In 1967, WMF began conservation work in the ground floor library, mint, and entrance hall, where stucco and marble stonework were retouched, and cracking architraves were reinforced with iron girders. Later efforts in the 1980s focused on the library’s antisala, which was used at various times as a classroom for Greek and Latin languages, and a public museum of classical sculpture. (...)
In 1967, WMF began conservation work in the ground floor library, mint, and entrance hall, where stucco and marble stonework were retouched, and cracking architraves were reinforced with iron girders. Later efforts in the 1980s focused on the library’s antisala, which was used at various times as a classroom for Greek and Latin languages, and a public museum of classical sculpture. Though the walls of the room were originally decorated with paintings by artists like Tintoretto and Domenico Molin, its ceiling, featuring Titian’s allegorical painting, Sapienza, is widely considered the room’s most important decorative element. Before WMF’s intervention, however, the painting had fallen into serious disrepair, its surface blistered and obscured by layers of soot. To restore the work, a team of six conservationists reattached cracked paint to its wooden surface, and then cleaned it, removing dirt and layers of varnish that muted and discolored the brilliance of Titian’s original. The effort, completed in November of 1986, has restored the subtlety and vibrancy of the painting’s original color scheme, allowing visitors to experience the work, and the antisala, as originally intended.
