WMF’s work at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Torcello largely focused on conservation of the site’s unique but steadily degrading tile work, which suffered from problems associated with exposure to groundwater, humidity, and large quantities of soluble salts. (...)
WMF’s work at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Torcello largely focused on conservation of the site’s unique but steadily degrading tile work, which suffered from problems associated with exposure to groundwater, humidity, and large quantities of soluble salts. Early studies revealed tesserae pieces separating from their mortar beds, and mortar separating in a similar fashion from its masonry wall foundations. Tiles, exposed to humidity, also suffered from corrosion, discoloration, and detachment. With the International Torcello Committee, a group formed in 1978 as a consolidation of various private committees working in Venice, WMF oversaw continued studies of salt and water content in and underneath the basilica walls, and measured the extent of mosaic detachment from building foundations. Working off information from those investigations, conservationists injected a mixture of lime, marble dust, brick powder, water, and resin into the shifted walls, stabilizing the tesserae and their mortar bases, and finally allowing a full restoration of the mosaics.
