Cesare Brandi

Cesare Brandi ( born April 8, 1906 in Siena, † 19 January 1988 Vignano, Siena ) was an Italian art historian, art critic and essayist. He was a specialist in the theory of restoration.

Life

Brandi graduated in 1928 the study of the humanities in art history at the University of Florence from. Its wide range of activities extended to the field of contemporary aesthetics in the sign of Benedetto Croce and the theory of restoration, and he also published numerous travel diaries. In the Corriere della Sera he spoke on topics such as the environment, preservation of cultural heritage and more or less successful restorations.

Since 1930 he worked for the first monuments in Siena, starting in 1933 in Bologna. He created a groundbreaking catalog for Senese painting in Siena. During the three years of activity in Bologna, he built up a first restoration workshop. In 1935, he organized an exhibition of painting in Rimini in the 14th century. In 1938 he was called to Rome by Giulio Carlo Argan and with the establishment of the Regio Istituto Centrale del Restauro (now Istituto superiore per la conservazione ed il restauro ) commissioned very quickly became Italy's largest National Institute for the restoration of cultural heritage. Brandi ran it until 1961 as its director and distinguished himself especially in the initial phase by toughness and assertiveness in relation to the relevant ministry from. By practicing the ICR interdisciplinary collaboration between art history, historic preservation and restoration practical it has become a model for devices of this type. The neutral retouching ( tratteggio ), which released the final restoration of its proximity to the forgery, took from here its triumphant.

1958 and 1980, Brandi was awarded an Antonio Feltrinelli Prize. Since 1961, he devoted himself to teaching, first at the University of Palermo, then at the University of Rome. He also wrote art reviews for the Corriere della sera and wrote an art historical documentation for the Italian television.

" The restoration must be the restoration of the potential unity of a work of art set the goal under the assumption that this is possible without committing a historical or artistic forgery and without the marks of time to clear on the work of art. "

Works (selection)

• Teoria generale della critica, Turin, Einaudi, 1974; Rome, Editori Riuniti, 1998
• Teoria del restauro. By L. Vlad Borrelli, J. Raspi Serra e G.Urbani collected lectures, Rome 1963 - Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, Turin, Einaudi, 1977. German: Theory of restoration. Siegls bookstore, ISBN 3-935643-32-2 Munich 2007