Palazzo Vecchio: Painting a Fresco between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries - Japanese

“Di tutti gli altri modi che i pittori faccino, dipingere in muro è il più maestrevole e bello, perché consiste nel fare in un giorno solo quello che nelli altri modi si può in molti ritoccare sopra il lavorato” (Of all the ways a painter has to paint, the most skilled and beautiful is that of painting a wall as is consists of doing in one single day that which calls for a lot of touching up in other ways …)

This is how Giorgio Vasari presents this artistic technique, known and carried out since ancient times and described by Vitruvius in his De architectura. It is considered one of the most sophisticated and difficult executions as it leaves no room for a change of mind and calls for perfect knowledge of the materials and pigments to be used. Palazzo Vecchio contains a large number of “in fresco” paintings carried out by Giorgio Vasari himself, as well as by other very famous artists like Francesco Salviati, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Agnolo Bronzino.

Not only are the characteristics of the fresco techniques illustrated and demonstrated in the atelier, but it is also possible for participants to directly carry out a small fresco themselves, creating the design, preparing the instruments and materials, and applying the colours. Each visitor prepares the support on which to paint, and applies the tonachino, the thin layer of plaster on which to spread the colours on top of a natural terracotta base.

After having acquired the secrets of fresco painting, visitors will also be able to retrace the still visible signs of the variety of techniques used by different artists inside the monumental Quarters. This allows participants in this activity to observe the frescoes from a different angle, guided by a far more in-depth knowledge than that of normal museum visitors.