After a period of plant system upgrades, restoration, and reinstallation, the Duke’s Apartment on the main floor of the Ducal Palace in Urbino is reopening. This includes the Studiolo, which becomes accessible again following a delicate and demanding operation aimed at restoring the original uniform appearance of the work. The project reestablished the connection between the portraits of famous men—always a defining feature of the space—and the wooden paneling, removing 19th-century additions and bringing back, as much as possible, the original colors of the room. The Studiolo now presents itself in a new form: alongside the 14 original portraits of famous men, it now also hosts high-tech reproductions of the other 14 portraits currently housed at the Louvre Museum.
Thanks to a partnership with the Parisian museum, which provided high-resolution photographs of the missing artworks, it was possible to reconstruct the Studiolo’s original appearance as conceived by Federico da Montefeltro—before the Barberini family’s interventions, which removed some elements and forever altered its 15th-century unity.
The restoration has also led to two further significant discoveries, allowing the reintroduction into the Duke’s Apartment of what were considered major comforts of the time: the Duke’s latrine (a space for bodily needs, now fully interpreted), located in the small room adjacent to the Studiolo, and the lavish washbasin, which had been removed in the 19th century when the palace became the Prefecture’s headquarters. In the 20th century, it had been reassembled incorrectly. Even Pasquale Rotondi did not recognize that certain scattered stone elements were in fact part of a single large structure, now identified through archival documents and, in particular, thanks to the detailed views by Romolo Liverani. It was thus possible to reassemble this luxurious furnishing piece in its original position in the Duke’s bedroom, contributing—alongside the Studiolo—to restoring the original character of this essential part of the Ducal Palace apartment.
Several iconic works from the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche will return to their place in the rooms of the apartment, including the renowned Ideal City, the Double Portrait of Federico and Guidobaldo by Pedro Berruguete, the predella Miracle of the Sacred Host by Paolo Uccello, and the Communion of the Apostles by Justus of Ghent.
