Spinello Aretino’s Triptych depicting the Madonna col Bambino in trono e quattro angeli fra i santi Paolino vescovo, Giovanni Battista, Andrea, Matteo, e i Profeti Geremia e Mosè returns to its splendor at the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze, following a major restoration project begun in November 2024 and recently concluded, accompanied by a comprehensive diagnostic investigation. The results and the work itself are the focus of the exhibition on the first floor, open from February 24th to May 11th, 2026. A video within the exhibition recounts the painting’s conservation history and the various phases of the restoration.

The triptych, a gold-ground panel painting signed and dated 1391, was commissioned by the Lucca merchant Paolino di Simonino di Bonagiunta for the Oratory of Sant’Andrea in Lucca and painted by Spinello during a period of frequent travel between Lucca, Pisa, and Florence. In 1850, the triptych was at risk of being exported following an illicit sale that was promptly blocked by the Tuscan government, which ultimately granted it to the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze.

Before the current intervention, the painting had a profoundly altered appearance: surface deposits, overhanging and degraded filler, missing parts, cracks in the wooden support, layers of oxidized varnish and glue, and extensive overpainting severely impaired its legibility. Preliminary diagnostic investigations have made it possible to distinguish the subsequent interventions from the original parts, identify the preparatory drawing, and obtain information on the materials and pigments used by the artist.

The restoration allowed the recovery of the original parts and the reinstatement of the work’s balance and visual continuity, improving its aesthetic perception and enjoyment. The most important and delicate phase was cleaning. The work restored the full brilliance of the colors, highlighting the delicate passages of light, the elegant rhythm of the draperies, and the rendering of the flesh tones, modeled with subtle, graphic brushstrokes. The high quality of the work emerges with renewed clarity, a precious testimony to Spinello Aretino’s activity in Lucca.