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Full view of De Fauveau's Santa Croce sculpture, restored 2012.
A monument's history
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Inspired by Donatello and 'frightened' by the flood. The centuries that most influenced De Fauveau. Originally intended for Santa Croce’s Medici Chapel, the monument (1854) was instead placed in Santa Croce's subterranean ex-oratory della Compagnia della Maddalena. On November 4, 1966, the fury of the Arno River submerged the Santa Croce district under 22 feet of oil, mud and water, leaving it, and Florence, in a catastrophic state. De Fauveau’s most recognized masterpiece just one of the thousands of works of art gravely damaged by 600,000 tons of floating debris. The monument’s home for the last fifty years has been the upper loggia of the church’s first cloister. Over the decades, even though it was restored in 1990, its daily exposure to the outdoor elements has caused irregular discolorations on parts of its surface. During AWA’s maintenance project in 2012, first, the grime was removed from the monuments surface and from within the marbles pores. Next, a wax polish was used to reduce the marble’s lack of moisture, which is an everlasting side effect of its immersion in the ravaging flood waters. Restorers found that de Fauveau’s sculptural methods differed from those of her contemporaries, who copied Donatello. She used flat and toothed chisels to create linear movement and probably learned her carving techniques by working on medallions.