'New' Giotto Confirmed

After a seven year labour of Love, a young British conservator, Anna-Marie Hilling, can now finally see her hard work certified, as the Ognissanti Crucifix, which has now been confirmed as a true Giotto original, will finally take its rightful place centre stage in Ognissanti church, Florence.

The Crucifix, which is thought to be dated around 1300, stands an impressive five metres high and was originally attributed to one of Giotto's relatives or pupils from his work shop.

Hilling and her team have proved that this is a true Giotto original through the use of Infrared photography & Xrays of the Crucifix. The results showed 'clear proof' of preliminary sketches and preparatory painting done by the early Italian Master.

The Guardian describes Giotto as being,

'renowned in his day for creating religious images that communicated directly with congregations. In contrast with stylised Byzantine art, his depiction of key scenes from the New Testament was thought daring and his newly rediscovered cross shows the crucifixion as a human triumph, with the image of the risen Christ painted above the dying figure on the cross.'

The painstaking restoration, which took a dedicated team of four, every hour of every day for over five years to complete, revealed the beautiful individual brush strokes of the Masters own hand, the use of the precious pigmant Lapiz Lazuli for the background & delicate coloured glass which was used for Christ's Halo.

Hilling states on the Guardian website that,

'The most difficult phase of the work was the cleaning, which involved years of a very delicate and gradual removal of the altered layer on the blackened surface. Every single square millimetre was cleaned with specific chemical solving systems applied under the control of the microscope, as the original layers were extremely delicate.

But the removal of that dark layer revealed the quality of Giotto's painting, with many fine details that were not visible before. In the 20th century the work of art had often been assigned to a collaborator of Giotto – popularly known as "Giotto's relative" – but the thousands of hours devoted to cleaning the painting have helped art historians to confirm it as by the great master himself – Giotto, father of Italian art.'

The Crucifix is currently on display in the Ognissanti Church and will be inaugurated on 6 November.