Milan, Palazzo Marino. A Goppion display case will hold Raphael’s Madonna of Foligno painting, on loan for Christmas

This year, once again Milan’s institutions are continuing the wonderful tradition of offering citizens and tourists a winter exhibition, with support from ENI. The star of the show of this exhibition will, as usual, be hosted in the Sala Alessi in Palazzo Marino. This year it will run from Nov. 28 to Jan. 12, 2014 and for the very first time, a masterpiece from the Vatican Museums – Raphael’s Madonna di Foligno – will be featured.

The work realized by the Master from Urbino between 1511 and 1513 was commissioned ex voto by the secretary of the Pope Julius II, Sigismondo de’ Conti, when his house was struck by lightning but was left undamaged. The miraculous event is represented in the landscape at the center of the painting where a rainbow symbolizes the divine protection of the Virgin with child surrounded by cherubs overlooking the scene

For the sixth year in a row, Goppion has been chosen to realize the installation of the Christmas exhibit at Palazzo Marino.

For this especially delicate painting – a wooden panel then transferred on canvas – we have designed and engineered a display case with doors, housed in a specially made wooden structure with a large extra-clear, anti-reflective glass door that allows for perfect rendering of the colors.
A structure behind the painting replicates the one the canvas is affixed to in the Vatican museum and protects against any further strain on the painting caused by thermal shock.

The display case realized for the occasion is a technological evolution of the System Q, further testifying to its extreme versatility and adaptability in the most diverse situations. To guarantee the highest levels of security and the ease in handling the glass door, which is large in size (2,200x3,500 mm), the articulated quadrilateral hinges (which are a standard feature in our display cases and for which the system is named) were especially reinforced in this instance. Absolute airtightness is guaranteed by the use of magnetic gaskets while a dual – active and passive - microclimate control system guarantees perfect preventative conservation of the masterpiece on display.

As is our established practice at this point, the display case underwent repeated testing in the laboratory where curators and technicians worked together in the experimentation phase. This was made possible thanks to the realization of a mock-up to test the best way to execute the piece.