One of the
priceless paintings produced by the famous Renaissance master Raphael, has
recently come under serious threat of total spoilage due to the fact that the
air-conditioning system in the gallery has become disused.
 |
| 'The Deposition' by Raphael |
The Borghese Gallery in
Rome houses so many important masterpieces and ‘The Deposition’ is one of them.
This particular painting by Raphael is also one of the worst hit by the adverse
effect of humidity which has seen the work warping, all owing to the fact that
the air-conditioning system in the room has started to malfunction, or is
completely broken down. It is surprising however to observers that the
authorities of the Borghese Gallery have not been able to fix the problematic
cooling system which is needed to preserve the works.
This particular
Raphael’s masterpiece – ‘The Deposition’, is a painting done by the artist in
1507; it portrays Jesus Christ being taken down from the cross, and it happens
to be one of the paintings that is worst affected by the weather condition in
the interior of the gallery. Experts also wonder at the fact that all of this
is happening in one of Italy’s most popular museums – the Borghese Gallery, in
Rome.
The case with this
particular Raphael painting which is also sometimes referred to as The Entombment, is that it is painted on
a wooden panel and not canvas, which is a more flexible medium or material for painting. The result of the high humidity upon the painting is that it has caused
the work to warp so much so that the inside of the wooden frame is beginning to
expose, and you can also see a bit of the wall behind from the front! And the
danger of this resulting into a permanent damage is beginning to loom.
 |
| The Borghese Gallery in Rome |
Sometime back however,
the curators of the museum have been crying out for the attention of the
Italian Cultural authorities concerning the broken down air-conditioning system
but all to no avail. This much was alluded to by Kristina Hermann Fiore, a
former director of the museum who raised the alarm explaining that the hot
weather of the spring season has so affected the paintings housed in the
enclosures of the breath-taking edifice which is the Borghese Gallery in Rome.
This definitely calls for urgent attention in order to forestall a major loss,
and preserve some very important world cultural and artistic heritage.
By Morgan Nwanguma
No comments:
Post a Comment