Veşmântul lui San Bernardino di Siena de la miracolul divin la tehnologia restaurării
The Cowl of San Bernardino da Siena. From Divine Miracle to Restoring Technology

Summary/Abstract: During my two-and-a-half year collaboration with the National Art Gallery of Siena, I had the wonderful opportunity to organize an art exhibition alongside the Museum`s CEO, Dr. Anna Maria Guiducci, for the Museum dell’Arte Sacra della Val D’Arbia of Buonconvento (Siena, Tuscany), presenting the original and restored costume (cowl) of San Bernardino di Siena. The Catholic Saint has a widespread popularity among Italian believers, a fascination dating back to the fifteenth century, when he was canonized just six years after his death. Although he is buried in the city of L`Aquila (Abruzzo), all of his garments were brought back to Siena and kept for more than five centuries in the Basilica dell’Osservanza. Due to poor conservation conditions the garments were kept in, it became imperative to restore this rare testimony of San Bernardino’s humbleness and sincere belief. The garments underwent a series of revolutionary and highly expensive restoration processes, meant, not only to widen the artifacts’ lives, but also to establish with certainty that the objects did indeed belong to the historical figure of San Bernardino. This was achieved by performing DNA comparison tests between organic samples taken from the garments and from the remains of the Saint. The 2008 art exhibition , organized by the Superintendence of Cultural Goods of Siena and Grosseto with the participation of Santa Maria della Scala Museum Complex, gave me the opportunity to recreate an artistic alternative to the reality in which the Saint had lived his life and spread his teachings. The exhibition was designed to center the Saint’s cowl as a result of the importance the earth of Siena has on art and spirituality. In fact, the cowl bears a large artistic importance, being represented by renowned Renaissance artists such as Sano di Pietro, Giovanni di Paolo or Pietro Ambrosi, all of which followed the Saint, depicting him, wearing the same cowl, throughout his humble life as a Franciscan Observant and man of God.

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