August 2008 Archives

Pisa is about to acquire a new cultural attraction - a huge wall painting covering 500 square meters which will tell the story of the patron saint of Pisa, Saint Ranierus.
The artist is Luca Battini.

But the piece will have a modern day twist - locals from the town have been striking a pose in a public casting session with the hopes of being a life size figure in the new fresco.

Christian Fraser now reports from Pisa.
(see video and comments by the Fresco School on the following page)

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/215310.html

Art restorers in Pisa have found that a bacterium can do the job no chemical has managed to achieve: reveal part of a vast medieval fresco which was covered with a layer of glue during an unfortunate restoration attempt half a century ago.

Scientists from Milan University have shown that the bacterium Pseudomonas stutzeri, applied with water on cotton wool, can eat through 80% of the glue in about 10 hours.

Chunks of the 14th- and 15th-century series of frescoes at the Camposanto (cemetery) were removed for repair and restoration in the 1950s.

Part of the cemetery had been badly damaged by bombing during the second world war.

But as a result of the strappo technique, using canvas and organic glue to pull the frescoes from the wall intact, one of the paintings vanished under a layer of glue which could not be removed without damaging the surface.