Caravaggio, the rain and the soup. That glass that protects against the weather and those protesting about the climate

On Thursday afternoon, more than 45 millimetres of rain fell in Florence in the space of an hour. At the Uffizi, water seeped in beneath the skylight of the room housing seven 17th-century paintings, including Caravaggio’s ‘Bacchus’. The splashes reached the outer glass of the display case protecting the painting. The museum has confirmed that, following an inspection, none of the works sustained any damage. The gallery reopened this morning.

Those display cases have a history that predates the current climate of chaos by a long way. In museums, the transparent panels in front of masterpieces were introduced to protect them not only from light, but also from people, dust, knocks and accidents. The Mona Lisa, for example, was struck in 1956, first by a stone and then by an acid attack. It survived, but not without consequences.

In recent years, however, museum windows have also become the target of a new category of visitors: climate activists. In July 2022, at the Uffizi itself, three activists from Ultima Generazione glued their hands to the glass surrounding Botticelli’s Primavera. In October of the same year, at the National Gallery in London, two Just Stop Oil activists, shouting “Which is more important, art or life?”, threw tomato soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. The painting was protected by glass and sustained no damage. A few months earlier, at the Louvre, a young man had thrown a cake at the display case housing the Mona Lisa, urging visitors to think about the Earth. There, too, the glass had deflected the blow. Soup, cake, glue: works in museums are thus beginning to be used as public noticeboards. And those transparent, intrinsically invisible barriers become the point where protest makes itself seen. 

An interesting detail: in the painting, Caravaggio has placed a wine glass and a transparent carafe in the foreground. In the reflection of the carafe, scholars have identified what could be a tiny self-portrait of the painter at his easel. An image within an image, a man reflected in an object that almost seems not to be there. Four hundred years later, another pane of glass served as a barrier between Caravaggio and the world.

On Thursday, that deluge evoked by activists through photographs, slogans and spectacular stunts actually did arrive inside one of the world’s most important museums, albeit in a homeopathic dose. A striking coincidence, accompanying a less romantic lesson. The climate threat to cultural heritage is very real. A deluge can enter a museum, putting the artworks at risk and highlighting the fragility of buildings constructed in eras when weather events were of a different intensity. This time, a single display case was enough, but that does not mean the museum has been made safe. At Palazzo Pitti, meanwhile, water reached the floors of the Palatine Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art. In museums, conservation also involves maintenance, inspections, timely interventions and protocols. These are activities that don’t make for great photos; they don’t produce viral images and don’t feature on event posters. Yet it is also through these activities that a masterpiece endures over time. Somewhere, sooner or later, we have to start. Perhaps with a skylight.