Moving a masterpiece
By Edwina Mulvany
Published on 7 November 2024
Our Senior Registrar, Edwina Mulvany, describes the delicate process of moving Michelangelo’s Taddei Tondo.
From the Autumn 2024 issue of RA Magazine, issued quarterly to Friends of the RA.
It is more than two years since I had my first conversation about moving the Taddei Tondo – one of the highlights of the RA’s collection – so that it could become the centrepiece of our exhibition Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c. 1504.
In October we finally moved the sculpture from the RA Collection Gallery to the exhibition space – the culmination of many hours of work. As the Senior Registrar at the RA, among other things I’m responsible for arranging loans, organising insurance and overseeing the logistics of transporting works like the Tondo.
The condition of Michelangelo’s 'Taddei Tondo' is carefully inspected before being moved.
I love the behind-the-scenes nature of my job and the problem-solving that comes with it. I’m one of the cogs in the machine that makes exhibitions and displays like these happen.
The only marble sculpture by Michelangelo in the UK, the Tondo has been in the RA’s collection since 1830. During the Second World War it was removed from the building for safekeeping at Aldwych tube station. More recently, in 2017, it made a rare trip out of the building to the National Gallery. In preparation for that, we invited experts in conservation and art handling, curators and sculptor- Academicians to discuss how we could transport it as safely as possible.
As a result, the Tondo was carefully mounted on a steel frame, so that it wouldn’t need to be handled directly. It’s still on that frame today, allowing us to move it more safely.
The Tondo is transferred, in its steel frame, onto lifting apparatus in the RA’s Collection Gallery.
There was a real buzz around our recent move, which involved the same team of art handlers and conservators as in previous years. They’re an amazing group of people – calm, thoughtful and thorough, while engaging in a process that some might find stressful.
The Tondo is heavy. The marble itself weighs 369kg, and with the steel framework 615kg, and with the crate we use to transport it the total weight is nearly 800kg. It took about six hours to move it to the Academy’s exhibition galleries. That might seem like a long time, but there are so many elements involved, and everything must be done slowly and carefully, from opening the case the Tondo sits in, to wrapping it in Tyvek (a polythene protective material), and crating it up for transportation.
The Tondo in its special crate, on its way to the Academy’s exhibition ‘Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael’.
This sculpture is extremely important from an art-historical perspective, and we have a responsibility to look after it. Taking it out of the case is an opportunity to check it’s still in good condition, by inspecting it, photographing it and comparing our findings to the detailed condition reports from previous moves. One of the privileges of my job is seeing incredible artworks like this close up. When we open the glass door of the case the surface comes into sharper focus. It’s a moving experience to look at the Tondo so close, to come face to face with a masterpiece.
Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c. 1504 is at the Royal Academy of Arts from 9 November 2024 – 16 February 2025. Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in partnership with Royal Collection Trust and the National Gallery, London.
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