Four-year restoration brings Giotto’s St Francis cycle back into view in Florence

A four-year conservation project has returned the Bardi Chapel’s paintings of St Francis to public view at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, while uncovering new evidence of how Giotto and his workshop planned the landmark cycle.

For the first time, researchers comprehensively mapped the incisions, preparatory lines and marks made with pigment-coated cords across the chapel walls. The digital record reveals the precise framework used to set proportions and align an illusionistic painted architecture with the real chapel. It offers scholars a clearer view of how the scenes were designed before figures and colour were added.

Cleaning also recovered previously obscure details in the Franciscan Virtues painted on the vault, especially the allegories of Obedience and Chastity. Differences in technique and style are now easier to distinguish, providing further evidence of several painters working under Giotto’s direction. The cycle combines a fresco base with extensive dry painting, which allowed a wider range of pigments and effects.

Conservators stabilised cracked walls, loose plaster and lifting paint, reduced damage from soluble salts, and replaced incompatible repairs. They treated roughly 5,000 small losses without attempting to recreate large missing areas, improving the overall clarity while leaving the work’s long history visible. The resulting scientific record will support continued research and help monitor the paintings’ condition in future.