Tullio Lombardo
A Whole New Adam
Tullio Lombardo, a world renowned sculptor, was born in Venice in the mid-fifteenth century to a family of sculptors and architects. He created one of his most well-known works at the end of the fifteenth century, a life sized marble statue of Adam; the first human that God created. The statue was to become a monument guarding one side of the tomb of a high ranking official in Venice Italy. The statue has been moved to multiple cities, but it’s final resting place has been in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Carol Vogel reports that in 2002 the wooden pedestal holding up the statue broke, causing the marble statue to hit the ground and shatter into hundreds of pieces. The restoration of the statue lasted more than a decade and the artists restoring the statue faced many challenges. The challenges faced in restoring Tullio Lombardo’s Adam were: the sculpture had broken into many pieces, many of which could not be salvaged, the pieces were extremely fragile and could not be …show more content…
Many things can go wrong when a work of art is restored. Many materials used in the previous centuries are not made the same way today. This can make a restored piece of art look completely different than the original. Whoever is restoring the piece of art can also change the way the restored piece looks. According to Vogel, “There was the option, popular in the case of ancient sculptures, of leaving masterworks unrestored if they cracked with age, excavation, or accidents – a process conservators often call ‘the romance of the fragment’” (A1). Despite all that can go wrong when restoring a piece of art, the statue of Adam is now back on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where others can see the restored statue and decide for themselves whether the restoration was a success or a failure. Jack Soultanian concludes, “It’s always been a gem in the collection but now it’s presented according to its status” (qtd. in
Tullio Lombardo, a world renowned sculptor, was born in Venice in the mid-fifteenth century to a family of sculptors and architects. He created one of his most well-known works at the end of the fifteenth century, a life sized marble statue of Adam; the first human that God created. The statue was to become a monument guarding one side of the tomb of a high ranking official in Venice Italy. The statue has been moved to multiple cities, but it’s final resting place has been in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Carol Vogel reports that in 2002 the wooden pedestal holding up the statue broke, causing the marble statue to hit the ground and shatter into hundreds of pieces. The restoration of the statue lasted more than a decade and the artists restoring the statue faced many challenges. The challenges faced in restoring Tullio Lombardo’s Adam were: the sculpture had broken into many pieces, many of which could not be salvaged, the pieces were extremely fragile and could not be …show more content…
Many things can go wrong when a work of art is restored. Many materials used in the previous centuries are not made the same way today. This can make a restored piece of art look completely different than the original. Whoever is restoring the piece of art can also change the way the restored piece looks. According to Vogel, “There was the option, popular in the case of ancient sculptures, of leaving masterworks unrestored if they cracked with age, excavation, or accidents – a process conservators often call ‘the romance of the fragment’” (A1). Despite all that can go wrong when restoring a piece of art, the statue of Adam is now back on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where others can see the restored statue and decide for themselves whether the restoration was a success or a failure. Jack Soultanian concludes, “It’s always been a gem in the collection but now it’s presented according to its status” (qtd. in