I feel a fortunate person. I must have met Anna in 1985. For me she was the personification of what she did, an art restorer. She died a year ago, far too young.

With this blog I hope I can preserve the memory of her, ‘to restore her’, bring her to the present.  

She was the director of the 'Istituto Supreriore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro'. She was like an ocean of knowledge.

Thanks to her I got to see the most astonishing artworks from very nearby. 

And she bought work of mine; lecturing me that I had used the wrong materials… 

Amongst the wonders I saw:

The statue of Marco Aurelio while being restored. 

The Foro Romano in the snow

The Santa Maria Antiqua church frescos (it astonished me that the clothes of the person were almost painted in an impressionist way. There you go, Vasari!!! Before the Romanesque period they knew how to paint naturalistic!)

Tiziano's Amore Sacro e Profano * (Anna showed me that the figure on the left is not sitting on the tomb but ‘floating’ in front of it).

*: click on the name to see a video about the painting. 

Carravaggio's Resurazione di Lazzaro *

*: click on the name to see a video about the restauration

And so many more great works... When I was in Rome I always visited her office or a ‘cantiere’. We talked about the works from the different points of view, she as a preserver, me as a painter.

There was more.

She gave me the recipe of bucatini alle sarde and that wonderful very easy to make spaghetti with pecorino stagionato, lots of olive oil and black pepper…

In 2010 I tried to get my project 'Art Hysteria' * off ground. Anna liked it very much (*click on the name and you will see the sketch of the project I made for her with two works she restaured.... Which paintings did I quote?).

We went to the Palazzo Barberini to talk to the director about the project as a possible aid for children to get better introduced to the arts. I still belief it could be a great way to make children really look at art, but as with so many of these initiatives, the times are against it. 

In the palazzo Barberini I saw the Pietro da Cortona fresco with her that I talked about in the last blog… (click on the word grey 'blog' to go to the blog).

When we walked through the garden the trees were blossoming. It is there that I decided to paint flowers.

Rome will never be the same again.