by Anna Maria Scirč, Laura Teruzzi, Emanuela Palma e Marina Berti
It all began in the heart of the night between 2,33 a.m. of Friday, September 26th.
The first big shake of the 8th degree of the Mercalli' scale damaged thousands of houses in the Appennino Umbro-Marchigiano. All this made a down-fall of the superior vault of San Francesco's Basilica in Assisi, one of the biggest testimony of the 13th art century. The images showed by TV are impressive: the vault of the Basilica is crumbling, the rain of debrises is dilating in a thick cloud that is growing up like a fungus. Many people without names are terrorized.
We can find, in a mass of fragments, two masterpieces of Middle-ages art. The first is San Matteo's sail of Cimabue, part of Quattro Evangelisti" (it is a fresco), has been lost in the vault collapse at the level of the high altar. The second is the San Girolamo's sail that belongs to the Quattro dottori della chiesa".
The news of damages to San Francesco's Basilica goes around the world and the seism is settling
Beside San Francesco, in Assisi damages are following to Santa Chiara" and San Ruffino's Churches", Palazzo Apostolico" and Palace of the Pope". All the Middle-ages center around San Francesco' Sanctuary which is a symbol of prayer and silence work, of humility and community with creatures, has suffered dramatic wounds.
On Saturday, September 27th it is talking about eleven dead persons and one hundred and twenty-six woundeds.Beyond one thousand and four hundred buildings are declare inadeguate only in Umbria.
In the following three days beside one hundred thousand persons were sleeping outside their houses.The Italian governmant is going to allocate fifty-six milion lira for urgency interventions. What's the mealing of this loss ? The worts is inestimable.
Loosing some masterpieces is a tragic situation. For example: The San Francisco's fresco are involving only two pictures, but they are a precious casket of fourteen century painting. The San Francisco's Sanctuary is one of most famous places of religion in the world.
Its first stone was settled on July 17th, 1228 by Papa Gregorio IX. The place, situated in the north west of the city, was ill- famed and was named the hill of hell" : this is where sentences were executed. After that the second half of the century the Basilica took the characteristics of Gothic art. Pope Innocenzo IV authorized the friars to proceed in the interior decoration of the Sanctuary. From that time on, starts the splendid adventure of a painting laboratory, which changed the future of the figurative occidental culture, thanks to some new painters like Cimabue, Giotto, Cavallini, etc. Now, we would like to talk about Cimabue. It seems like that he has accomplished his master-pieces between 1280 and 1290: Ciclo Apocalittico", La Crocefissione" and I Quattro Evangelisti". Also, Cimabue painted San Francisco's Basilica creating the Madonna con gli Angeli" and San Francesco".
The architectures painted, the plans of the area, the beauty of the human figures, made it so that these master-pieces becames a symbol of Middle-ages.
We are wondering if the damages could have been avoided and how it will be possible to repair it . For the time-beging we only know that Italy it is never thought in advance how to prevent and use maintenance for the Italian art . So the mayor risk, which undergoes the Italian art, is precisely seismic
