The restoration of the decorative figures on the façade of the former “Cinema Olimpia”
in Ascoli Piceno, now reopening as “Bottega del Terzo Settore”
Female Faun figure
Male Faun figure
Ascoli, November 2016 – by Simonetta Castelli
In May of 2016, I had the chance to meet Monica Vittori while she was completing the restoration of the decorative stucco molds created in 1926 by my father, Aldo Castelli, for the façade of the former “Cinema Olimpia” in Ascoli Piceno. The entire building, after decades of decay and neglect, has finally found a new destination and has undergone a complex renovation and restoration. I remember how deeply concerned was my mother – who passed away in 2008 – about the deplorable state of the façade, and how desolate she was to see such singular and beautiful works of her beloved Aldo literally crumble away under the weather year after year... but finally another meaningful testimonial of the rich architectural and artistic history of our city is about to be returned to the Ascolani in its original splendor. Monica’s enthusiasm and talent inspired me to publish on this site a short article on the restoration of the sculptures and bas-reliefs, and I asked her to tell us about her experience of participating in this long-awaited restoration work. Below I report the interview with Monica Vittori.
S.C.: Hello Monica. Thank you for accepting my invitation to tell us about your role in this project. First of all, tell me a little about yourself and how you came to your profession as a restorer.
M.V.: I am a “failed biologist” so to speak – after graduating from high school, Art’s appeal was stronger and steered me off the idea of continuing my studies in Biology. In 1986, after three years of FSE (Social European Fund) restoration training, I obtained the diploma of “restorer of works of art” for the frescoes field, and in 1987, together with my classmates, I founded the COORAL (Cooperative for the Restauration of Frescoes and Stonework).
S.C.: What was your first assignment? What other “important” jobs do you remember, which – in addition to enriching your curriculum – gave you particular satisfaction?
M.V.: The first task was the restoration of the frescoes of the church of S. Maria della Carità in Ascoli (aka “Chiesa della Scopa”). Among the most important restorations are those of the theaters of Ascoli and Fermo, of the Ascoli Cathedral, the painted cycle of S. Angelo Magno – also in Ascoli – and a large fresco by Antonio da Fabriano in Fabriano, but as I am working since almost thirty years, the list is very long ...
S.C.: Undoubtedly! And with regard to this particular project: when and how were you invited to restore the decorative molds and sculptures on the façade of the former “Cinema Olimpia”?
M.V.: Together with my COORAL colleagues, I was contacted by the Rinaldi company with whom we had already collaborated in the past.
S.C.: Did you already know Aldo Castelli as an artist? What did you know, and what do you think?
M.V.: I knew Aldo Castelli thanks to a painting that was (and still is) in my parents' house, an etching depicting a tree in a garden.
S.C.: I know it well. I also have a print of it in the corridor of my apartment. It is an etching from 1961 – when my father was the director of the Institute of Art of Ascoli Piceno – from a sketch he had drawn in the garden of the Hospital in Ancona, when my mother was there recovering from a stroke.
MV: Following the Olimpia assignment, I did a bit of research (including visiting this site, wwww.aldocastelliartista.com) and I discovered a multifaceted artist who has tried his hand in various fields of art, painting, sculpture ... a virtuoso, in short!
S.C.: Certainly a multifaceted artist! He was also a ceramist, a writer, a journalist and a poet. But getting back to the restoration, tell me: how did the various phases take place?
M.V.: The main project for the restoration was handled by my colleague Sonia Stipa. After a thorough assessment inspection, the most suitable operations for the restoration of the artifacts were established, after which our project was submitted to to the competent Superintendency for evaluation. The works to be restored were partly stationary (the panels with fauns and the masks) and partly mobile (the monkeys and parrots figures positioned high above the large windows). The statuettes were carefully removed and brought to the workiswhop, where they could be restored more easily than from the scaffolding.
Three of the monkey figures photographed in the workshop during restoration
All the sculptures - both fixed and mobile - had been covered with a whitish layer (probably the facade had been repainted several times) which had hidden the original red-orange color in imitation of terracotta. This non-original layer was removed with the help of a scalpel, after which we proceeded with plastering to compensate for cracks, scratches, small pieces falling off ... The pictorial restoration has brought the sculptures back to their original appearance, making them stand out more against the light paint of the façade of the building, while before the intervention they were sort of blending in and getting “lost,” due to everything being painted uniformly with the same neutral hue. Finally, a waterproofing was applied to protect the artifacts from the elements as much as possible. All the movable figures (monkeys and parrots) were firmly anchored to the wall – which had not been done in the past, and fortunately this had not caused any problems (like an accidental fall).
S.C .: Very interesting! I am amazed that, in decades of bad weather, earthquakes (unfortunately frequent in our city) and the wear-and-tear of time, the damage and loss of parts has been very contained, and no one has been injured by falling statuettes! You mentioned to me in May that you had encountered some small challenges - I remember you were talking about a missing sculpture? Were there any other difficulties or obstacles?
M.V.: The only difficulty to overcome was precisely the fact that one of the figures representing the parrots, positioned in the upper part of the building, was missing. The reconstruction using a cast was rather difficult since it was a figure in-the-round, but what saved the day was the skill of my colleague Paolo Bastiani, who shaped a brand-new parrot from scratch, using one of the originals as a model.
The re-constructed parrot
The original model (left) and the copy during the work of reconstruction
S.C.: Do you have any other anecdotes, stories, or other interesting discoveries that you can share with the readers?
M.V.: Since the sculptures were outdoors, we thought they were made with a weather-resistant stucco or mortar, a mixture of aggregates and glues, or cement. During the cleaning phase, however, we realized that all the statues were made of plaster – a material sensitive to moisture – which explains the damage caused by the rain. The masks that decorate the entrances had been particularly affected by it.
Tragic mask, before and after the restoration
S.C.: This was also a surprise for us Castelli heirs. We had a watercolor sketch (undated, but it can be placed around the early 1920s), and photos of the originals of the panels with mythological figures of fauns. The latter had been photographed right when they were just freshly made, with the clay still visibly raw, and we had always wondered how had the final versions been molded and then installed on the façade. Furthermore, we do not know when exactly these decorations were added to the façade. The architect Pilotti’s project for the Cinema Olimpia dates back to 1914-16, but Aldo’s collaboration with Pilotti started in the early years of the second decade; and based on the style of the sketches and sculptures, I would venture that they were created between 1922 and 1924 (also because in 1914 our father was just a teenager and – although he was already one of Mussini’s students and had shown exceptional precocity and talent in painting – had not yet tried his hand at plastic arts or ceramics). We hope that some “archive mouse” will be able to give us some more accurate information.
Preparatory sketch – watercolored pencil, circa 1920
Raw clay maquette, circa 1920 – It’s interesting that between the original sketch and the molding of the clay original, The faun with the flute happened to become a “Faun-ess”
Raw clay maquette, circa 1920
M.V.: Yes, we haven’t been able to find any precise information about it.
S.C.: I have read somewhere that the façade underwent a second remodeling in 1926, where the round windows were walled up and the faun panels took their place, so that makes sense. Anyway, what are your next (or current) projects?
M.V.: Soon I will be in L’Aquila with my colleagues for the restoration of stuccoes and paintings inside a building in the historic center of the city. SC: Monica, thank you very much and best wishes for your next assignments – it was a great pleasure to meet you and be part of your experience through your story… and thanks also from all the Ascolani who can enjoy these unique and beautiful testimonials of our artistic legacy that were in danger of being lost!