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The turning point in the art world was probably the restoration of the Sistine Chapel, which for most of the twentieth century was believed to be sort of dark a
by Eric_WVGG 8y ago
The turning point in the art world was probably the restoration of the Sistine Chapel, which for most of the twentieth century was believed to be sort of dark and sinister, until a restorer finally pointed out that this was just the accumulation of centuries worth of candle smoke. The resultant restoration was controversial but certainly the right decision. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_of_the_Sistine_Chapel_frescoes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_of_the_Sistine_Cha...
- crdb 8y agoCount me amongst those who prized the patina. A significant number of people in the arts world decried the cleaning - some even petitioning the Pope to halt it. Whilst skillful, part of the appeal was the passage of the centuries, like shoes or furniture acquiring a deep marbled appearance after decades of cleaning and waxing, or the statue on the Charles Bridge given a unique luster, like a spotlight on a few scenes, by millions of hands over the years. It would be almost criminal to either darken the spots or frequently clean the rest of the statue to the same brassy finish.
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- abritinthebay 8y agoHaving been their recently: god no. With the patina it would have been an unimpressive dark box. It’s not a very impressive space without the paintings so having them obscured by centuries of gunk is just silly.
- erikpukinskis 8y agoThere are definitely some frames of that restoration that look like removal of shading to me.
- dpkonofa 8y agoYeah...they did goof a little on that. The examples where the eyes of the people depicted have been completely removed should make it obvious that there was some painting that was done after the plaster. It's a shame.
- erikpukinskis 8y ago"some painting was done" That's like saying Stanley Kubrick did "some" work on his film prints after exposing them.