Palazzo del Principe
Documenting to preserve. The photographic survey of the fresco restoration in the entrance vestibule of Andrea Doria’s Villa.
01Andrea Doria’s vestibule
Villa del Principe is the residence that Andrea Doria, admiral and de facto lord of Genoa, had built starting in 1521 at the city’s western gates, turning it into the manifesto of his power and taste. Its decorative scheme, entrusted to Perin del Vaga, remains one of the most important painting cycles of the Italian Cinquecento outside Rome: the famous Loggia degli Eroi, frescoed in 1529 to celebrate the great commanders of the family, is the model that, decades later, the decorative schemes of the Palazzi dei Rolli would also look to.
The entrance vestibule, the first space to welcome visitors, holds frescoes of extraordinary value, now the subject of a conservation restoration aimed at preserving their legibility and material stability.
02The photographic survey
Renovatio led the photographic survey of the restoration site: systematic, high-resolution documentation of the state of the frescoes before, during and after the intervention. Not an outreach narrative, but a technical tool — supporting the restorers and the client — able to record every phase of the conservation work over time, from the deterioration found to the consolidation techniques used.
A discreet but necessary work: photography as a tool of preservation, even before communication.