Oratorio dei Bianchi, one of the exhibition venues of the Sicilian Regional Gallery of Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo, will allow the public to witness the restoration of eight late 16th Century Flemish tapestries, restoration directed by Giacomo Mirto and promoted by the Region.
The collection of Flemish tapestries in wool and silk donated to the Chiesa Madre di Marsala in 1589 by the canon of the Cathedral of Mazara Monsignor Antonino Lombardo would come from the Spanish Court.
The tapestries, in episodes, narrate the conquest of Jerusalem by the Romans Vespasian and Titus according to Josephus' De bello Judaico. The iconography, however, has an allegorical meaning: in the times of the Counter-Reformation, the hope was to obtain the clemency of Philip II towards the Dutch Calvinists, just as the Roman emperor had been benevolent towards the Jews.
The tapestries remained hanging for centuries in the apse area of the Mother Church until, in 1893, the dome collapsed. On that occasion it was even thought of putting them up for sale to meet the costs of reconstruction. In 1965 the Sicilian Region restored some of them that were in poor condition, but it was only in the first half of the 1980’s that their enhancement and presentation to the public began in a small museum near the church.
At the end of the restoration, however, the tapestries will find a new museum to welcome them in Marsala. In fact, the restoration and museum adaptation works of the Collegio Church have recently been banned.
Source: "Il Giornale dell’Arte", from the article A Palermo otto arazzi restaurati in diretta - Nell'Oratorio dei Bianchi il pubblico può assistere ai lavori del laboratorio, Giusi Diana, 27.11.2020
