Pleased to offer its professional expertise to the Community for projects that enhance the artistic and cultural fabric of our city, SB+ accepted the invitation from the Rotary Club Arezzo East to design the protection and enhancement intervention for the sculptures located in the intrados and lunette of the main portal of the Church of Santa Maria della Pieve, one of Arezzo’s symbols.
The lunette above the portal houses the extraordinary complex with the “Cycle of the Months”, a masterpiece of medieval sculpture created by workshops from the Po Valley area between the second half of the 1230s and the first half of the 1240s.
Marco Botti describes the work as follows:
To read the Arezzo cycle in order, arranged on two sides and four registers, each containing three months, one must start from the right.
“January” is represented by an ancient deity, Two-Faced Janus. While his elderly face looks to the past, the younger one turns to the future. The figure is placed in a domestic setting, warming himself by the fireplace and sipping a glass of wine. Food cooks in a large cauldron, above which cured meats hang to age. “February” depicts pruning. A young man, after cutting a branch, is working it to create a tool. In “March,” a man, identifiable as “Marcius Cornator,” an iconography dedicated to this month that spread from the 12th century, blows into his horn to recall the whimsical winds of the season.
Moving to the other side of the embrasure, we start again with “April” and a young man with a garland on his head and a flowering twig in his hand, symbolizing the arrival of spring. “May,” on the other hand, is a knight with a shield: the arrival of good weather also marks the resumption of military campaigns. “June” is depicted as a farmer intent on harvesting ripe wheat with a sickle.
Changing registers again, but remaining on the same side, we restart with “July,” the month when wheat is threshed. In “August,” the cooper, with a fig tree nearby, checks with a mallet that the barrels have their hoops in place, in anticipation of “September,” the month of the grape harvest, represented by a young man picking grapes.
Jumping back to the right side, the cycle concludes with the last register. “October” is depicted with the farmer sowing wheat, using his cloak as a sack. In “November,” turnips are harvested. In “December,” the pig is slaughtered, from which “nothing is thrown away.” The butchering of the pig was a true ritual that also allowed for the preparation of cured meats for the following months, which, as mentioned, can be seen hanging in the depiction of January. The scene of the farmer, who disembowels the unfortunate animal with a knife, is one of the most iconic of the entire “Cycle of the Months.”
The sculpture, now degraded, was analyzed by restorer Tommaso Sensini of Studio TRE, who provided important insights for the intervention project.
This is indeed a polychrome carved stone work that must be protected from solar radiation, which directly strikes the facade at any time of year, especially around the summer solstice (from 1:00 PM to 7:50 PM), and is damaging to the polychromy due to both heat and the UV component of light; from atmospheric events, particularly hail, which, especially when combined with wind turbulence (as happened in 2018), can cause impact damage; and from birds, whose nesting and droppings chemically attack the material and initiate degradation processes.
Protection is planned with a Vision-Lite © laminated glass pane to enclose the outer part of the embrasure, tracing the shape of the lunette. The pane ensures safety, solar control, anti-glare properties, and minimal impact for the observer. Protected slots allow for air expulsion and prevent condensation. The pane rests on the stone of the capitals and is fixed at two points of the archivolt with metal brackets for physical anchoring. Protection from birds and other animals is achieved with electric discharges produced by low-voltage conductors invisibly placed and secured by support and reversible adhesive.
The artwork will be illuminated with LED spotlights featuring variable angles and shapers for light intensity and temperature, suitable for the nature of the works. These ensure optimal illumination and enhance the modeling of the sculptures, highlighting their precious residual colors.
