| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wet or dry clean for dirty David?
FLORENCE, Italy -- A row over how to clean years of dirt off Michelangelo's David is causing a stir in the international art world. What is probably the most famous statue in the world is due to have a six month-long wash ahead of its 500th birthday next year. That is if experts can end the dispute over how the statue should be cleaned. With sophisticated cleaning methods to hand and after 11 years of preparation, experts cannot agree whether to wash or dry clean the statue. Franca Falletti, director of the Galleria dell'Accademia, where David is housed, believes that a wet cleaning formula is needed to remove the dirt. But restorer, Agnese Parronchi, originally hired for the job, resigned in April, is convinced that a dry brushing method should be used. Ms Parronchi told Britain's Independent newspaper her preferred "dry" cleaning method, using chamois cloth, soft brushes and cotton swabs -- a method already proved on other Michelangelo statues -- was the only safe one. Instead, the gallery had ordered her to apply poultices of distilled water and chemical solvents to remove the dirt and salt. "I believe that the salt that has formed over the years at the interior of the statue is part of the masterpiece itself," she told the Independent. "The statue is just like a human being, when we have a dirty face we are no doubt less attractive. What we rush and do is simply brush the dirt away so we are beautiful again. Dirt is never uniform, so intervening in a uniform way doesn't make sense. You risk ruining the balance." Falletti said the brushing method would only remove dust, without lifting other deposits, and a wet clean would make David appear closer to the icon of eternal youth that Michelangelo intended. According to the British newspaper The Guardian, about 39 international art experts support a petition against any cleaning of the statue while an independent commission decides which method is best. Antonio Paolucci, superintendent for arts in Florence, told the Guardian: "We are the best, on an international level in the field of restoration. There is no need to dramatize what's just a light dusting, under supervision." Once the dispute is resolved, restorers at Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia, where David is housed, will begin wiping away years of grime from the Renaissance marble statue. It will be the first time the statue has been cleaned since 1843, when a restorer applied hydrochloric acid to David's pores. Standing at 14ft on its pedestal, it originally stood in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio, but was moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia in 1873. Since then, an average of 1.2 million people visit the statue each year. The statue, which was carved from a single block of marble from 1501 to 1504 and depicts the biblical hero who killed Goliath, established Michelangelo as the foremost sculptor of his time. Michelangelo portrayed David partly as the ideal man, partly as an adolescent youth.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
