The Sistine Chapel : the art, the history, and the restoration / text by Carlo Pietrangeli ... [et al.].
1st ed.
New York : Harmony Books, c1986.
271 p. : chiefly ill. (some col.) ; 33 cm.
"In 1980, a team of world-renowned art restorers and historians began the laborious twelve-year task of cleaning and restoring Michelangelo's famous frescoes on the ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel. Five hundred years of candle soot, incense smoke, dust, dirt, and even an eigh-teenth-century coat of animal-glue varnish had so dulled the frescoes that art scholars and critics classified Michelangelo as a somber painter, insensitive to color and only concerned with figurative drawing and sculpture. The amazing discoveries made during the first four-year phase of the restoration have completely revised our understanding of Michelangelo's art-not only reaffirming his status as one of the greatest artists in history, but exceeding all past judgments about his genius and skill. Four years of painstaking work have revealed the original splendor of the lunettes-fourteen semicircular frescoes that depict Christ's ancestors according to the gospel of St. Matthew and arch around the windows and above the restored portraits of the popes. The frescoes burst forth with radiant, almost iridescent pigments—vibrant reds, fiery oranges, sunny yellows, lime greens, deep purples, and vivid blues. For the first time we can appreciate the full force of Michelangelo's extraordinary use of color and light. The true majesty and brilliance unveiled by the restoration is presented in The Sistine Chapel with before-and-after photographs that examine in detail the fascinating, highly specialized process of what is considered the restoration of the century. In seven authoritative essays, The Sistine Chapel examines the many new discoveries made possible by the restoration. A look at Rome during the Renaissance by André Chastel places Michelangelo's images in the Sistine Chapel in historical context. John Shearman traces the history of the Sistine Chapel, focusing on its functional and ceremonial purposes and the roles of the papal rulers. John O'Malley helps us to understand the significance of the artist's work as an expression of Christian theology. Pierluigi de Vecchi recounts how The Last Judgment mural came to be painted some twenty years after the completion of the lunettes and ceiling. Armed with new evidence from the restoration, Michael Hirst sheds new light on the surviving fragments of Michelangelo's sketchbook from this period Fabrizio Mancinelli relates how the restoration has provided definitive answers to unsolved problems such as the type of scaffolding designed and used by Michclangelo. Remnants of the original scaffolding were uncovered during the restoration of the lunettes and were not only used as the foundation for the new scaffolding, but provide positive proof that Michelangelo did not paint the ceiling lying on his back but rather standing up. Gianluigi Colalucci describes in detail the hands-on methods used to clean the frescoes. The Sistine Chapel is a record of this enormous undertaking, truly a labor-of-love, whose profound impact on the history of art will be enjoyed and revered for many generations to come." -- book jacket
051756274X
9780517562741
Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564 Criticism and interpretation.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564.
Vatican Palace (Vatican City)
Palais du Vatican (Vatican)
Bible. Matthew Genealogy Illustrations.
Bible. Matthew.
Mural painting and decoration, Renaissance Conservation and restoration Vatican City.
Mural painting and decoration, Italian Conservation and restoration Vatican City.
Genealogy.
Mural painting and decoration, Italian Conservation and restoration.
Mural painting and decoration, Renaissance Conservation and restoration.
Vatican City.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Illustrated works.
Pietrangeli, Carlo.
Location: Library main 97602
Call No.: IDX; ID:86-B19336
Status: Available
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