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The Jewel of Vicenza (in italian, Gioiello di Vicenza) was an ancient silver model of the city of Vicenza, attributed to the architect Andrea Palladio in the 16th century, made as ex-voto and stolen by Napoleon during the Italian Campaign in the French Revolutionary Wars.

The original jewel is lost but a very similar copy was reconstructed between 2012 and 2013.

History
The precious jewel was made by silver plates on a wood frame and completed in 1578. Its attribution owns to the skills of the goldsmith of the Capobianco family, as was also discovered in a recently found document in the "Sanctuary of the Madonna" of Monte Berico in 2012. There's not the complete certainty Andrea Palladio, but the bond between two Bishops of Vicenza (Niccolò Ridolfi and his successor Matteo Priuli) suggests that Palladio's role of director of the city life was more important of the role of architect; anyhow, for him the Jewel should have represented his own idea of the city of Vicenza conceived in his mind. The citizens offered the Jewel as an ex-voto to the "Madonna of mount Berico" in order to avoid the Plague of saint Charles Borromeo, spread two years before in Duchy of Milan with some infection cases in the western cities of the Republic of Venice, up to Verona. In a such period of poor conditions the all citizenship had the strength to unite with a modest gift from each family.

Vicenza was spared (unless, until the great Italian plague of 1629–31), so the Jewel was initially preserved in the church built a century before in honour of the Madonna, next to the present "Santuario della Madonna di Monte Berico". Between the 17th and the 18th century six oil paintings were made, representing the first patron saint of the city Saint Vincent holding the silver Jewel in his hands.

Under the Napoleonic government, the French troops raided, as in most of Italy, part of cultural heritage and in 1797 destroyed the model melting it ; the armée française once occupied the Sanctuary brought the Jewel in France deeming it to be fully silvery: instead, during the attempt of fusion, it burnt, as it was wood-made and covered by a silver coating. So the model was uselessly destroyed, robbing Vicenza an important part of its centenniel history of goldsmith's art.

Reconstruction
In May 2010 was founded a Committee for the Jewel of Vicenza supported by the Office of Cultural Heritage and other local institutions which held a competition for virtual restoration of the Jewel. The competition was won by the architect Romano Concato from Trissino, who had to compensate the absence of original drawings with the study of two paintings by Francesco Maffei and other two ones by Alessandro Maganza.

The paintings portraying Saint Vincent holding in the hand the precious model are one of the few evidences come down to us; an interesting feature of the paintings in that they show the Jewel from different points of view, so as to give the possibility to imagine its tridimensionality. Each painting shows the model as the main element of the picture, offered by Saint Vincent, seen frontally, with Vicenza enclosed in its medieval walls: in that period was already existing the distinction between the "borghi" (boroughs) over the walls and the inner part of the city, nowadays the Old Town of Vicenza. The reconstruction has been also developed with the support of the medieval planimetrics of the city, the Pianta Angelica, designed by Giovanni Pittoni in 1580.

In 2011 the Committee promoted the second part of the whole project, an enterprise in order to give back to Vicenza the artwork collecting silver donations, as happened for the ancient ex-voto with 66 lbs (30 kgs) as minimun target; in 2012, despite more than 110 lbs (50 kgs) were already collected (enough for the project), ten of the most important goldsmiths of the city went on collecting until 25th December, to create a work on the development and theca for exposure.

Features
The new Jewel of Vicenza has the appearance of a large round tray with a diameter of 58 cm made up of more than 300 models of buildings, 61 of which represent buildings of historical importance such as the Basilica Palladiana, the Cathedral, the Torre Bissara, the dozens of churches; in the center of Piazza dei Signori was inserted, unannounced, a gold model of the Rua.

The jewel was designed by proportioning the models with the golden ratio, studying the size of the building of the time allowing the three-dimensional reconstruction of the model the most likely to the original.

It is made of 925/1000 silver, starting with small sculptures in modelled wax that served as a model for subsequent casting. The elements obtained have been finished and embellished with a chisel and engraving finish. The final weight is 15 kg net ; the total effort was about 2,000 hours of work.

Exposure
On June 15, 2012 in Piazza dei Signori was held the official presentation, after which the work began by combining the craftsmanship of silversmith Carlo Rossi to a sophisticated laser technology offered by a company in Bressanvido. Already in September 2012 at the Gallerie di Palazzo Leoni Montanari was presented the tray finished with the first complete building, namely the Church of San Lorenzo. From April 6 to June 9, 2013, with the support of FAI, was exhibited at the Diocesan Museum the Jewel halfway through the work. In the summer of 2013 the Jewel was completed; it was returned to the citizens for the town's patronal feast on September 7, joining the usual procession to the Basilica of St. Mary of Mount Berico, in an official ceremony that had 30,000 participants.

The Jewel is now permanently welcomed at the Diocesan Museum and placed next to the canvas of Maffei San Vincenzo with the model of the city of Vicenza.

In 2015, the Jewel was exhibited in Milan, at Expo 2015. Within the international event, silversmith Carlo Rossi was awarded the Confartigianato Design Award 2015 for the realization of the work.

Related articles

 * Looting by Napoleon

Links

 * 3D Project Video

Category:Vicenza Category:Silver sculptures Category:Lost works