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National Geographic : 1989 Dec
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Cleaning sequence by chief restorerGianluigi Colalucci shows a typical procedure. Firsta solvent called AB 57, made of bicarbonates of sodium and ammonium with a fungicide and antibacterial agent in a gel, is applied by brush (top). The head represents an ancestor of Christ from one of the lunettes, or half-moon upper wall sections. After three minutes solvent and residues of dirt and old varnish are wiped away (middle) with a sponge soaked in distilled, deionized water. The procedure is repeated 24 hours later to complete the cleaning (bottom). The process is documented in great detail by Nippon Television Network Corporation (right),which is funding the restoration in return for temporary reproduction rights and to help protect a world treasure. Jeremiah's image was already damaged before Michelangelo's death in 1564. The Sistine Chapel, built in the 1470s by Pope Sixtus IV, racked slowly out of plumb as the massive structure settled unevenly into the soil beneath. Some of the ceiling's fresco, including part of Jeremiah, was sloughed onto the floor below. Artist Domenico Carnevali's mid-16th century restoration was the first of several in just a small region near Jeremiah's head. Rossi points to a detail where gray overpainting from the 19th century covers a layer of glue varnish that, in turn, had been applied atop an earlier repair. Sorting through the complexity at Jere miah amounts to micro-archaeology; all the layers and details are analyzed and recorded long before any cleaning begins. to 37 years old during his Sistine ordeal but aged much more. Even his images of God seem to reflect the terrible weight. Painted first, the creator of Eve looks fairer and younger than the creator of sun and moon. Gianluigi Colalucci feels that in a sense Michelangelo salvaged the design of the tomb he had wanted to build by turning it inside out, adapting the architectural and sculptural elements to the painting. He believes too that the artist underwent a personal transformation during the work. "He is given a job he doesn't want, but at a certain point he starts to enjoy what NationalGeographic, December1989 700
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