The Restoration of the Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

In the 1980s and ’90s, the Sistine Chapel underwent a long and elaborate restoration scheme sponsored by a Japanese television corporation and carried out by top Italian and international experts. The cleaning removed centuries of grime, dust, and candle smoke from the frescoes and revealed unexpectedly brilliant colours that partially contradict the celebrated sculptural qualities of Michelangelo’s masterpiece. A fierce controversy—involving scores of restorers, art historians, and experts in related fields—surrounded the project from its very beginning. The debate centred on one major issue: had Michelangelo, in the manner of fresco painters of the day, modified his finished fresco with secco (dry) paint after the plaster had dried? (Fresco painters customarily did this as a means of correcting mistakes, refining their works, and applying pigments that could not tolerate contact with water.) And if so, had the restorers’ removal of every layer down to the frescoed plaster falsified the artist’s intentions? In this case, the shadowing, corrections, and glues removed by restorers appear to have been the result of previous restoration campaigns. While the Sistine Chapel restoration controversy is still sometimes discussed, art conservators no longer think it an issue.