ABSTRACT
It was Longhi who was at the root of it all. “This book was the wish of Roberto Longhi; he set out its broad editorial outlines, and followed it with great attention to detail and youthful enthusiasm over a period of some years before his death”: the opening phrase of the anonymous editorial introduction of 1973. The author echoed this in the acknowledgements at the end of the book: “Roberto Longhi … thought of entrusting me with a work on the history of restoration, with the specific intent of accompanying it with a text written by himself as an introduction”. The promise was kept. Antonio Boschetto (Longhi’s trusted editorial collaborator, and probably the author of that note, as well as guide for the young author) took charge of publishing the notes taken during and after the 1956 Paris conference on Problems of interpretation and problems of conservation (Problemi di lettura e problemi di conservazione).1 Longhi’s teaching showed itself in its most direct form, “spoken”, with that typical discursive rhythm which regulated the pace of the succeeding slides. And it is one of Longhi’s examples, that of the Kress Madonna by Bartolomeo Vivarini, gradually freed from all its repainting which had completely altered the style of its appearance, which would provide the cover of the book. The true identity of its author, despite the indication “essay by Roberto Longhi” (referring precisely to that unpublished lecture, although lacking any form of introduction), was clear. A double signature? And, perhaps, one of them apocryphal? Rather, Longhi’s name makes one think of the signature of the Master on a painting executed in the workshop, under his strict supervision.
