Vatican Report. John Thavis: In some ways Vatican City is like a giant museum. Now imagine being responsible for the cleaning and restoration of the tens of thousands of art and architectural works …More
Vatican Report.
John Thavis: In some ways Vatican City is like a giant museum. Now imagine being responsible for the cleaning and restoration of the tens of thousands of art and architectural works that are collected here. We’ll look at this hidden aspect of Vatican life today on the Vatican Report. I’m John Thavis, Catholic News Service, Rome bureau chief.
CG: And I’m Carol Glatz, CNS Rome correspondent. Behind us in St. Peter’s Square, visitors in recent months have noticed scaffolding along Bernini’s colonnade. The Vatican is restoring its saints -- the 140 larger than life figures who look down on the square, and who are exposed to smog and acid rain. This cleaning is being sponsored by a number of Italian companies, and the cost of the three and a half-year project has been estimated at more than 25 million dollars. That’s something the Vatican could probably never afford on its own.
JT: The Vatican discovered sponsors more than 30 years ago, when the Japanese Nippon Television Network put up the money for the cleaning of Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine chapel. In exchange, the Japanese company received reproduction rights of the images. But often the only return is the chance to place a company logo on Vatican scaffolding.
CG: The Vatican Museums have a number of restoration laboratories that work on mosaics, tapestries, ceramics and frescoes. Raphael’s famous frescoes in what used to be a papal apartment have just received a thorough cleaning. Earlier this year, the Museums completed a painstaking restoration of a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy. The delicate work led to additional discoveries, and the restoration is now part of the permanent exhibit.
JT: Last year, some of Michelangelo's lesser-known frescoes were cleaned as part of a $4.6 million restoration of the Pauline Chapel. Now this project was paid for by an organization of patrons in the United States, England and Ireland. Few people ever see that chapel, which is inside the papal palace. In St. Peter’s Basilica, on the other hand, restoration work is a never-ending job. It takes a full year just to dust the inside of the basilica, and visitors sometimes see specialized workers, known as sanpietrini, on the roof of St. Peter’s, cleaning, mending and preventing leaks.
CG: Sometimes whole buildings need urgent intervention. That’s what happened to the Vatican Library, where three years ago officials noticed the floor sagging under the weight of more than a million books. It took three years to reinforce the ancient building and remodel the facilities, which are now state-of-the-art. Inside the library, specialists work constantly behind the scenes to preserve and repair manuscripts that are hundreds of years old.
JT: Vatican City is packed with buildings, so there’s not much new being built here. That’s why almost all of the construction is renovation work, from its 20-foot thick walls to the bronze ball on top of St. Peter’s dome. It’s a form of urban renewal that’s already been going on for centuries. I’m John Thavis.
CG: And I’m Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service.
John Thavis: In some ways Vatican City is like a giant museum. Now imagine being responsible for the cleaning and restoration of the tens of thousands of art and architectural works that are collected here. We’ll look at this hidden aspect of Vatican life today on the Vatican Report. I’m John Thavis, Catholic News Service, Rome bureau chief.
CG: And I’m Carol Glatz, CNS Rome correspondent. Behind us in St. Peter’s Square, visitors in recent months have noticed scaffolding along Bernini’s colonnade. The Vatican is restoring its saints -- the 140 larger than life figures who look down on the square, and who are exposed to smog and acid rain. This cleaning is being sponsored by a number of Italian companies, and the cost of the three and a half-year project has been estimated at more than 25 million dollars. That’s something the Vatican could probably never afford on its own.
JT: The Vatican discovered sponsors more than 30 years ago, when the Japanese Nippon Television Network put up the money for the cleaning of Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine chapel. In exchange, the Japanese company received reproduction rights of the images. But often the only return is the chance to place a company logo on Vatican scaffolding.
CG: The Vatican Museums have a number of restoration laboratories that work on mosaics, tapestries, ceramics and frescoes. Raphael’s famous frescoes in what used to be a papal apartment have just received a thorough cleaning. Earlier this year, the Museums completed a painstaking restoration of a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy. The delicate work led to additional discoveries, and the restoration is now part of the permanent exhibit.
JT: Last year, some of Michelangelo's lesser-known frescoes were cleaned as part of a $4.6 million restoration of the Pauline Chapel. Now this project was paid for by an organization of patrons in the United States, England and Ireland. Few people ever see that chapel, which is inside the papal palace. In St. Peter’s Basilica, on the other hand, restoration work is a never-ending job. It takes a full year just to dust the inside of the basilica, and visitors sometimes see specialized workers, known as sanpietrini, on the roof of St. Peter’s, cleaning, mending and preventing leaks.
CG: Sometimes whole buildings need urgent intervention. That’s what happened to the Vatican Library, where three years ago officials noticed the floor sagging under the weight of more than a million books. It took three years to reinforce the ancient building and remodel the facilities, which are now state-of-the-art. Inside the library, specialists work constantly behind the scenes to preserve and repair manuscripts that are hundreds of years old.
JT: Vatican City is packed with buildings, so there’s not much new being built here. That’s why almost all of the construction is renovation work, from its 20-foot thick walls to the bronze ball on top of St. Peter’s dome. It’s a form of urban renewal that’s already been going on for centuries. I’m John Thavis.
CG: And I’m Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service.