• Project: Paving restoration
  • Place: Ca’ d’Oro
  • Year: 2019
  • Type: Public property
  • Financing Committee(s):
    • Istituto Veneto per i Beni Culturali
    • Save Venice Inc.

Project description

The opus sectile floor located inside the Cà d’Oro palace in Venice was entirely designed and installed by Baron Giorgio Franchetti at the end of the nineteenth century. Splendid polychrome marbles were ordered from antique dealers all over the world and in an extraordinary design that intertwines the techniques of opus sectile and opus tessellatum, in the space of thirty years the porch was completely covered, joining the internal courtyard of the building to the door of water on the Grand Canal. Despite the conservation interventions carried out over the years, the flooring in question is in a rather precarious state due to chemical, physical and biological degradation phenomena that have altered, over time, the morphology and mechanical properties of the original materials. After a first usual phase of investigation and documentation, a preliminary washing was carried out by means of deionized water alternating with a treatment with steam in order to reduce the soluble salts on the surface. Punctually the deteriorated cards were overturned, replaced or integrated. Then the integration of the joints followed, developing different methodologies, but always respecting the original. The cleaning was carried out according to different methods by means of compresses and repeated applications, together with a precise mechanical cleaning by means of brushes. The most degraded portions were soaked with ethyl silicate for consolidation purposes and, where deemed necessary, the integral consolidation of nanosilicates was carried out with a brush and a half. Finally, a protective was used in order to slow down the erosion phenomenon taking place on the tiles.

Project realised with the support of the Veneto Region.