Benazzi, Rome 1984, pp. 14-22. On the painter, see the recent volume by Monica Paggetta, Jacopo Siculo nella Chiesa della Madonna di Loreto a Spoleto, Bertoni editore, Perugia, 2017. Earlier: Antonino Giuseppe Marchese, Giacomo Santoro da Giuliana detto Jacopo Siculo: pittore del sec. XVI, ILA Palma, Palermo, 1998.

[2] Giacomo Santoro was born in the fortified town of Giuliana (Palermo) around 1490; at a young age he moved to Rome, taking the pseudonym Jacobus Siculus. Around 1520 he set up his workshop between Rieti and Spoleto, winning wide favour among patrons for his works. He died in Rieti in 1544.

[3] Commissioned in 1539, it is signed and dated on a cartouche at the lower right: "Anno Domini Nostri Iesu Christi Millesimo / Quingentesimo quadragesimo primo / Die vero vigesima Martii / Jacobus Siculus faciebat".

[4] The convent was founded by a brief of Eugene IV in 1442, in response to a request from the Municipality of Norcia. In 1506 the convent was relocated close to the town. The Observant friars occupied it until 1604, when it passed to the community of the Reformed friars.

[5] The video of the operation can be viewed online at: https://video.repubblica.it/dossier/terremoto-30-ottobre/norcia-l-incredibile-salvataggio-della-pala-d-altare-di-jacopo-siculo/258180/258461

[6] A video showing the Auditorium with the altarpiece in situ is online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=29&v=Uj3cOauhjoA

[7] Including the frame, it reaches dimensions of 652×416 cm.

[8] On this exhibition, the recent volume by Cristina Galassi, Tutta l'Umbria una mostra: la mostra del 1907 e l'arte umbra tra Medioevo e Rinascimento, exhibition catalogue (Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia), Silvana editoriale, Cinisello Balsamo, 2018.

[9] The first results were presented two years later on the occasion of the first exhibition in the "Restauri a Spoleto" series, held from 30 June to 29 July 1984 in the former church of Sant'Agata. The catalogue is Jacopo Siculo, l'Incoronazione di Norcia, edited by Giordana Benazzi, Rome, 1984.

[10] In 2013 the municipal administration of Norcia proposed moving it to the Basilica of San Benedetto, but the associations "Una mostra, un restauro" and "Italia Nostra", which promoted a well-supported public petition, averted this plan, observing that the greater footfall in the shrine would expose the painting to the environmental risks associated with the smoke of candles and incense.

[11] It was removed by cleaning with a solvent mixture of amyl acetate and dimethylformamide in a 1:1 ratio, applied with different timings and methods according to the extent of the layering. This was followed by the consolidation of the preparatory layers through infiltration of Primal AC33 acrylic resin in emulsion. The retouching of the paint layer was carried out with Winsor & Newton watercolours. Finally, a protective coating with Lefranc & Bourgeois retouching varnish. As for the frame, it was in a fair general state of conservation, with some cracks, losses and a thick deposit of dust and other materials. These were removed, the gilding was cleaned with slightly alkaline substances and restored by applying bole and gold leaf; the unstable structural parts were then dismantled and reattached, the support was repaired, and the missing elements were made from the same wood. Finally, stuccoing with Bologna gypsum and animal glue was carried out, along with retouching in Winsor & Newton watercolours. Final varnishing.

[12] The execution technique is the same as that of the main panel: oil paint laid over three preparatory layers, of gesso and glue, resin, and the greyish base for the colours made of lead white and carbon black respectively. The same precious pigments are found here, along with the finishes in gold applied over glue and leaf gilding over red bole on the frames. A craquelure with some lifting of the colour and small losses was found. The damaged structural parts were therefore dismantled and reattached, and parts of the moulded frames were entirely reconstructed with the same poplar wood. This was followed by work on the paint layer: removal of the wax deposits with a chloride-based solvent, cleaning to remove the overpaint with the same mixture used for the main altarpiece, applied with differentiated methods and timings according to the extent of the layering. The gilding was then also cleaned with a slightly alkaline solvent. After that came the consolidation of the preparatory layers through infiltration of Primal AC33 acrylic resin in emulsion. The retouching of the paint film was carried out with Winsor & Newton watercolours, and the final varnishing with Lefranc & Bourgeois retouching varnish.

Alessandra Vergari, born and resident in Norcia, holds a master's degree in Art History from the University of Perugia and a postgraduate specialisation in Historical and Artistic Heritage from the University of Siena. Since 2015 she has been a museum officer of the Associazione Progetto Arte di Norcia and, at present, after the earthquake, she is working on the project to reorganise the Deposit Archive of the Municipality of Norcia (State Archive of Spoleto). She is the author of Le Madonne col Bambino in grembo di tipo aquilano nella scultura rinascimentale dell'Umbria meridionale (Fabrizio Fabbri, Perugia, 2017), a volume in the series devoted to publishing the degree theses on the history and conservation of Umbrian cultural heritage, awarded annually by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia.