10/27/2003: Dirty David's dirt marked

A find from Slithy Tove, nice one, from Reason Online. This is the right hand of Michangelo's David, and the colored lines and such on it are digital markings for how it will be cleaned. The link includes a very brief discussion of the controversy over whether it should ever be cleaned at all.

A bird in the hand and one in the bush?

So waitaminnit ... David is bare-ass nekked, and he's subtly flipping the bird as well ...

I wonder if any of the grime is corrosive at all. That would make a gentle conservator's cleaning a yes. The article mentions the cleaning of the Sistine Chapel- I'm in the camp that is glad to see the original coloring.

As for David. I love David. His big hands and gangly stance. He rocks.
Here Rockwell's boy scout cops the pose. I thought it was cool when I spotted it. I have this poster on my wall at home, it was my dad's. The scout stands guard next to my carbon monoxide detector.

Alright, I have to ask...where has that middle finger been?

I enjoyed your website, Ferkel.

Great picture, UT. Never realised how much detail there was in the hands. I guess if I'm going to see it, I'd better hurry. I don't expect him to be around long after giving Wolf the finger.

Damn. I'm a Rockwell fan, and I never noticed that, even though I've seen that picture a zillion times.

Good eye, Warch.

A close friend of mine is a conservator at the National Gallery of Victoria and recently finished work on the Tiepolo, a $200million painting.

Whether to clean, how to clean and people's perceptions of artworks before and after are highly controversial. Lifting centuries of icky stuff (technical definition there) can have a dramatic effect of a piece and with something like David you'd want to have leather skin and brass balls to face the barrage of criticism that will follow, no matter how good the clean.