Reproductions for the film 'Medici II'

Reproductions for the film 'Medici II'

The Symphony of Crafts: A Renaissance Approach in the Service of a Major International Series

Commission: Production of the TV series ‘I Medici’ (Rai Fiction / Lux Vide)

The Context: Furnishing the Court of the Lords of Florence

At the height of the company’s expansion into film collaborations, Bottega Tifernate was involved in one of the most ambitious television projects of recent years: I Medici, the colossal international co-production broadcast worldwide. The commission involved the reconstruction of the works of art that adorned the rooms of the most powerful family of the Renaissance. Among the various commissions, one work demanded absolute attention: Sandro Botticelli’s The Fortress. The production team was adamant: the painting would not be a mere backdrop, but the visual focal point of the main hall, the nerve centre of the set where the most intense dialogues of the entire season would take place.

The Challenge: Museum-grade precision versus the merciless eye of the camera

Destined to be framed repeatedly, caressed by camera movements and subjected to severe close-ups, the work had to be perfect in every material and three-dimensional detail. Working solely from simple photographic documentation was unthinkable. The challenge lay in replicating not only the pictorial composition, but also the exact volumetry, the reflections of the gold and the majestic wooden architecture of the original frame.

The Work of the Workshop: The Cast at the Uffizi and the ‘Symphony of Crafts’

To ensure absolute authenticity, Stefano Lazzari travelled personally to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. After a careful study of the original to memorise the direction of the brushstrokes and the effect of light on the painting, he took a cast and measured the exact outline of the frame, in order to replicate its proportions down to the millimetre. Back in Città di Castello, he set in motion what is the true ‘engine’ of the company: collaborative work. Just as in a genuine 15th-century guild, the creation of the piece became a symphony of artisanal crafts: the carvers sculpted the solid wood following the outline of the Uffizi; the gilders applied the gold leaf; the chasers hammered the surface to recreate the wear of the centuries; finally, the master painters restored voice and colour to Botticelli’s vision.