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Inglorious restorations:

Destroying old masterpieces in order to save them

By Eric Scigliano

In March of 2004 scores of reporters, photographers, and hangers-on packed a long hall lined with unfinished sculptures in Florence’s Galleria dell’Accademia di Belle Arti for an unusual press conference. The occasion was a midterm report on the restoration of the world’s most famous statue, a seventeen-foot-tall abused adolescent named David. Michelangelo’s monument to civic courage and male beauty was adorned with a crown of golden flowers for the occasion; it was supposed to evoke the gilt garland he wore when first erected 500 years ago but looked more like cheap plastic. Florence’s museum bosses had all the trimmings ready: a CD and a video on the restoration and a lavishly illustrated 239-page volume—in English, not Italian—detailing the scientific researches undertaken and the discoveries made along the way.

The real payoff, however, was the chance to get a restorer’s-eye view, up close and top to bottom, of what journalists like to call “the most beautiful man in the world.” After the obligatory speeches and video show, photographers were allowed, three at a time, to ascend the elaborate scaffolding wrapped like armor halfway around the David. Inevitably, everyone wanted a peek. The press scrum rushed the gate and a threesome clambered up the ladder, while another was still on top. As the caretakers pleaded with them to come down, the whole contraption shivered and shimmied, a few inches from the Most Beautiful Man’s shoulders and buttocks. I could not help thinking how awful, but how very apt, it would be if the sheer weight of media attention demolished this most mediagenic of masterpieces on its big media day.

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SEE ALSO: Conservation and restoration; Bellini, Giovanni; Michelangelo Buonarroti; Uccello, Paolo; The annunciation (Painting); The battle of San Romano (Painting)

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