Prof. Dario Del Bufalo
Specialist in stone sculpture , colored marbles , glyptics , restoration and Geoarchaeology
English
ItalianoArchivio
Restorations
BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE in Giornale dell’Arte April 2015 “Obsessed with integrations”
Obsessed with integrations The restoration of the Parthenon in Athens has been going on for more than ten years with financing and tight surveillance by Unesco and, despite some criticism (always too little) we continue to call them «restorations»: why? We should we call them «maniacal exercises in stone integration» or «works that are too...
BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE in Giornale dell’Arte February 2015 “Sign the restoration”
Sign the restoration The photograph illustrated here is of a 2nd century AD marble Roman sarcophagus conserved in the Archaeological Museum of Albano, a few kilometres from Rome. The curiosity (and at the same time, the horror) is that the «integrative» restoration carried out on the strigil decoration has been documented in a violent and...
UNESCO Restoration at Bassae: ugly and costly
A GdA reader reports a UNESCO fiasco in a place as poetic as Arcadia: Dear Mr Del Bufalo, I fully agree with you about damage done by UNESCO. The fiasco that they are carrying out with the “restoration” work on the Temple of Bassae in Arcadia has left me bewildered. A...
BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE in Il Giornale dell’Arte January 2015 “I’m leaving UNESCO”
I’m leaving UNESCO I have seen many ugly and incorrect restorations and integrations around the world. Many under the auspices of UNESCO, with their big brass plaque, such as the reconstruction of the walls of Samarkand using «fake» materials and incorrect drawings or as in the two examples of «integrative» restoration carried out in Turkey...
‘BUFALE ARCHEOLOGICHE’ in Il Giornale dell’Arte, December 2014 “Il Valzer degli spatinatori”
New column of Archaeological Commentary: ‘BUFALA ARCHEOLOGICA’ – Column in Il Giornale dell’Arte – December 2014 The waltz of the patina removers What is the antique patina in works of art? It is not dirt. It is not a paint applied to the surface. It is not dust or earth. For marble and stone objects, patina...
Remembering Luigi De Cesaris…
Between 2006 and 2008 De Cesaris led the restoration of the tetrarchic frescoes in the Temple of Amun in Luxor supported by USAID, ARCE (American Research Center in Egypt). During the work, Luigi asked my advice concerning the iconography of the images that he was cleaning and unveiling. I would often go and visit De Cesaris at his Egyptian...
The ancient marbles in the cosmati reuse
The lecture by Prof. Dario Del Bufalo looks at the beginnings of the taste for coloured marbles in the Roman Empire: their use, origins, quarries and colours, and in particular the symbolic, political and religious values of some of the key colours in the iconographical transition from Pagan to Christian Rome. Other aspects covered are the re-use of coloured...
Magister Vitellius Setinus at “Spoleto Arte”
The series of lectures presented at Spoleto on remarkable characters closes with one on Franco Vitelli, a man of uncertain age, although he was known to be active between 1282 and 1299. He is the last member of the Cosmati family who has created marvellous inlaid geometric stone ‘carpets’ with classical taste and oriental patterns that defy time. Not...
Ugly restoration to the floor in Monreale Cathedral
The mosaic floors in the presbytery and lateral naves in Monreale Cathedral underwent conservative restorations between 2007 and 2009. The degradation of the medieval mosaics (that had already been restored in the 16th century) caused by the excessive presence of the public, was also perhaps increased due to the habit of some tourists to purloin...
Another chance. Ascesa, degrado e nuova vita di un bel castello romano
…that today is an oasis of greenery and classical culture “As well as having historical heritage, a castle always carries with it romantic reflections, literary and artistic notions, a patrimony of stories and memories that blend together with a legend or myth…” Download PDF (in italian, 397 Kb)
