Fresco at 600 by Fra Angelico can get the love you need

American physician Stephen Wolosin was blown away when he first saw a 600-year-old fresco of the cross by Renaissance Master Hula Angelico in a corridor abbey last January.

“I immediately thought this was the most surprising thing I'd seen,” he said recently. The simplicity and power of the image overwhelmed him, he said.

His second thought was that the Fresco needed some love.

At that time, Wolosin turned his eyes to Dr. Camilla Aldedi and Dr. Lafele Rasoini. Dr. Laffere Lassoini took him to see the frescoes at the monastery of San Domenico in Fiesole, and in the town on the hilltop overlooking Florence, he said, “Well, why don't you recover it?”

A few years ago, bonded with mutual love for the cultural thing, and the three formed an organization called Bottega Belacca, which aimed to stop “impossible dreams,” Wolosin said. The fresco restoration was the first official venture in Italy.

After all, it wasn't that unlikely.

On a recent morning, two restorators scrambled scaffolding at the monastery's chapter house to give their work a final touch. The fresco was restored in time for the large Fraangelco exhibitions held at Palazzo Strozzi and Dio San Marco in Florence on September 26th. It looks to be one of Europe's leading art shows in autumn.

The restorer patted the vast blue background surrounding the lonely Christ, his head bent and his hands clenched into his fists. This was a fitting image of the meditation of the former home of the monastery.

Access to frescos meant that the monasteries were still in corridors, so the monks had little contact with the outside world – which meant they were not on the radar of many Fraangelico enthusiasts. “It was virtually unknown,” said Rasoini, who is also a member of Bottega Bellaqua, named after the character shared by Dante and Samuel Beckett.

Also, the lists drafted annually by local art authorities were not flagged as having to be repaired immediately. The list is flexible and long, but the funds are always under-funded. Private donors, individuals, or groups are bounties of the bounties of the rich in Italy.

For Chapter House Fresco, Bottega Belacca couldn't cover the costs on its own, so he sought help from friends in Florence, a nonprofit organization that he quickly put in.

Cristiana Conti, one of the Restorers, said the most important intervention they've made was to strengthen the plaster that was peeling off in some areas. “One of the problems with works discovered within a monastery in areas that are less accessible” is that they can be devastated without much notice, she said.

Another restorer, Alessandra Popple, said it was a thrill to work with Fra Angelico in a place that was painted 600 years ago. “There's something about working on frescoes. They go through the same thing that the artists have experienced, so the atmosphere is the same,” she said. “It's an emotional experience.”

Fra Angelico is undoubtedly best known for his frescoes painted for the monastery of San Marco in central Florence, but “Sandmenico was his monastery,” said Angelo Tartu Ferri. The artist entered the monastery as a young monk around 1420, living there for a long time, returning earlier in 1450.

The monastery has been riding bumps for centuries since its establishment in 1406.

So did the fresco. It was painted in 1566 when the entire room was whitewashed. Perhaps because the paintings of that style were not highly appreciated.

As for the monastery, after Napoleon suppressed Italian religious orders, it was sold to a private family who, along with all the art it housed, sold several Fra Angelico works. These include an independent fresco of the cross, currently at the Louvre, and another Virgin and child, who are with a saint in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.

The monks eventually bought the monastery, and the fresco was discovered in 1881 by the previous Praia. At one point, the bottom of the fresco had been completely repainted, she added. However, Christ's figure was largely original and, with the exception of some touches from the previous restoration in 1955, marked the 500th anniversary of his death.

To some extent, it means “I always compare artwork with people,” and some people don't.

“It's good that it was probably covered,” said Aldedi, another Bottega Beracqua doctor.

Alderighi is married to Rasoini, and they lived “down the road” from the monastery and became friends with its caretaker. When Wolosin came to Italy and taught medical courses with them in the media, they brought him to see his work.

Focusing on frescos on a recent March morning, Wolosin said the restoration was Bottega Belacca's “two-year obsession,” “first success” in Italy, and hopefully more.

Today, the monastery serves as a clinic for senior Dominican monks in the area. The eight live full time under the careful eyes of Sacristan Pietro Gida, who cares about them. He said that from time to time, the well-read visitors came to see the crucifixion: “If they knocked, I'd put them in.”

Karl Strelke, curator of the Fraangelico exhibition, which has compiled around 100 works by Renaissance artists, said he hopes that he will find a way for the monastery to open during the show, allowing more people to see the cross as part of the supplementary program. “There will be an itinerary in and around Florence to see things,” he said.

Strehlke had raised his footing during the repair, and he was impressed too. “You can quickly say that it is a major masterpiece of Hula Angelico,” he said. “So it's really a new discovery. In an interesting way. Even if we knew it was always there, no one really saw it.”