A photo exhibition at the Russian House in Chennai shows the restoration process of priceless artifacts damaged during World War II
A photo exhibition at the Russian House in Chennai shows the restoration process of priceless artifacts damaged during World War II
When Renaissance sculptor Donatello’s famous masterpiece, St. John the Baptist, arrived at the Pushkin State Museum in Moscow, it was missing both legs, an arm, and part of a cape. Many thought it was beyond repair. The sculpture survived two separate instances of fire during storage in a bunker in the Berlin suburbs in 1945, when World War II was nearing its end.
The museum found a plaster copy made before the war, which served as a reference to the resurrection of St. John the Baptist.
The same bunker also contained priceless artifacts that were moved from what is known as the Bode Museum in Berlin to avoid damage during the war.
Months after the accident, many of these pieces were sent to the Soviet Union by two trains. After decades of enormous efforts, 750 museum objects were restored at the Pushkin State Museum as of 2010.
Now, a photo exhibition aptly titled Twice Rescued to capture this impressive restoration process, and after several bouts of pandemic postponement, has arrived in Chennai.
At the Russian House, Chennai, 30 of these objects are captured in frames that line the exhibition hall. Although the exhibition which will run until 12 June fails to deliver a display worthy of its content, a visit opens up a welcome portal into the history of World War I.
Borodin Igor Viktorovich, head of the Department of Conservation of the Pushkin State Museum, says, “By preparing the twice-saved photo exhibition, we wanted to show that after almost 77 years, the museum staff, curators and art conservators had to heal wounds is, damage to world famous works of art.”
He adds, “We wanted to not only show the results of the work, but to remind people of the fragility of the world around them.”
A dinos depicting two sphinxes is believed to have been built in eastern Greece in the early 6th century BC. photo credit: special arrangement
Take, for example, the lead picture: a red-figure amphora depicting the death of the Theban hero, Acton. The time devoted to restoring this single artifact was over 10 years. It was brought to the museum in 130 pieces. The patrons who worked on this item essentially had to put it together like a puzzle.
a dinos (ancient Greek pottery – a mixing bowl or cauldron) depicting two sphinxes, believed to have been made in eastern Greece as early as the 6th century BC; Statue of Giovanni St. Jerome Penitent (1420 to 1491); A bronze statue of Giovanni is believed to have been made after 1508 – the series gives a glimpse of the many classical pieces and their restoration processes.
Borodin gives us a scale of the project by taking us back to St. John the Baptist.
“For several months, the custodians of the Pushkin Museum not only strengthened the damaged areas of the piece, but also solved the complex engineering problem of how to store and display it in an upright position. In addition, to replace the lost ones. For, individual pieces of sculpture had to be created. And the portrait of St. John the Baptist became the forerunner of the whole project.”