The Volto Santo of Lucca, the 9th century crucifix that is one of the oldest known surviving wooden sculptures in Europe, has been restored to its original polychromy. Overpainted in the 17th century with a black on the robes and brown on the flesh tones then coated with a pigmented wax layer, the figure of Christ and the circular nimbus behind him were dull and dark, obscuring pigments of the highest quality like lapis lazuli blue and gold.The crucifix in the Cathedral of Saint Martin in Lucca was radiocarbon dated for the first time in 2020, thanks to modern technology that made it possible for the samples to be so tiny that taking them was not considered a sacrilege to a holy relic. Scholars had long believed that despite its origin story of having been brought to Lucca after a miraculous boat trip from the Holy Land in 782, in fact it was a 12th century copy of the one that had been installed in the cathedral at its consecration in 1070. The radiocarbon results proved the legend was closer to fact than the scholarship.In 2022, experts from the Polychrome Wooden Sculpture Restoration Sector of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure began a complex restoration process. It began with a year of diagnostic analysis, followed by the careful removal of Christ from the cross. This was accomplished without damaging either part, and exposed for the first time the six oak and cedar wood pins used anchor the statue to the cross. The Holy Face-including the head and legs-is carved from a single log of walnut wood. The head, much protruding from the body, is carved from the part of the trunk toward the root of the tree; the legs correspond to the part facing the foliage. The Christ is hollowed out at the back along its entire length, as was the norm for wooden sculptures by reducing its thickness and thus mitigating the damaging expansion of the wood, and the nape of the neck is closed by a wooden lid, formerly covered with red fabric, where relics were probably placed. The cross was made using two different wood species: the vertical arm is made of chestnut wood, while the horizontal arm is made of white spruce.Once all parts of the figure, cross and nimbus were fully accessible, restorers began to remove the wax and paint. The flesh tones of Christs face and hands emerged under the brown, and the incredibly refined gold painted decorations around the bottom of the sleeves. His hair and beard from nearly black to light brown, and his robe was the rich blue of lapis lazuli paint. There was lapis lazuli blue on the cross too, and a red border. Another surprise uncovered on the cross was a gold leaf alpha and omega in Greek.The most unique elements of the statue recovered by the restorers hands are the glass paste eyes. The large, sad, bulging eyes of Christ were made by remelting Roman glass. This is the only wooden sculpture known from the period to have its original glass eyes.While the deep blue pupils were already visible, the white sclera was covered by a nineteenth-century zinc white paint, which has been removed. On the left eye, the sclera had a gap, which was intervened on with a resin integration. The intervention made it possible to restore to the gaze of the Holy Face its profound expressiveness.The large nimbus (the dating of which is still being studied) surrounding the Holy Face (about 240 centimeters in diameter) in the shape of a semicircle was also covered with a thick layer of dark color, identified as an altered vegetable gum. It can now be admired: on a wooden support are 14 embossed and chiseled silver plates with cherubs, within golden relief ribs, set with 384 very intense emerald green and ruby red glass paste gems, at the center of which is a four-petaled silver flower. Attached to the lower ends are two gilded copper foil lilies.The restored Holy Face was returned to public display in the Cathedral on September 13th. It will remain in this location until next summer, after which it will be permanently relocated to the tempietto (little temple), the octagonal chapel designed by Matteo Civitali in 1484 to display the Holy Face, which is currently undergoing a restoration of its own after the discovery of