Műtárgyvédelem, 2008 (Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum)
Ranieri, Irene: A perugiai Palazzo Isidori mennyezete : egy technikailag is ritka festészeti emlék a 14-15. századból
The studies on the history and the decoration of Palazzo Isidori only mentioned the special technical solutions of the ceiling frescos. These ceiling frescos were prepared with fresco technique on a thin plaster layer, which was supported by a cane foundation held together with a mesh texture. The cane mesh was fixed to the beams of the flat ceiling. The cane mesh was prepared from thick cane shafts, which were longitudinally split into two or four parts. This type of perpendicular plaiting of cane bundles can only be used for covering flat surfaces. For arched surfaces, the cane mesh must also be bent, which solution is known from the Baroque period. In Palazzo Isidori, eleven cross beams supported the wooden ceiling covered with cane mesh, which created a panellike frame to the painted surfaces. Only geometric patterns can be found on the 10.5 m long and 6 m wide ceiling of the second floor. The wooden ceiling with the cane mesh base preserved in the second and the third floors of Palazzo Isidori and the frescos in Budapest are of an eminent importance because they are the only relics of the medieval Umbrian painting that were prepared with this antique technology. Ceiling frescos painted on a cane mesh support were generally used much later, in the 18th century when they decorated the ceilings of theatres, palaces of the aristocracy or churches. Vitruvius exactly described the fresco technology on a cane mesh support applied on a wooden ceiling in his architectural work De Architettura. The method he described cannot be found in the Italian architectural or painting technological treaties of the Renaissance yet it certainly appeared in the everyday practice. The next description of wooden ceilings with cane mesh can be read in French architectural treaties and manuals from the 16th century. Its general spreading can be dated from the beginning of the 1800’s. In Umbria, this construction was primarily used on the vaulted ceilings of theatres in the 18th—19th centuries. Arched beams support the ceiling, on which the light-weight cane mesh construction is fixed - thus, with this vaulting technology, large surfaces could economically be created with a light-weight construction on arched vaults. This fact itself stresses the uniqueness of the ceiling of Palazzo Isidori since the same technology was singularly used here to cover a flat ceiling. The building of Palazzo Isidori is owned to date by Universita degli Studi of Perugia. The reconstruction of the building is being carried out. One of the major tasks of conservation is to preserve and conserve the ceilings with cane mesh supports on the second and third floors. A szerző cime/Author’s address: Irene Ranieri Universita degli Studi di Perugia: Conservazione dei Beni Culturali/Preservation of Cultural Property; Via della Molinella 8, 06055, Marsaciano, Perugia, Italia e-mail: irene.ranieri@hotmail.it 68
