The tradition of Brandi

This essay embraces an idea from Giulio Carlo Argan that identifies transparency as both a component and a way of reading the writings of Cesare Brandi. Beginning with the entry for the item “Restoration” in the Enciclopedia Universale dell’Arte which is translated into Spanish in this issue of Conversaciones..., it then proposes a transparent reading of other texts by Brandi on restoration, at times finding comfort in writings more dedicated to aesthetics. Two pairs of themes seem to clearly emerge from this methodology: reintegration, and, in transparency, the potential unity of the work of art; the relationship between the humanistic and the scientific disciplines and, reading in transparency, the possibility of founding a theory of restoration. Finally, the theme of transparency opens onto reflections on space, or rather on space, and – once again in transparency – on objects. This last reflection constitutes the element for a possible line of flight, a way out of the work of Cesare Brandi, but in order to continue to practice the tradition of Cesare Brandi.