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Sicilian Culture: News & Views

Giotto's Restored Frescoes Unveiled
By Frances D'Emilio, The Associated Press

March 18, 2002 - - PADUA, Italy (AP) - From the stubble on a donkey's chin to tears staining a mother's face, a just-completed cleaning has revealed telling new details in the frescoes of Italian artist Giotto.

The official unveiling Monday of Giotto's restored frescoes in Padua's Scrovegni Chapel, commissioned 700 years ago for a banker's private place of worship, included VIP guests, fanfare and entertainment.

It also revived criticism that restorations - especially those that aren't crucial - can harm the original art.

"Who cares that they found tears,'' said Ornella Livigni, a restorer who belongs to ArtWatch International, a group that has criticized many restorations in Italy, ranging from the ambitious facelift of Michelangelo's frescoed ceiling in the Sistine Chapel to that of Leonardo Da Vinci's ``Last Supper.''

ArtWatch advocate James Beck, a Columbia University art historian, in a telephone interview from New York, called the eight-month restoration ``a triumph for public relations for local and national politicians, and a sad day for art.''

One of the chief restorers, Francesca Capanna, said an accumulation of salts under and on top of the frescoes had been threatening to damage the artwork.

The frescoes depict the life of Christ, the Virgin Mary and the Last Judgment, and were finished in 1305. They are widely considered Giotto's highest achievement.

Despite the disputes, the restorers were plainly delighted by what had emerged from under the dirt and salt.

In one of Biblical scenes on the chapel's walls, a tear's path is traced down the cheeks of three mothers mourning their infants massacred on orders of Herod, the Judean king. Tiny hairs stud the face of a donkey in another Biblical scene.

Restorers stressed that where color had disappeared, such as in much of the lapis lazuli pigments favored by Giotto, no attempt was made to replace the hue.

The restoration adds to Giotto's reputation as an artist who foretold the greatness of the Italian Renaissance, restorers said.

"That Giotto is a genius didn't come out of these discoveries,'' said Capanna. ``What this restoration did was confirm his genius in a big way."

Starting March 26, the public will be allowed to marvel at Giotto's scenes for 15 minutes in small groups. But at $10, the admission is pricey - it's higher than the cost of a ticket to see the Sistine Chapel and the rest of the Vatican Museums, where tourists can wander for hours.

Italy has relied heavily on corporate sponsors to pick up the tab of caring for its most famous art works. However, the $1.7 million for the Giotto restoration came from the country's popular weekly lottery.

Restoration project www.icr.arti.beniculturali.it
ArtWatch www.ArtWatchInternational.org

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