Cesare Brandi

Cesare Brandi (Siena, 8 April 1906 – Vignano, 19 January 1988) was an art critic and historian, and a specialist in conservation-restoration theory.

In 1939 he became the first director of the ''Istituto Centrale per il Restauro'' (Central Institute for Restoration, now the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro) in Rome.

His main books are ''Le due vie'' (1966, Bari), and ''Teoria generale della critica'' (1974). ''Le due vie'' was presented and debated in Rome by Roland Barthes, Giulio Carlo Argan and Emilio Garroni. The philosopher he felt mostly closer to was Heidegger, although their positions didn't coincide; he felt also close to Derrida, particularly to his theorization of Différance.

Brandi's broad practical experience and his phenomenological references ranging from Plato to Kant, passing through Benedetto Croce, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Bergson and especially Edmund Husserl and Hegel, culminated in what became known as Theory of Critical Restoration. In 1963 Brandi published his theories in the book ''Teoria del Restauro'' (Theory of Restoration).

Brandi's Theory of Restoration, which champions techniques like tratteggio, is considered the foundational text of the modern Italian school of conservation and has been highly influential internationally. The approach is not without its critics, however. The "controversy" stems less from outright opposition and more from philosophical disagreements between different schools of thought. Some critics, particularly those from an older tradition of "imitative" restoration, found the visible lines of tratteggio to be aesthetically distracting and a violation of the artwork's original unity. Others have questioned the objective applicability of Brandi's more abstract principles, arguing that concepts like an artwork's "potential unity" are ultimately subjective judgments made by the conservator.

Brandi's ideas had a great influence on the Italian Restoration Letter of 1972 and, consequently, in the current practice of restoration around the world. Provided by Wikipedia