Restored drawings of masters are unveiled

MILAN (AP) — A historic Milan library last week unveiled 280 drawings by such masters as Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci collected by a 17th-century friar.

The so-called Codex Resta drawings had just been returned from a Florence studio where they were restored for years. The drawings were named for the friar Sebastiano Resta, who assembled the collection.

The collection was returned to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana library in five specially designed crates — seven years after the volume made the journey to Florence in a trolley suitcase.

“This is a measure of the operation,” said Cecilia Forsinini, director of restoration at the Florence-based state conservation institute, Opificio delle Pietre Dure.

Inside the containers were smaller boxes to provide more suitable storage for the delicate drawings, Forsinini said.

Much of the damage to the drawings in the Codex Resta had been caused by old bindings: some drawings had inadvertent folds, some had wrinkles, and all of the pages, each containing up to two drawings, were wavy.

The drawings were first unbound from their worn leather bindings. Then each received individual treatment depending on its condition, from cleaning to repairs.

Some drawings had been previously removed from the collection, then put back in with transparent tape, requiring extra care to restore.

Resta collected about 3,500 drawings in some 30 volumes in his lifetime.

Only six volumes remain intact, including the Codex Resta and another of Peter Rubens’ drawings at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. But individual drawings, distinguished by the collector’s numbering, have made their way into public and private collections worldwide.

The Milan library plans to display the collection with other treasures in the future, but no date has been set.

It is now showing the first of 24 exhibits spanning six years that will display all of Leonardo da Vinci’s 1,119-page Codex Atlanticus.

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