(swing piano music)
- [Man] We're in the city of Padua
in the church of the Augustinian Hermits
looking at a major fresco cycle
by the great Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna,
or perhaps I should say, what's left of it.
- [woman] This chapel was destroyed during World War Two.
- [Man] An enormous number of bombs were unleashed
from Flying Fortresses.
There had been real concern among church officials
that the church might be hit.
- [Woman] There was no intention to destroy
much of this church.
- [Man] but nevertheless, reportedly four bombs
hit this part of the church.
- [Woman] And that's because right nearby
were the headquarters
of the reconstituted fascist government.
So the Allies were pushing up from the south.
The fascists were located in Padua,
and the north and the allies
were bombing various cities in Italy.
Now more care was taken in cities like Rome and Florence,
but Padua wasn't well known
as a city filled with cultural treasures.
- [Man] And a loss really was tragic.
Even with the tiny fragments that have survived.
It's clear what a masterpiece this had originally been.
primarily what we're seeing are black and white photographs
that were taken before the war that had been blown up
overlaying that are actual fragments of the fresco.
- [Woman] But we're also looking at attempts
by the conservators to provide inpainting paint
in between the surviving fragments
in order to give us a better sense
of what this fresco originally looked like.
- [Man] And we can differentiate the inpainting
because of the vertical lines that have been added.
Most of the color that we're seeing is inpainting
that is its modern restoration.
The cycle tells the stories of two Margaret's saints.
St. James and St. Christopher,
but let's focus on St. James being led to his execution.
- [Woman] The composition is divided into
on the left, we see St. James we can recognize him
because he wears a halo and he has his right hand up
in a gesture of blessing toward a man who's kneeling
St. James's walked through this Triumphal Arch
on his way to his execution and is healed a crippled man.
But instead of showing us that scene,
Mantegna shows us the moment
when a scribe named Josiah witnesses that miracle
and drops to his knees and is blessed by St. James.
So it's this moment of recognizing the divine
this moment of conversion.
- [Man] Our vantage point seems to be
at the level of the feet of the figures
as we look up.
- [Woman] Mantegna made the horizon line
of linear perspective,
essentially at the top of our heads.
So we're looking up at these figures
and that architecture seems even more massive
and heavy as a result.
Now, a Roman Triumphal Arch celebrated
Roman military victories
and so this Christian martyr has performed a miracle
right before this symbol of Roman military power.
- [Man] He's also making a point
that even with all of Rome's military power,
its architectural and engineering prowess,
Christianity quietly is triumphant.
- [Woman] We see a distinctly different scene
on the right a Roman soldier is pushing up against
another figure who carries a banner
and who is in turn assaulting the Roman soldier.
And so we have this scene of violence.
It's so clearly intended to contrast
with the saint blessing Josiah on the left.
- [Man] Even before this bombing,
the United States had taken steps
to preserve the cultural heritage of Italy
and committees were set up filled with art historians,
archivists, librarians, experts to identify
major sites that should be safeguarded whenever possible.
- [Woman] We know one of these organizations
is the Monuments Men.
- [Man] After the bombing, there was a renewed effort
to avoid destroying historic treasures.
This event galvanized the allied forces
and essentially gave more credence more power
to the committee's that were working
to safeguard cultural treasures.
- [Woman] Famously the dark historian Frederick Hartt
had studied Montegna and learned of the bombing and cried,
but perhaps it's best to read Frederick Hartt words,
"The Eremetani Church has been very badly hit
and the Ovetari Chapel with all the Mantegnas
utterly wiped out.
As a matter of fact
you can hardly tell there was a building there.
The last of the stick of bombs missed the Arena Chapel
by a mere hundred yards."
That reminds us that we are very close
to late Gothic masterpiece by Ja dos the arena chapel
and apparently the ground shook underneath that chapel
when the Ovetari was hit.
- [Man] But thankfully the frescoes inside were undamaged.
- [Woman] But that day we could have lost
both Mantegnas 15th century fresco cycle
and Ja dos was early 14th century fresco cycle
faced with a pile of rubble of fragments
of an incredibly important masterpiece
by a great Renaissance master.
What was the Superintendent of monuments
here in Padua to do.
He collected those fragments he stored them,
they were photographed, they were cataloged,
they were measured.
There were several attempts
to take these tiny two or three centimeter fragments
and reconstruct the fresco.
The Mantegna project at the University of Padua
worked for many years on the fragments of the frescoes.
The reconstruction was based on an unprecedented
use of computer technology.
I have nothing but enormous respect for all the people
who worked for over a decade to take those tiny pieces
and restore whatever could be restored,
simultaneously though, the fragmented state of what
we're looking at makes it hard to experience the fresco,
we're distracted by the restoration.
- [Man] My view is that it was the right choice
to attempt to reconstruction.
It's a testament to the violence of the 20th century,
and it'd be as a kind of Memorial.
- [Woman] The fragmentary state of the fresco
reminds us that this was destroyed
and in a way that text can't do
looking at a black and white reproduction in a book
and reading a caption that says,
destroyed during World War Two
is not as powerful as being here in this beautiful church
with earlier frescoes all around it
and seeing the damage that we've done.
- [Man] This painting has survived for 500 years,
we've destroyed it in the modern world.
- [Woman] Since the war there have been various
measures put in place,
for example, the Hague conventions to protect
cultural heritage during times of war,
but clearly we know when we read the headlines
that works of art remain endangered
around the world due to war.
(soft piano music)