Oratorio San Giovanni Battista
New light on the Salimbeni brothers' frescoes
Urbino - Italy
Oratorio San Giovanni Battista
The artistic jewel of Urbino
One of the masterpieces of international Gothic in Italy, and the pearl of the city of Urbino, the Oratory of St. John the Baptist is home to one of the most important works by Lorenzo and Jacopo Salimbeni from San Severino Marche, which has spanned the centuries while preserving its original spectacularity.
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The objective of the lighting intervention was to replace the old outdated halogen system with LED technology. The many constraints imposed by the Confraternity of St. John the Baptist and Fine Arts of Urbino made it necessary to find a solution that would be as unobtrusive as possible, constraints that were seized as an opportunity for the design: thanks to the holes already present, it was possible to create the supports for the new track system on which the Pound projectors were installed, without affecting the state of the structure and the works in the slightest. Pound, chosen for its high performance and essential design, is perfectly suited for the illumination of the splendid frescoes, which have regained vividness of scene and especially colour. The light temperature of 4000K and the projector's CRI 95 bring out the paintings in the fullness of their original magnificence.
The project thus recovers the beautiful details of the frescoes, eliminating areas of shadow and recovering the smallest nuances. A small forgotten detail such as the crystal eyes of the bird above the cross, intent on feeding its young and fighting the demon-serpent, which at particular times were illuminated and lit by the light coming in through a small window walled in a later extension of the building in the 1700s, has been recovered thanks to the specific installation of one of the projectors with 15° optics above the transverse beam in front of the altar. Attention to detail and high-tech products and performance were the success of this small but great project.
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