The decision to renovate the vaulting of the Sistine Chapel was undertaken in 1 980. Due to the increasing air pollution in Rome and the loosening of the wall plaster, there was fear that certain parts of Michelangelo's painting would be damaged. The preservation work was planned for 12 years and assigned to one conservator, head of the studio for the preservation of paintings in the Vatican Museum - Gianluigi Collaluci. The current preservation work is in fact the third undertaking in the chapel's history that aims at a thorough cleaning of the vaulting. It is also the first for over two centuries and was preceded by thorough laboratory studies of the frescoes. The results of these studies made it possible to work out the proper techniques and methods of preservation. Already at the moment of setting up the scaffolding underneath the vaulting, questions arose whether the painting work should be submitted to preservation measures, or whether these would cause irreversible changes. As subsequent scenes were uncovered by the conservators, the discussion became more heated. The author of the article gives many arguments of the opponents as well as supporters of the current preservation methods. A full evaluation of the effects of these undertakings will be possible only with their completion, when the entire vaulting can be viewed.
This paper aims to portray a remarkably diverse range of phenomena related to transformations in art: from the transformation of sculptor’s or painter’s matter into a work of art (on the example of works of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci), through the spiritual metamorphosis of the artist whilst creating a piece, up to reciprocal flow of inspirations, feelings, emotions, and consciousness or its absence on the creation of the artefact that shapes the spiritual xperiences of the audience. While engaging with art, those phenomena can also occur with respect to faith by means of an artistic expression of a purely religious character (e.g. Vatican’s monumental and magnificent architecture). “The aging” of a piece of art or restoration activities that block this aging are examples of changes of the matter owing to the technology that changes the perception of the work over time; while, art devoted to glorifying – and inducing – social evolutions and revolutions is in the service of propaganda and politics (e.g. works created in ancient Egypt, the Third Reich, North Korea, the USSR). Artistic visions often depend on the influences of psychoactive substances on the consciousness of the artist and his perception of reality which results in its completely different reception (Witkacy’s portraits). Is such artistic vision created under the influence of substances objective? Where (if at all) in the modern world can we trace boundaries between art and non-art? This text aims to address and answer these questions and doubts.
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