The present work aims to define the type and extent of deterioration in the funerary
monument to Giovanni Calfurnio (1443-1503), a valuable Renaissance artwork of
Antonio Minello. The monument is made of Nanto stone, a soft yellow-brown stone,
often used locally for its aesthetic qualities and easy working. In order to plan
urgent restoration work, characterisation of the stone and decay products, by
means of classic mineralogic-petrographic and chemical methods was carried
out. Since its realization until 1871 it stayed inside a church, and successively
it was moved to the Novitiates. Cloister of St. Anthony`s Basilica in Padova where,
according to detailed photographic documentation, collected since 1900 up to
today, stone decaywas considerably increased over the past fewdecades. Physical
parameters such as relative humidity, temperature, wind as well as sulphur dioxide
pollution are mainly responsible of the rapid decay observed in the last four
decades of the last century.