UV rays bring ‘secret’ Giotto to light

A restorer uses an ultra-violet light to expose greater details on a Giotto painting in the Peruzzi Chapel at the Santa Croce Church in Florence February 26, 2010.
Credit: REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Restorers using ultra-violet rays have rediscovered rich original details of Giotto’s paintings in the Peruzzi Chapel in Florence’s Santa Croce church that have been hidden for centuries.

“We have uncovered a secret Giotto,” said Isabella Lapi Ballerini, head of Opificio delle Pietre Dure, world’s most prestigious art restoration laboratories.

Last year, more than a dozen restorers and researchers began an ambitious project of “non-invasive diagnostics” to ascertain the condition of the 12-metre-high chapel, which Giotto painted in about 1320.

The aim of the study was to gather information on the 1,830 square feet chapel to use as a road map and “hospital chart” for a future restoration.

During the project, which lasted four months, restorers working on three stories of steel scaffolding noted that while viewing the paintings under ultra-violet light, they were able to see amazing details not visible to the naked eye.

“It was something really astonishing,” said Cecilia Frosinini, co-ordinator of the project that studied the scenes in the lives of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist.

“We knew we could get some very interesting results from our scientific diagnostics but when we looked under ultra-violet light, all of a sudden all these very faint paintings that were ruined by old restorations took on a new life,” she said, pointing to one scene while donning protective eye wear.

Unfortunately, the details will remain fleeting forever. The lush details are only visible when they are bathed in ultra-violet light and subjecting them to such constant bombardment would be not only impractical but harmful. The only way to share the discovery with the general public would be with a massive — and expensive — project to allow visitors to enjoy a virtual chapel on computer screens.

Reuters