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Davide500 Years Young

Michelangelo's David regains its magnificence
[Maddalena Delli]

On September 8th this year, it will be exactly 500 years since Michelangelo's David was inveiled to the world in Piazza Signoria. Between 30th July and 1st August, 1873 the David was moved for preservation purposes to a tribune specially designed by architect Emilio De Fabris in the Accademia di Belle Arti (Academy of Fine Arts) on via Ricasoli, and a copy was placed in front of Palazzo Vecchio where the original once stood (another copy, in bronze, stands at in the middle of Piazzale Michelangelo).
To mark the 500th birthday of Florence's best loved symbol, a number of public events is being scheduled for the late summer and fall. Meanwhile, Michelangelo's controversial masterpiece can be admired again in all its beauty after a nine-month-long cleaning process carried out by Cinzia Parnigoni, under the guidance of Franca Falletti (director of the Galleria dell'Accademia) and with the fundamental support of Cristina Acidini and Laura Speranza of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure. The actual cleaning was preceded by a complex programme of investigations which concluded that the best (that is, less invasive) method would be to apply distilled water to the marble surface by means of compresses of cellulose pulp and meerschaum placed on top of a sheet of rice paper. In particular in the area of the face, which was in an especially good state of preservation and where no significant presence of gypsum was detected, the extremely gentle cleaning was carried out solely with a swab of cotton wool soaked in distilled water. At other points, on the strength of the results of specific analyses, the cleaning was done by applying a compress made up solely of distilled water and rice paper.
The delicate work was performed between September 2003 and May 2004 before the eyes of the public, but since 24th May the David once again stands in splendid isolation in its Tribuna, without the scaffolding and equipment required for the complex cleaning process, which has managed to recover much of the harmony of the modelling of Michelangelo's masterpiece. Experts agree that the surface of the David now looks more regular and more balanced in its relations of light and shade. On the front part of the torso, along the right side and in many other zones where the level of degradation was less marked, the surface has regained the brilliance of the marble.
The primary aim of the intervention, however, is not aesthetic improvement, but rather conservation. Therefore, the most important result has been that of having brought the presence of gypsum on the surface back within limits that pose no threat to the future of the work, a result that has been attained through the application of extractive compresses of distilled water. Likewise, in order to guarantee the best possible conservation of the David in the years to come, it has been decided to follow up the operation of cleaning with a programme of monitoring and maintenance, worked out on the basis of all the new understanding of the work and its history that has been acquired.
In November, an exhibition will be open at the Accademia for which four great contemporary sculpturs - George Baselitz, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis and Robert Morris - have been asked to create a work that will pay tribute to the David by exploring the issue of crisis of form.




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http://www.davidrestoration.org