The course will prepare students to deal with mosaic restoration including the ability to diagnose conservation problems and to choose among possible technical solutions from both a conservation and an aesthetic point of view. It will also improve familiarity with documentation techniques and the aptitude to deepen the themes proposed by the intervention.
In order to achieve this objective, lessons will be held for the general knowledge of the mosaic sector both from the historical-artistic point of view and from the technical point of view of the execution of this type of artifacts. The different techniques of intervention will be first explained in the classroom, in order to introduce the specific methods and the theoretical motivations that support the different phases of restoration, and to prepare the student to the complexity of the intervention. The frontal lessons will be supported by images and summary diagrams organized in Power Point projections, while verifying the degree of understanding of each student through exchanges of questions and answers from both sides and deepening the various topics with classroom discussion.
The practical exercise, core activity of the course, will be organized so as to address the various issues of restoration, such as cleaning, consolidation, reintegration and aesthetic presentation, especially on mosaics still preserved in situ in archaeological sites. The knowledge of the execution technique will also be deepened through the individual creation, ex novo, of a small mosaic with the traditional ancient technique. Practicing in the different intervention operations will also be aimed at improving the student's manual dexterity, from which we expect, at the end of the course, a conscious, precise and neat manual work, of a high quality level.
The theoretical knowledge acquired during lessons, and the experience gained through practice, should lead students to be capable of making methodological and technical choices independently.
The purpose of the exercise will also be to cultivate students' planning and organizational skills as they will be experiencing the management of the worksite in its different aspects.
Their ability to learn and process the acquired notions, as well as their self-confidence and language skills, will be tested during the different modules when the student will be asked to explain and motivate the work. Their preparation will also be assessed in the end-of-course exam, which will include the presentation of the work carried out during the third module's worksite and an oral test that will focus on an in-depth study that the student will have chosen and elaborated autonomously in written form.