Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Netflix recently released its adaptation of The Sandman,
Speaker 1: so of course I watched that entire thing over the
Speaker 1: course of the weekends, and while doing that, I emailed
Speaker 1: myself to topics as possible Saturday classics. One was and
Speaker 1: Sephalitis Lethargica, which is a recurring plot element on the
Speaker 1: show and the comic that it's adapted from, but which
Speaker 1: has already had a turn as a Saturday classic. The
Speaker 1: other one was Georgio Vasari, who is mentioned in passing
Speaker 1: once on the show, and that one passing mentioned made
Speaker 1: me stop what I was doing and go, hey, didn't
Speaker 1: we do an episode on him? We did, so our
Speaker 1: episode on Georgiova Sarry came out on March. We hope
Speaker 1: you enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Holly from and I'm Tracy V. Wilson,
Speaker 1: and this is an art history episode that I have
Speaker 1: had on my list for a very very long time
Speaker 1: and then I kind of forgot about It never happens
Speaker 1: to me. Ever, I'm kidding, it happens to me all
Speaker 1: the time. The list is really long, and Tracy has
Speaker 1: referenced are like thousand item lists that we have before.
Speaker 1: But I also just have a separate list that I
Speaker 1: keep on my phone of things that come up, like
Speaker 1: when I'm going about my day in my life. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Even then I go back to that sometimes. Yeah. Even
Speaker 1: my my short list in quotes is like fifty things,
Speaker 1: which is all of my episodes for a year. Yeah. So, uh,
Speaker 1: Georgio Vasari was on that list for me for a
Speaker 1: long time. And then I kind of, you know, it
Speaker 1: just got sent to the side part of my brain
Speaker 1: that doesn't really actively think about things. And then I
Speaker 1: went to the really astonishingly beautiful Michelangelo exhibit that recently
Speaker 1: closed at the met and Vasari comes up in it.
Speaker 1: So it reminded me that we should talk about him,
Speaker 1: because Georgiova Sary is an interesting figure. He was an artist,
Speaker 1: an architect, and most famously a biographer. I feel like
Speaker 1: we should mention that this is definitely not an exhaustive
Speaker 1: biography of Assary that we're doing, in part because he
Speaker 1: worked on so many different things, and in part because
Speaker 1: a couple of his works really have some interesting modern
Speaker 1: day follow ups that really really intrigued me, and that
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about. So I want to include
Speaker 1: those for contexts when we start talking about the twenty
Speaker 1: and twenty one century developments around them. So to get
Speaker 1: into his basics. Georgie Oversari was born in the Tuscan
Speaker 1: provincial capital, Arezzo, Italy, on July eleven, and well known
Speaker 1: French stained glass artist Guillaume de Marciat. You'll sometimes see
Speaker 1: that in the Italian based biographies as Guiliemo de Marciat
Speaker 1: was one of Asari's teachers when the future artist and
Speaker 1: biographer was still quite young, and that arrangement for tutoring
Speaker 1: had been made by Vasari's grandfather's cousin in a lot
Speaker 1: of family connections, but basically a relative made this deal.
Speaker 1: That relative was Luca Seniorrelli, who was a painter, and
Speaker 1: that relative also taught Georgio as a young boy. At
Speaker 1: the urging and arrangement of his father, Vasari moved to
Speaker 1: Florence in the mid fifteen twenties. There he apprenticed under
Speaker 1: painters Andrea del Sarto and Baccio Bandinelli. He also studied
Speaker 1: alongside two members of the Medici family, Alessandro and Apolito.
Speaker 1: The Medici family which was covered in a series by
Speaker 1: previous hosts Sarah and Dablina became important to Vasari. Duke
Speaker 1: Cosimo first de Medici eventually became a long time patron.
Speaker 1: And it was also in Florence where Vasari discovered Michelangelo,
Speaker 1: and at one point he actually claimed that he studied
Speaker 1: with Michelangelo, but the veracity of that detail has been questioned.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk a little bit about when that
Speaker 1: came up and why it got a little bit of
Speaker 1: side i later in the podcast. But the two men
Speaker 1: were friends, and even of Michelangelo never formally taught the Sari,
Speaker 1: the famed artist strongly influenced his friends artistic efforts. Vasari
Speaker 1: painted in the Mannerist style, and that name comes not
Speaker 1: from a depiction of manners or primness. It comes from
Speaker 1: the Italian word maniera, and that translates into style or way,
Speaker 1: as in the manner in which something is done, so
Speaker 1: it's sometimes called the stylish or stylized style. Mannerism was
Speaker 1: initially an Italian style centered in Florence and Rome, running
Speaker 1: from roughly the fifteen twenties up until Baroque arts started
Speaker 1: to overtake it in the fifteen nineties. That did make
Speaker 1: its way into other parts of Europe, but its popularity
Speaker 1: was always mainly in Italy. Mannerism generally departs from realism
Speaker 1: with a sort of calculated artificiality limbs or next maybe
Speaker 1: elongated poses might be sort of odd with slightly stressed
Speaker 1: or overcomplicated postures, and color sometimes appear hyper saturated to
Speaker 1: the point that they no longer look real. So if
Speaker 1: you've ever looked at a painting that seems to be
Speaker 1: an almost realistic portrait from this period, particularly if it's
Speaker 1: Italian in origin, and thought this is pretty good, but
Speaker 1: something isn't just isn't quite right, you're probably actually looking
Speaker 1: at a piece by a mannerist, and that slight awfulness
Speaker 1: of the image is intentional. One of the saris most
Speaker 1: famous works is his Last Supper, which was commissioned in
Speaker 1: fifteen forty six. The nuns of the Florentine Murate Convent
Speaker 1: had commissioned the artist to paint this work, and because
Speaker 1: men were not allowed in the convent, he painted it
Speaker 1: on five panels that could be moved from his studio
Speaker 1: into the convent. And his painting is going to come
Speaker 1: up later on in the show. But Vasari's architecture has
Speaker 1: been even more celebrated than his painting. The Ufizi in Florence,
Speaker 1: Italy was started by Vasari in fifteen sixty for Cosimo,
Speaker 1: the first of the Medici family, the Grand Duke of Tuscany,
Speaker 1: that is the patron tracy mentioned earlier, and the structure
Speaker 1: was originally designed to be a government seat, but in
Speaker 1: fifteen seventy four the top floor of it was converted
Speaker 1: into a gallery by Cosimo's son, Francesco, the First. The
Speaker 1: Uffizi eventually became a public gallery, and today the museum
Speaker 1: is home to some of the most famous works of
Speaker 1: art in the world, including Bocelli's Birth of Venus and
Speaker 1: La prima Vera, Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch, and previous
Speaker 1: podcast subject Artemisia, Gentileski's Judith and Holofernes. In fifteen sixty two,
Speaker 1: thanks to the patronage of Cosimo, Vasari was able to
Speaker 1: found the Florentine Academy of Design. Everyone ended up connected
Speaker 1: to that thing. Basically every famous artist that came through
Speaker 1: Italy around this time was connected to the Florentine Academy
Speaker 1: of Design. Also for Duke Cosimo, the first Vasari remodeled
Speaker 1: the Palazzo Vecchio and updated its interiors with art. In
Speaker 1: fifteen sixty four. He also built what's known as the
Speaker 1: Vasari Corridor, and this is a passageway that goes through
Speaker 1: the center of the city and it enabled the medicis
Speaker 1: to move from the Palazzo Vecchio to the residences at
Speaker 1: Palazzo p d without having to mingle with the public.
Speaker 1: One of the pieces of art and the Palazzo Vecchio
Speaker 1: that was done by a Massari is a fresco. It's
Speaker 1: titled the Battle of Marciano. This fresco is in what's
Speaker 1: known as the Hall of five Hundred, which got its
Speaker 1: name from the five hundred members of the Grand Council
Speaker 1: of Florence. It is a massive, massive piece. It's also
Speaker 1: one of many pieces that Vasari, along with his team
Speaker 1: of assistants produced for the Palazzo Vecchio, but that particular
Speaker 1: painting is going to come up again later on in
Speaker 1: this show. And far more than his painting or his architecture,
Speaker 1: Vasari is known for his biographical writing. His book Lives
Speaker 1: of the most Eminent Painters, sculptors and Architects is a massive,
Speaker 1: multi volume effort. The considered the beginning of art history writing.
Speaker 1: The book, first published in fifteen fifty, covers a roughly
Speaker 1: three hundred years span from the thirteenth century of two
Speaker 1: Vasari's contemporaries in the fifteen hundreds, and in addition to biographies,
Speaker 1: the book contains additional essays about the progression of art
Speaker 1: through three periods of development. The Vasari identified those three
Speaker 1: periods where classical Antiquity, the Dark Ages, and the Renaissance.
Speaker 1: The first edition of this book was well received, but
Speaker 1: sorry was already well known in Florence, but his acclaim
Speaker 1: quickly grew as his writing started circulating. It was after
Speaker 1: its publication that his career as an artist and architect
Speaker 1: really picked up. When Michelangelo read his biography in the book,
Speaker 1: he was moved to write a poem for Versari, praising
Speaker 1: him for granting artists everlasting life through writing. That amuses
Speaker 1: me because a lot of folks think of art as
Speaker 1: giving everlasting life to the artist. Yeah uh yeah, they
Speaker 1: think of the art being the legacy. But this was
Speaker 1: again a completely new idea that someone would publish this,
Speaker 1: this biography of artists, completely broke all of the previous
Speaker 1: known conventions of biographies in terms of its subject matter. Uh.
Speaker 1: And the second edition of this book, which was released
Speaker 1: in fifteen sixty eight, expanded significantly, including biographies of Vasari
Speaker 1: himself and other artists that were still living during its writing.
Speaker 1: And this is the version that's been most commonly translated
Speaker 1: and became really famous worldwide. This is actually still in
Speaker 1: print today in some cases. One of the major changes
Speaker 1: in the second edition is the greater space that was
Speaker 1: devoted to Michelangelo, who died four years prior to this
Speaker 1: new edition of the book in fifteen sixty four. But
Speaker 1: sorry added information about the work Michelangelo created in the
Speaker 1: time between fifteen fifty and his death, and it described
Speaker 1: the lavish funeral arrangements that Vasari, along with members of
Speaker 1: the Florentine Academy of Design, had staged. Incidentally, Michelangelo is
Speaker 1: was not a fan of spectacle of that nature and
Speaker 1: probably would have been horrified by this regal memorial. It's
Speaker 1: also in this edition that Zary first claimed, at least
Speaker 1: in writing, to have studied under Michelangelo. Yeah, the fact
Speaker 1: that he didn't claim it until after Michelangelo had died
Speaker 1: made people kind of go, come on, really, and here
Speaker 1: is the problem with the Sary's biographical writing. He was
Speaker 1: not particularly obsessive about ensuring all of it was factual,
Speaker 1: and he was a little bit gossipy, and he prioritized
Speaker 1: making things exciting for the reader over telling the truth.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about how he handled some of the criticism
Speaker 1: of his work in just a moment, but first we
Speaker 1: will pause for a little sponsor break. In that second
Speaker 1: edition of the book that we were Friends. Before the break,
Speaker 1: the sorry actually makes a point to address some of
Speaker 1: the criticism of his work. In one section, he writes,
Speaker 1: in defense of his verbose pros quote, if it has
Speaker 1: seemed to some of you that on occasion I have
Speaker 1: been rather long winded and somewhat prolix in my writing,
Speaker 1: having desired as far as possible to be clear and
Speaker 1: to state matters for others, so that things which are
Speaker 1: not understood, or which I have not known how to
Speaker 1: say at first, would at any rate be obvious. And
Speaker 1: if something said in one place is sometimes repeated in another,
Speaker 1: there are two reasons for this. First because the material
Speaker 1: treated required it, and second because during the time I
Speaker 1: rewrote this work and had it reprinted, I was interrupted
Speaker 1: on more than one occasion, not simply for days, but
Speaker 1: for months in my writing, either by travel or by
Speaker 1: an excessive number of tasks, paintings, plans and building projects.
Speaker 1: And under such circumstances, it is, in my opinion, and
Speaker 1: I freely admitted, almost impossible to avoid errors. So he
Speaker 1: has defended his verbose prose by writing that which was
Speaker 1: all one sentence, uh yeah, verbose lee, and really boils
Speaker 1: down to I'm busy, y'all, though some of his stories
Speaker 1: are also very fanciful. In the Life of Giotto, he
Speaker 1: describes the artist drawing a perfect circle, and a sample
Speaker 1: of his work was requested, and the story claimed that
Speaker 1: a courtier visited Giotto to tell him that Pope Benedict
Speaker 1: the eleventh wish to commission a new painting for St. Peter's.
Speaker 1: He needed to see prospective artists work to make this decision,
Speaker 1: and the Sari wrote, Shatto, who was a man of
Speaker 1: courteous manners, immediately took a sheet of paper, and with
Speaker 1: a pen dipped in red, fixing his arm firmly against
Speaker 1: his side to make a compass of it, and with
Speaker 1: a turn of his hand, he made a circle so
Speaker 1: perfect that it was a marvel to see it. Having
Speaker 1: done it, he turned smiling to a courtier and said
Speaker 1: here is the drawing. But he, thinking he was being
Speaker 1: laughed at, asked, am I to have no other drawing
Speaker 1: than this? This is enough and too much, replied Shatto.
Speaker 1: Send it with the others and see if it will
Speaker 1: be understood. So at this point in the story, according
Speaker 1: to Vasari, the messenger thinks that he is being mocked,
Speaker 1: and he leaves, but he does include that circle image
Speaker 1: with other art that he submits to the Pope. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it described then to the Pope shadow seemingly effortless circle.
Speaker 1: And the Pope quote saw that Ghiado must surpass greatly
Speaker 1: all the other painters of his time. And Vasari continues,
Speaker 1: So the Pope made him come to Rome, and he
Speaker 1: painted for him in St. Peter's, and there never left
Speaker 1: his hands work better finished. Wherefore the Pope, esteeming himself
Speaker 1: well served, gave him six hundred tickets of gold, besides
Speaker 1: having shown him so many favors that it was spoken
Speaker 1: of through all Italy. The story has never and verified.
Speaker 1: It has been retold and used as an example of
Speaker 1: artistry ever since the sorry first wrote it down. This
Speaker 1: whole story of the perfect circle is also used for
Speaker 1: didactic purposes. To search the web, you will find lots
Speaker 1: of examples of writers using it to non artists that,
Speaker 1: whatever their skill set, it's better to show their abilities
Speaker 1: in simple direct ways, rather than feeling compelled to spend
Speaker 1: too much time convincing someone else of what they have
Speaker 1: to offer. I'm gonna say it reminds me of like
Speaker 1: the terrible job advice that you will find in job
Speaker 1: advice books, who were like, just show up at the
Speaker 1: company to try to get their attention instead of doing
Speaker 1: what they asked you to do and applying for the job.
Speaker 1: So uh, even though it's kind of questionable advice, but
Speaker 1: Sary's possibly made up stories do have legs. Yeah, his uh,
Speaker 1: I will say, his work is really entertaining and it
Speaker 1: does make you think, even if it's maybe uh, strictly
Speaker 1: from his mind and not from reality. The Saries Lives
Speaker 1: of Artists was also fairly biased towards Italian art as
Speaker 1: better than all others. Regarding the Renaissance, Vasari credited Chimabue
Speaker 1: and Giottou with its inception enlisted Michelangelo is the culmination
Speaker 1: of this rebirth period. It has also been called a
Speaker 1: work of pro medici propaganda for the rich and powerful
Speaker 1: family because it cast them and specifically Costum of the
Speaker 1: First who it's dedicated to, as benevolent philanthropists and leaves
Speaker 1: out any of the bad stuff about them. Vasari has
Speaker 1: been criticized for his almost fawning writing about the works
Speaker 1: of Michelangelo. Here's an excerpt of his writing about Michelangelo's
Speaker 1: famous sculpture David quote. When it was built up and
Speaker 1: all was finished, he uncovered it. And it cannot be
Speaker 1: denied that this work has carried off the palm from
Speaker 1: all other statues, modern or ancient, Greek or Latin. And
Speaker 1: it may be said that neither the Marforio in Rome,
Speaker 1: nor the Tiber and Nile of the Belvedere, nor the
Speaker 1: giants of my take Cavaio, or equal to it in
Speaker 1: any respect, with such proportion, beauty and excellence did Michelangelo
Speaker 1: finish it. For in it may be seen the most
Speaker 1: beautiful contours of legs, with attachments of limbs, and slender
Speaker 1: outlines of flanks that are divine. Nor has there ever
Speaker 1: been seen opposed so easy or any grace to equal
Speaker 1: that in his in this work, or feet, hands and
Speaker 1: heads so well in accord. One member with another in harmony, design,
Speaker 1: and excellence of artistry and of a truth. Whoever has
Speaker 1: seen this work need not trouble to see any other
Speaker 1: work executed in sculpture, either in our own or in
Speaker 1: other times, by no matter what craftsman. So yeah, basically
Speaker 1: that is it. If you can only see one statue
Speaker 1: in your life, see this one. Uh. To be fair,
Speaker 1: Michelangelo is amazing. I mean, I can understand why it
Speaker 1: would inspire that kind of writing. But despite these criticisms, V.
Speaker 1: Saris book continues to be recognized as a vitally important
Speaker 1: moment in art history. It is entertaining, It even comes
Speaker 1: off as a little flip at times, but it also
Speaker 1: set the tone of art history writing going forward, and
Speaker 1: it is still used as a primary source by scholars.
Speaker 1: Though it's problems are acknowledged. It's not like they set
Speaker 1: it out and say this is all correct. They're kind
Speaker 1: of like this, there's some problems with this text, but
Speaker 1: it is an important text. He is often called the
Speaker 1: first art historian, and he certainly did not invent the biography.
Speaker 1: There had been plenty of those written by the mid
Speaker 1: fifteen hundreds, but he was the first in Europe to
Speaker 1: write about the lives of artists six years after the
Speaker 1: second edition of his book was published, But Sorry died
Speaker 1: in Florence on June. He was sixty two. All Right,
Speaker 1: we are about to delve into some interesting modern happenings
Speaker 1: regarding two of us saris works. So to keep all
Speaker 1: of that together, we're going to go ahead and take
Speaker 1: our sponsor break a little bit early, and we'll do
Speaker 1: that now. Two important pieces of a Sorry history are
Speaker 1: actually fairly recent developments. The first is tied to that
Speaker 1: painting that we mentioned in the Hall of five hundred,
Speaker 1: the Battle of Marciano. It is possible that this painting
Speaker 1: is actually hiding a lost work of Leonardo da Vinci's,
Speaker 1: titled the Battle of Angiari. First, here's the story on
Speaker 1: Da Vinci's painting. In four Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned
Speaker 1: by a statesman named Piero Soderini to paint a battle
Speaker 1: from fourteen forty featuring an army from Milan being defeated
Speaker 1: by Italian forces in Tuscany. Leonardo da Vinci took the commission,
Speaker 1: but the painting, which was done using a new oil
Speaker 1: technique that he wanted to try, was not ever finished. Allegedly,
Speaker 1: the paint was just too thick and it started to
Speaker 1: slide and drip down the wall before it could dry.
Speaker 1: After a number of efforts were made to save the work,
Speaker 1: Da Vinci determined that it was a lost cause. Coincid Dunnally,
Speaker 1: another fresco on the opposite wall, started by Michelangelo also
Speaker 1: went unfinished. In the case of Michelangelo's project, he was
Speaker 1: called away to work on one of his most famous efforts,
Speaker 1: the Tomb of Pope Julius the Second. Both of these
Speaker 1: unfinished works remained in their abandoned state for decades. When
Speaker 1: Cosimo the First decided to renovate the Palazzo Vecchio, both
Speaker 1: pieces were believed to have been destroyed to make way
Speaker 1: for new art by Vasari and his team. Art historians
Speaker 1: have wandered for years about this lost eventie painting and
Speaker 1: whether it's still existed somewhere. In the nineteen seventies, one researcher,
Speaker 1: Marisio Serattini from the University of California, San Diego, thought
Speaker 1: he found a clue when he noticed a green banner
Speaker 1: in Vasari's painting with the words cherekatrova painted on it
Speaker 1: that meant seek and find. So this was perceived to
Speaker 1: be a clue left behind by Vasari, and a team
Speaker 1: eventually was granted permission to use I frequency radar to
Speaker 1: scan the room, and they found that there was a
Speaker 1: hollow space behind the Saris painting Battle of Marciano. The
Speaker 1: next step, and all of this was playing out very
Speaker 1: slowly over years and years, was to drill a series
Speaker 1: of tiny holes in the masary work, to send a
Speaker 1: camera into the wall and see if they could find
Speaker 1: evidence of this lost painting. And that is where things
Speaker 1: got really hairy. There was a very vocal resistance to
Speaker 1: the plan in the art history community. After all, it
Speaker 1: was going to be putting little holes in a known
Speaker 1: piece of historically significant art and the hopes of finding
Speaker 1: an even more significant piece underneath it maybe. And at
Speaker 1: some point in this back and forth, it was agreed
Speaker 1: in two eleven that the team could proceed with their
Speaker 1: plan to run a tiny camera through the front of
Speaker 1: Asari's painting, but they could only run it through existing
Speaker 1: cracks or drill into spaces that had only recently been restored,
Speaker 1: so that their plan was significantly change from the fourteen
Speaker 1: spots they had originally planned to drill and they only
Speaker 1: had one week that they were allowed to do this research.
Speaker 1: Video captured masonry work and possible brush strokes on a surface,
Speaker 1: and a sample of grit captured from the shallow void
Speaker 1: behind the Massari showed some evidence of black pigment when
Speaker 1: it was tested, which made it seem like the team
Speaker 1: was really onto something. But before you get really invested,
Speaker 1: that's sort of where the story ends. A hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty art historians from museums and galleries around the world
Speaker 1: put together a petition to stop this project. An investigation
Speaker 1: was opened by the Florence magistrates. The search for the painting,
Speaker 1: which was part of a project that National Geographic was
Speaker 1: filming for a show, was halted completely. In the fall
Speaker 1: of art scholars made the case that the money that
Speaker 1: was being put into this project would have been better
Speaker 1: spent on restoring the v Sari that they were trying
Speaker 1: to drill holes into, and that Saraceni's initial clue of
Speaker 1: the words and the Vasari painting really was not all
Speaker 1: that illuminating to begin with. They were kind of surprised
Speaker 1: that things had gone this far, just based on one
Speaker 1: kind of hunch that started thirty years prior. The second
Speaker 1: modern event around av Sary is a lot more satisfying,
Speaker 1: although it starts out pretty harrowing. Indeed it does uh.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty six, after days and days of rain,
Speaker 1: the Arno River overflowed its retaining walls and flooded Florence, Italy.
Speaker 1: This was a historic catastrophic event for the city. You
Speaker 1: will find articles about the Great Florence Flood, and a
Speaker 1: great deal of art was covered in muddy, oily water.
Speaker 1: The Saris, massive eight by twenty one ft that's two
Speaker 1: point four by six point four meter long painting of
Speaker 1: the Last Supper that we referenced earlier, was created in
Speaker 1: fifty six, was badly damaged. At the time of the flood.
Speaker 1: The painting was no longer at the convent where it
Speaker 1: had been first delivered. That convent had eventually closed, and
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty five the work was moved to the
Speaker 1: Castellani Chapel in the Basilica of Santa Croce. It was
Speaker 1: moved once again to the Museum of Opera Refectory in
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties. During the flood, the painting was completely
Speaker 1: submerged for more than twelve hours. The lower parts of
Speaker 1: the work were covered in this oily, dirty water for
Speaker 1: much longer, and initially, all that conservators could do was
Speaker 1: separate the five panels of the painting and try to
Speaker 1: get them dried as quickly but as carefully as possible,
Speaker 1: and then apply a paper treatment to each of the
Speaker 1: separated panels to prevent the paint from peeling away. The
Speaker 1: paper that was used was a Japanese wet strength mulberry paper,
Speaker 1: and after it was laid on top of the last supper,
Speaker 1: methacrylate resin was painted over it, but additional damage was
Speaker 1: still forthcoming. The separated panels were placed on different racks
Speaker 1: to dry, but the panels themselves shrank and cracked in
Speaker 1: the process. That base layer of jesso shifted around as well.
Speaker 1: Um that was how it was stored for almost fifty years. Yes,
Speaker 1: things shrank and that base layers started to shift. They
Speaker 1: basically were like, let's not touch this anymore. Let's set
Speaker 1: it aside and store it as safely as we can
Speaker 1: and see what sorts of preservation technologies developed that maybe
Speaker 1: will help us face it. Let's let's hope future people's
Speaker 1: can fix this. Yes, in short, stop touching it. In
Speaker 1: two thousand four, the painting was moved still in pieces
Speaker 1: to the Opa Fico de la Pietre Dure in Florence,
Speaker 1: and the o p D, as it is known, is
Speaker 1: the first modern lab focused on art restoration in Italy.
Speaker 1: As technology did develop that would enable conservators to restore
Speaker 1: the painting, Getty Foundation funded the o p D with
Speaker 1: a grant to train their staff to treat the damaged artwork.
Speaker 1: The thousand dollar grant was made with a long term
Speaker 1: goal that and enabled the op D to employ experts
Speaker 1: to train conservators for two generations to stabilize and restore
Speaker 1: damaged works of art. Yes, so it wasn't just this
Speaker 1: last Supper that they wanted to be able to save.
Speaker 1: They wanted to really create a legacy uh and a
Speaker 1: groundwork of knowledge for the op D so that they
Speaker 1: would be able to save more art going forward. And
Speaker 1: that resin and paper that kept the paint intact also
Speaker 1: cause some challenges to restoration efforts. The acrylic resin turned
Speaker 1: out to be difficult to remove without further damaging the painting,
Speaker 1: but after several years at the o p D, a
Speaker 1: system was developed to remove the paper sheets while maintaining
Speaker 1: the integrity of the paint. And this offered the first
Speaker 1: real hope that the painting would be restored. The Getty
Speaker 1: Foundation described the work on the Last Supper this way quote. Together,
Speaker 1: the team developed a conservation solution based on a support
Speaker 1: system originally devised by Vasari himself, which has stabilized the
Speaker 1: painting while also allowing the woden panels to move naturally
Speaker 1: with standard temperature and humidity fluctuations. The team was also
Speaker 1: able to recover an unanticipated amount of the original painted surface,
Speaker 1: revealing the artist's hand and surprising detail that shrinkage that
Speaker 1: had taken place after the floodwater dried out was slowly
Speaker 1: reversed by expanding the panels with these tiny poplar wood
Speaker 1: pieces that would be inserted into slits in the backside
Speaker 1: of the panels. Another grant provided by Prada paid for
Speaker 1: the cost of very meticulously smoothing out and restoring the
Speaker 1: paint on the face of the painting. On the fifty
Speaker 1: At the anniversary of the flood November fourteen, Vasari's Last
Speaker 1: Supper was once again viewable to the public for the
Speaker 1: very first time. Yeah, so that is a nice way
Speaker 1: I think to end it with a piece of art
Speaker 1: being saved. So that we can all appreciate Vasari's work
Speaker 1: uh forever hopefully. It's interesting that painting was what he
Speaker 1: was maybe least lauded for, but we uh we have
Speaker 1: painting as well as his architecture still stands certainly, and
Speaker 1: his book has been published and published over and over,
Speaker 1: so we have a lot of of the sorry circulating
Speaker 1: still in the modern culture, which I love. Fay so
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