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Art washes away from the soul, the dust of everyday life.
- Henri Matisse
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Sculpture group Shoal Fly By (2003) by Bellemo & Cat at Docklands, Melbourne's precinct centre.
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NO GIFS AND ANIMATED ICONS, PLEASE!
The twin towers of a 215-foot-tall structural test stand for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), the world's most powerful rocket for human space exploration, take shape at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in a photo from April 2016. After construction is completed, hydraulic cylinders at Test Stand 4693 will push and pull the liquid hydrogen tank of the SLS’s massive core stage to subject the tank and hardware to the same loads and stresses they will endure during launch. Test Stand 4693 is being built in Marshall's West Test Area on the foundation of the stand where the Apollo Saturn V F-1 engine was tested during the 1960s. (Photo courtesy Brasfield & Gorrie)
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A redundant Victorian church converted to new commercial use, and happily preserved structurally intact.
This was taken at Liberty Village, King West area. I see it all the time since I live in the area; but this time, it somehow looked different (better) so I had to capture it.
This photo has been featured in Torontoist Weekly Photo Roundup, Issue #82.
This is my take on the PacWest Center (also known as the Icecube Building). It’s a great comp for black and white processing because it’s already black & white (Okay, it’s black & silver). While the lone tree growing out the side intrigues me I have to admit I like my contact William Walsh’s version a lot better: www.flickr.com/photos/54241790@N03/6943024393
Belém Cultural Centre, Lisbon Portugal
The Cultural Centre of Belém (CCB) is located in Santa Maria de Belém, near the riverfront west of Lisbon. It is the largest building with cultural facilities in Portugal. The CCB has 140,000 m² of construction area and was prepared in a very short period (1989–1992). The client of the project was the Portuguese State. Completed in 1992, it is the work of architects Vittorio Gregotti and Manuel Salgado; the interior was planned by Daciano Costa. The CCB was initially built to accommodate the European Presidency, but adapted to provide spaces for conferences, exhibitions and artistic venues, such as opera, ballet and symphony concerts, in addition to political and research congresses, high security meeting halls, and a 7,000 m² exhibition area. It has already hosted important events like the summit meeting of the Heads of State of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
The decision to construct the CCB occurred in January 1988, as part of the Portuguese government's need to accommodate Portugal's European Union Presidency in 1992. The facility would also serve as a core facility for cultural and leisure activities after its term, and serve as a venue for conferences and exhibitions. An international architectural competition was held and six proposals were invited to submit a preliminary project, out of the 57 submissions. The final proposal, submitted by the architectural consortium of Vittorio Gregotti (Italy) and Atelier Risco at the time led by Manuel Salgado (Portugal), was designed to include five modules: a Conference Centre, a Performing Arts Centre, an Exhibition Centre, Hotel and complementary equipment zone, but only the Conference Centre, the Performing Arts Centre and the Exhibition Centre were initially constructed.
Starting in July 1989, the buildings along the waterfront were demolished and many of the infrastructures were re-established. By January 1992, modules 1, 2 and 3 were completed and ready to accommodate the institutions, administration, communication centre and security of the European Union Presidency. A year later the Conference Centre and small auditorium and the Exhibition Centre were opened to the public. By fall of the same year the main auditorium was inaugurated.
Its designed, aligned with the Jerónimos' Monastery, intentionally fronts the Império Square, and consists of structural blocks with courtyards and "patio-squares" that interconnect the three principal structures. Each centre is separated by transversal "streets", that link the building's interiors which are extensions of the city of Lisbon's historical urban structure. The centrality of the main building extends the urban fabric to the interior creating a public space. This architectural style can best be interpreted by Santana and Matos (2010) who refer to as the "patios-squares" versus the "narrow streets" a conflicting dynamic structure.
Profile etansare -Benzi etansare-Waterstop
Profile etansare cu banda hidrofilica incorporata tip KAB
Profile pentru rosturi dilatatie perete si tavan
Profile pentru pardoseli industriale (trafic greu)
Profile pentru rosturi structurale seismice -rosturi foarte largi – de la 150 mm la 540 ...
Perched here, in a still life, with the mycelium bowl I built with my daughter, holding the yummy Lion’s Mane dinner shrooms. The bowl was a DIY kit from Ecovative, featured in the book as a leader in using mycelium as a structural material. They grow more than four hundred tons of mycelium per year, for furniture and packaging for companies like Dell.
Merlin Sheldrake's 2020 tome reveals many mycelial mysteries. Here are some tasty teasers:
“Plants only made it out of the water around 500 million years ago because of their collaboration with fungi, which served as their root systems for tens of millions of years until plants could evolve their own. Today, more than 90% of plants depend on mycorrhizal fungi which can link them in shared networks. This ancient association gave rise to all recognizable life on land” (4)
-“Mycelium makes up between a third and a half of all the living mass of soils. The numbers are astronomical. Globally, the total length of mycorrhizal hyphae in the top 10cm of soil is around half the width of our galaxy” (127)
-Back in the Devonian period, 400mya, Prototaxites (big fungi spires) “were taller than a two-story building. Nothing else got anywhere close to this size: plants were no more than a meter tall, and no animal with a backbone had yet moved out of the water. These enormous fungi were the largest living structures on dry land for at least 40 million years, 20x longer than the genus Homo has existed.” (4)
The Romans prayed to Robigus, the god of mildew, to avert fungal diseases leading to famine. And 5,000 years ago, the Sumerians who brewed beer using fungal yeast, worshipped a goddess of fermentation, Ninkasi. (205)
“Although fungi have long been lumped together with plants, they are actually more closely related to animals [e.g., respire oxygen, tastes like chicken]. At a molecular level, fungi and humans are similar enough to benefit from many of the same biochemical innovations. We use drugs produced by fungi – fungi are pharmaceutically prolific.” (9)
-Penicillin, a chemical from mold that kills bacteria, is the famous one. But there’s cyclosporine (immunosuppressant), statins (lowers cholesterol), antivirals and anti-cancer meds (like Taxol), alcohol (yeast fermentation), and psilocybin (psychedelic medicine), even LSD came from the ergot fungus.
-“60% of the enzymes used in industry are generated by fungi” (9)
-There are over 6x as many fungi species as plant species.
-“Truffles are the underground fruiting bodies of several types of mycorrhizal fungi.” (25)
MAKING MYCELIUM:
-“The overwhelming majority of fungal species release spores without producing mushrooms at all.” (5) Mycelia release 50 million tons of spore/year, affecting the weather.
-Common cells called hyphae branch out and then fuse to form a mycelial network. They fuse with self and with sexually compatible mates. “Some fungi have tens of thousands of mating types, approximately equivalent to our sexes.” (36) (Taking non-binary to a new level.)
-“Mycelium is how fungi feed. They digest the world where it is and then absorb it into their bodies. Their hyphae are long and branched, and only a single cell thick, between 2 and 20 micrometers in diameter” (51)
-“One way to think about mycelial networks is as swarms of hyphal tips. Swarms are patterns of collective behavior.” (47)
-“Mycelial coordination is difficult to understand because there is no center of control. Control is dispersed. A fragment of mycelium can regenerate the entire network” (50)
-Like our brain in early development, mycelium overproduces links for foraging, and then reinforces some into dense transport networks for the tips that discover food.
-“No matter where fungi grown, they must be able to insinuate themselves within their source of food. To do so, they use pressure. They develop special penetrative hyphae that can reach pressures of 50 to 80 atmospheres and exert enough force to penetrate Kevlar.” (52)
-“Hyphal tips must lay down new material as they advance. Small bladders filled with cellular building materials arrive at the tip from within and fuse with it at a rate of up to 600 a second.” (53)
-“When hyphae felt together to make mushrooms, they rapidly inflate with water, which they must absorb from their surroundings — the reason mushrooms tend to appear after rain.” (54)
-Mushroom and mycelium are made of the same hyphae cells. They also form cords — large pipes made of many small tubes that transport nutrients long distances “on a river of cellular fluid.” (56)
-Several species of fungus are bioluminescent and were used to provide interior lighting in the first U.S. submarine in 1775.
MAKING SENSE:
-“Fungi don’t have noses or brains. Instead, their entire surface behaves like an olfactory epithelium. A mycelial network is one large chemically sensitive membrane. Fungi live their lives bathed in a rich field of chemical information.” (28)
-“The methods fungi use to hunt nematode worms are grisly and diverse. Some fungi grow adhesive nets. Some use hyphal nooses that inflate in a tenth of a second, ensnaring their prey. Some — like the commonly cultivated oyster mushroom — produce hyphal stalks capped with a single toxic droplet that paralyzes nematodes giving the hypha enough time to grow through their mouth and digest the worm from inside. Others produce spores that can swim through the soil, chemically drawn to nematodes, to which they harpoon the worm with specialized hyphae known as ‘gun cells.’” (40). These are all manifestations of the same hypha cell in mycelium.
-“Phycomyces has remarkable perceptual abilities. Its fruiting structures — essentially giant vertical hyphae — adapt to bright or light as our eyes do and can detect light at levels as low as that provided by a single star.” (57) It has exquisite sensitivity to touch and “is able to detect the presence of nearby objects without ever making contact” (58)
-“Most fungi can detect and respond to light (direction, intensity, and color), temperature, moisture, nutrients, toxins, and gravitational and electrical fields. Hyphae can also sense the texture of surfaces, to a half-micrometer deep in artificial surfaces, three times shallower than the gap between laser tracks on a CD.” (58)
-“When Olsson inserted microelectrodes into Armaillaria’s hyphal strands, he detected regular action-potential-like impulses, firing at a rate very close to that of an animal’s sensory neurons — around 4 impulses per second. When wood came in contact with the mycelium, the firing rate of the impulses doubled. When he removed the block of wood, the firing rate returned to normal.” (61)
LICHEN:
-There's a tendency for fungi to lichenize (combine into a symbiotic dependency with algae), and 20% of all known fungal species have lichenized. “Both make life in places where neither could survive alone.” (72)
-They cover 8% of Earth, more than all tropical rainforests. Some are thousands of years old (one in Lapland is over 9,000 years old).
-They turn rock to soil by mining minerals from bare rock, with physical pressure, acids, and binders to dissolve and digest rock. “When lichens die and decompose, they give rise to the first soils in new ecosystems. Lichens are how the inanimate mineral mass within rocks is able to cross over into the metabolic cycles of the living.” (75)
-They survive outer space the best of any organism studied. Untroubled by being frozen and dehydrated for a decade, and radiation at 12x the lethal human dose, 50 gigpascals of shock… They could survive the ejecta events that catapult meteorites from the surface of Mars.
-Polyamory: “Grow many types of free-living fungus and algae together, and they’ll develop into a mutually beneficial symbiosis in a matter of days. Different species of fungus, different species of algae—it doesn’t seem to matter. Completely new symbiotic relationships emerge in less time than it takes a scab to heal.” (86)
-Extremophiles: “Lichens arise in conditions too severe for either partner to survive alone. Viewed in this way, extremophilia, their ability to live life on the edge, is a direct consequence of their symbiotic way of life.” (87)
-Often the first organism to grow on new volcanic islands or the ruins of Chernobyl and Hiroshima. Radiotrophic fungi harvest the energy emitted by radioactive particles.
-Mycelial fossils 2.4 billion years old “makes mycelium one of the earliest known gestures toward complex multicellular life, one of the first living networks. Remarkably unchanged, mycelium has persisted for more than half of the four billion years of life’s history, through countless cataclysms and global transformations.” (67)
-“Fungi have persisted through Earth’s five major extinction events, each of which eliminated between 75 and 95% of species on the planet.” (181)
-“They can degrade pesticides, synthetic dyes, the explosives TNT and RDX, crude oil, some plastics, heavy metals, and a range of drugs from antibiotics to synthetic hormones. In principle, fungi are some of the best qualified organisms for environmental remediation.” (185)
MANIPULATING MINDS:
-The Ophiocordyceps zombie-takeover of ants may be the most famous, thanks to the BBC coverage. The fungus’ “hyphae wind through their body cavities, from heads to legs, enmesh their muscle fibers, and coordinate their activity via an interconnected mycelial network.” (97)
-The fungus takes over the ant’s volition, causing it to climb up 25cm from the forest floor, and orienting by the sun, all of the infected ants bite a major leaf vein in synchrony, at noon.
-“Ophiocordyceps is closely related to the ergot fungi, from which the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman originally isolated the compounds used to make LSD.” (97)
-From fossil records 48 mya, “fungi have been manipulating animal minds for much of the time there have been minds to manipulate.”(98) “And it is likely that we have been using mind-altering drugs for longer than we have been human.” (99)
-“Massospora infects cicadas and causes the rear third of their bodies to disintegrate, allowing it to discharge its spores out of their ruptured back ends. Infected male cicadas — ‘flying saltshakers of death’ — become hyperactive and hypersexual despite the fact that their genitals have long since crumbled away. Kasson and his team analyzed the plugs of fungus that sprout from the cicadas broken bodies. They were amazed to find that the fungus produced cathinone, an amphetamine in the same class as the recreational drug mephedrone. Cathinone had never before been found outside of plants. More astonishing was the presence of psilocybin, one of the most abundant chemicals in the fungal plugs.” (104). (✌️piece out man!)
-In humans, the psilocybin “studies are considered to be some of the most effective psychiatric interventions in the history of modern medicine.” (108)
-Psilocybin-producing mushrooms go back at least 75 million years, and so 90% of their evolutionary history predate humans. Over 200 species of psilocybin-producing fungi and lichen.
BEFORE ROOTS:
-“Roots followed fungi into being. It was only by striking up a new relationship with fungi that algae were able to make it onto land.” (124)
-“Mycorrhizal hyphae are 50x finer than the finest roots and can exceed the length of a plant’s roots by 100x.” (127)
-“Fungi release chemicals that suspend their plant partners’ immune responses, without which they can’t get close enough to form symbiotic structures.” (38)
-“Fungi can provide up to 80% of a plant’s nitrogen and as much as 100% of its phosphorous…. Zinc and copper. In return, plants allocate up to 30% of the carbon they harvest from the air to their mycorrhizal partners.” (132)
-Some plants, like Monotropa, have evolved to be so dependent on soil fungus for nutrients that they've given up the ability to photosynthesize altogether, getting all of their nutrition from soil fungi. That's why these plants are white (not green).
WOOD WIDE WEBS
-“Fungi actively transport phosphorous — using its dynamic microtubule motors — from areas of abundance to areas of scarcity.” (137)
-“The speed of tree migration may depend on their mycorrhizal proclivity. Some species of tree are more promiscuous than others and can enter into relationships with many different fungal species.” (140) “Fungi can determine which plants gro where; they can even drive the evolution of new species by isolating populations from one another.” (141)
-“Researchers observed phosphorous to pass from the roots of dying plants to the nearby healthy plants that shared a fungal network.” (158)
-Kin selection: “in some cases, more carbon passed between siblings than between strangers.” (159)
-“Fungal networks provide highways for bacteria to migrate around the obstacle course of the soil. Some bacteria enhance fungal growth, stimulate their metabolisms and produce key vitamins. The thick-footed morel farms the bacteria that live within its networks. The fungus plants bacterial populations, then cultivates, harvests and consumes them.” (164)
-Similar scale-free networks as Barabasi used to describe the Internet in his book Linked.
-“The amino acids glutamate and glycine, the most common neurotransmitters in animal brains and spinal cords, are known to pass between plants and fungi at their junctions.” (173)
RADICAL CHEMISTRY
-To digest the haphazard matrix of lignin, fungi perform enzymatic combustion with peroxidases, highly reactive non-specific enzymes.
-“Today, fungal decomposition — much of it woody plant matter — is one of the largest sources of carbon emissions, about 85 Gt/y.” (177)
-In the Carbiniferous period, fungi had not yet evolved to digest lignin. That became coal. “When we burn coal, we physically combust the material that fungi were unable to combust enzymatically. We thermally decompose what fungi were unable to decompose chemically.” (178)
-“Fermentation is domesticated decomposition — rot rehoused.” (206)
-Whether beer or bread, “yeasts were the primary beneficiaries of human’s earliest agricultural efforts. In the preparation of either, humans feed yeast before they feed themselves. In many ways, you might argue, yeasts have domesticated us.” (203)
Day 258 - 35mm Ilford HP5+ pushed to 1600 on a Nikon FE with Nikkor 50mm f/2 ai-s lense. Metadata describes how image was uploaded.
An abstract from Wikipedia
The Hundertwasserhaus is an apartment house in Vienna, Austria, built after the idea and concept of Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser with architect Joseph Krawina as a co-creator. This expressionist landmark of Vienna is located in the Landstraße district on the corner of Kegelgasse and Löwengasse. The Hundertwasser House is one of Vienna's most visited buildings and has become part of Austria's cultural heritage.
Nikon D7100 | AF-S DX VR Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G
Müngsten Bridge, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
PACIFIC OCEAN (May 23, 2022) Aviation Structural Mechanic 2nd Class Niko Ramos, assigned to the "Diamondbacks" of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 102, and a native of Jacksonville, Fla., fastens the rivets of an F/A-18F Super Hornet in the hangar bay of Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76). Reagan, flagship of Carrier Strike Group 5, provides a combat-ready force that protects and defends the United States, and supports alliances, partnerships and collective maritime interests in the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Eric Stanton)
Tech. Sgt. Ryan Atoigue adjusts a light attached to his helmet while participating in structural fire training Oct. 20, 2014, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. Atoigue's helmet indicates that he is a firecrew captain with the 436th Civil Engineer Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo by Greg L. Davis/Released)
La Cattedrale di Santa Maria Fiore - Duomo, Firenze (Florença)
www.google.com/maps?q=florença%20italia&layer=c&...
Following, a text, in english, from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia:
The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (English: Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower) is the cathedral church of Florence, Italy. The Duomo, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white and has an elaborate 19th century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris.
The cathedral complex, located in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile. The three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence and are a major attraction to tourists visiting the region of Tuscany. The basilica is one of Italy's largest churches, and until development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world. It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed.
The cathedral is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence, whose archbishop is currently Giuseppe Betori.
he Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore was built on the site of an earlier cathedral dedicated to Saint Reparata.[1] The ancient building, founded in the early 5th century and having undergone many repairs, was crumbling with age, as attested in the 14th century Nuova Cronica of Giovanni Villani,[2] and was no longer large enough to serve the growing population of the city.[2] Other major Tuscan cities had undertaken ambitious reconstructions of their cathedrals during the Late Medieval period, as seen at Pisa and particularly Siena where the enormous proposed extensions were never completed.
The new church was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio and approved by city council in 1294. Arnolfo di Cambio was also architect of the church of Santa Croce and the Palazzo Vecchio. He designed three wide naves ending under the octagonal dome, with the middle nave covering the area of Santa Reparata. The first stone was laid on September 9, 1296 by Cardinal Valeriana, the first papal legate ever sent to Florence. The building of this vast project was to last 170 years, the collective efforts of several generations; Arnolfo's plan for the eastern end, although maintained in concept, was greatly expanded in size.
After Arnolfo died in 1302, work on the cathedral slowed for the following thirty years. The project obtained new impetus, when the relics of Saint Zenobius were discovered in 1330 in Santa Reparata. In 1331, the Arte della Lana, the [=[Guilds of Florence|guild of wool merchants]], took over exclusive patronage for the construction of the cathedral and in 1334 appointed Giotto to oversee the work. Assisted by Andrea Pisano, Giotto continued di Cambio's design. His major accomplishment was the building of the campanile. When Giotto died in 1337, Andrea Pisano continued the building until work was again halted due to the Black PDeath in 1348.
In 1349 work resumed on the cathedral under a series of architects, commencing with Francesco Talenti, who finished the campanile and enlarged the overall project to include the apse and the side chapels. In 1359 Talenti was succeeded by Giovanni di Lapo Ghini (1360–1369) who divided the center nave in four square bays. Other architects were Alberto Arnoldi, Giovanni d'Ambrogio, Neri di Fioravante and Andrea Orcagna. By 1375 the old church Santa Reparata was pulled down. The nave was finished by 1380, and by 1418 only the dome remained incomplete.
On 19 August 1418, the Arte della Lana announced a structural design competition for erecting Neri's dome. The two main competitors were two master goldsmiths, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi, who was supported by Cosimo de Medici. Ghiberti had been winner of a competition for a pair of bronze doors for the Baptistery in 1401 and lifelong competition between the two remained acute. Brunelleschi won and received the commission.[3]
Ghiberti, appointed coadjutator, was drawing a salary equal to Brunelleschi's and, though neither was awarded the announced prize of 200 florins, would potentially earn equal credit, while spending most of his time on other projects. When Brunelleschi became ill, or feigned illness, the project was briefly in the hands of Ghiberti. But Ghiberti soon had to admit that the whole project was beyond him. In 1423 Brunelleschi was back in charge and took over sole responsibility.[4]
Work started on the dome in 1420 and was completed in 1436. The cathedral was consecrated by Pope Eugene IV on March 25, 1436 (the first day of the year according to the Florentine calendar). It was the first 'octagonal' dome in history to be built without a temporary wooden supporting frame: the Roman Pantheon, a circular dome, was built in 117–128 AD with support structures. It was one of the most impressive projects of the Renaissance. During the consecration service in 1436, Guillaume Dufay's similarly unique motet Nuper rosarum flores was performed. The structure of this motet was strongly influenced by the structure of the dome.
The decoration of the exterior of the cathedral, begun in the 14th century, was not completed until 1887, when the polychrome marble façade was completed to the design of Emilio De Fabris. The floor of the church was relaid in marble tiles in the 16th century.
The exterior walls are faced in alternate vertical and horizontal bands of polychrome marble from Carrara (white), Prato (green), Siena (red), Lavenza and a few other places. These marble bands had to repeat the already existing bands on the walls of the earlier adjacent baptistery the Battistero di San Giovanni and Giotto's Bell Tower. There are two lateral doors, the Doors of the Canonici (south side) and the Door of the Mandorla (north side) with sculptures by Nanni di Banco, Donatello, and Jacopo della Quercia. The six lateral windows, notable for their delicate tracery and ornaments, are separated by pilasters. Only the four windows closest to the transept admit light; the other two are merely ornamental. The clerestory windows are round, a common feature in Italian Gothic.
During its long history, this cathedral has been the seat of the Council of Florence (1439), heard the preachings of Girolamo Savonarola and witnessed the murder of Giuliano di Piero de' Medici on Sunday, 26 April 1478 (with Lorenzo Il Magnifico barely escaping death) in the Pazzi conspiracy.
Exterior
Plan and structure
The cathedral of Florence is built as a basilica, having a wide central nave of four square bays, with an aisle on either side. The chancel and transepts are of identical polygonal plan, separated by two smaller polygonal chapels. The whole plan forms a Latin cross. The nave and aisles are separated by wide pointed Gothic arches resting on composite piers.
The dimensions of the building are enormous: length 153 metres (502 ft), width 38 metres (124 ft), width at the crossing 90 metres (295 ft). The height of the arches in the aisles is 23 metres (75 ft). The height from pavement to the opening of the lantern in the dome is also 90 metres (295 ft).
Dome
By the beginning of the fifteenth century, after a hundred years of construction, the structure was still missing its dome. The basic features of the dome had been designed by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1296. His brick model, 4.6 metres (15 ft) high 9.2 metres (30 ft) long, was standing in a side isle of the unfinished building, and had long ago become sacrosanct.[5] It called for an octagonal dome higher and wider than any that had ever been built, with no external buttresses to keep it from spreading and falling under its own weight.
The Duomo viewed from the heights of Piazzale Michelangelo
The commitment to reject traditional Gothic buttresses had been made when Neri di Fioravante's model was chosen over a competing one by Giovanni di Lapo Ghini.[6] That architectural choice, in 1367, was one of the first events of the Italian Renaissance, marking a break with the Medieval Gothic style and a return to the classic Mediterranean dome. Italian architects regarded Gothic flying buttresses as ugly makeshifts, in addition to being a style favored by central Italy's traditional enemies to the north.[7] Neri's model depicted a massive inner dome, open at the top to admit light, like Rome's Pantheon, but enclosed in a thinner outer shell, partly supported by the inner dome, to keep out the weather. It was to stand on an unbuttressed octagonal drum. Neri's dome would need an internal defense against spreading (hoop stress), but none had yet been designed.
The building of such a masonry dome posed many technical problems. Brunelleschi looked to the great dome of the Pantheon in Rome for solutions. The dome of the Pantheon is a single shell of concrete, the formula for which had long since been forgotten. A wooden form had held the Pantheon dome aloft while its concrete set, but for the height and breadth of the dome designed by Neri, starting 52 metres (171 ft) above the floor and spanning 44 metres (144 ft), there was not enough timber in Tuscany to build the scaffolding and forms.[8] Brunelleschi chose to follow such design and employed a double shell, made of sandstone and marble. Brunelleschi would have to build the dome out of bricks, due to its light weight compared to stone and easier to form, and with nothing under it during construction. To illustrate his proposed structural plan, he constructed a wooden and brick model with the help of Donatello and Nanni di Banco and still displayed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. The model served as a guide for the craftsmen, but was intentionally incomplete, so as to ensure Brunelleschi's control over the construction.
Brunelleschi's solutions were ingenious. The spreading problem was solved by a set of four internal horizontal stone and iron chains, serving as barrel hoops, embedded within the inner dome: one each at the top and bottom, with the remaining two evenly spaced between them. A fifth chain, made of wood, was placed between the first and second of the stone chains. Since the dome was octagonal rather than round, a simple chain, squeezing the dome like a barrel hoop, would have put all its pressure on the eight corners of the dome. The chains needed to be rigid octagons, stiff enough to hold their shape, so as not to deform the dome as they held it together.
Each of Brunelleschi's stone chains was built like an octagonal railroad track with parallel rails and cross ties, all made of sandstone beams 43 centimetres (17 in) in diameter and no more than 2.3 metres (7.5 ft) long. The rails were connected end-to-end with lead-glazed iron splices. The cross ties and rails were notched together and then covered with the bricks and mortar of the inner dome. The cross ties of the bottom chain can be seen protruding from the drum at the base of the dome. The others are hidden. Each stone chain was supposed to be reinforced with a standard iron chain made of interlocking links, but a magnetic survey conducted in the 1970s failed to detect any evidence of iron chains, which if they exist are deeply embedded in the thick masonry walls. He was also able to accomplish this by setting vertical "ribs" on the corners of the octagon curving towards the center point. The ribs had slits, where platforms could be erected out of and work could progressively continue as they worked up,a system for scaffolding.[9]
A circular masonry dome, such as that of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul can be built without supports, called centering, because each course of bricks is a horizontal arch that resists compression. In Florence, the octagonal inner dome was thick enough for an imaginary circle to be embedded in it at each level, a feature that would hold the dome up eventually, but could not hold the bricks in place while the mortar was still wet. Brunelleschi used a herringbone brick pattern to transfer the weight of the freshly laid bricks to the nearest vertical ribs of the non-circular dome.[10]
The outer dome was not thick enough to contain embedded horizontal circles, being only 60 centimetres (2 ft) thick at the base and 30 centimetres (1 ft) thick at the top. To create such circles, Brunelleschi thickened the outer dome at the inside of its corners at nine different elevations, creating nine masonry rings, which can be observed today from the space between the two domes. To counteract hoop stress, the outer dome relies entirely on its attachment to the inner dome at its base; it has no embedded chains.[11]
A modern understanding of physical laws and the mathematical tools for calculating stresses was centuries into the future. Brunelleschi, like all cathedral builders, had to rely on intuition and whatever he could learn from the large scale models he built. To lift 37,000 tons of material, including over 4 million bricks, he invented hoisting machines and lewissons for hoisting large stones. These specially designed machines and his structural innovations were Brunelleschi's chief contribution to architecture. Although he was executing an aesthetic plan made half a century earlier, it is his name, rather than Neri's, that is commonly associated with the dome.
Brunelleschi's ability to crown the dome with a lantern was questioned and he had to undergo another competition. He was declared the winner over his competitors Lorenzo Ghiberti and Antonio Ciaccheri. His design was for an octagonal lantern with eight radiating buttresses and eight high arched windows (now on display in the Museum Opera del Duomo). Construction of the lantern was begun a few months before his death in 1446. Then, for 15 years, little progress was possible, due to alterations by several architects. The lantern was finally completed by Brunelleschi's friend Michelozzo in 1461. The conical roof was crowned with a gilt copper ball and cross, containing holy relics, by Verrocchio in 1469. This brings the total height of the dome and lantern to 114.5 metres (375 ft). This copper ball was struck by lightning on 17 July 1600 and fell down. It was replaced by an even larger one two years later.
The commission for this bronze ball [atop the lantern] went to the sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio, in whose workshop there was at this time a young apprentice named Leonardo da Vinci. Fascinated by Filippo's [Brunelleschi's] machines, which Verrocchio used to hoist the ball, Leonardo made a series of sketches of them and, as a result, is often given credit for their invention.[12]
Leonardo might have also participated in the design of the bronze ball, as stated in the G manuscript of Paris "Remember the way we soldered the ball of Santa Maria del Fiore".[13]
The decorations of the drum gallery by Baccio d'Agnolo were never finished after being disapproved by no one less than Michelangelo.
A huge statue of Brunelleschi now sits outside the Palazzo dei Canonici in the Piazza del Duomo, looking thoughtfully up towards his greatest achievement, the dome that would forever dominate the panorama of Florence. It is still the largest masonry dome in the world.[14]
The building of the cathedral had started in 1296 with the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was completed in 1469 with the placing of Verrochio's copper ball atop the lantern. But the façade was still unfinished and would remain so until the nineteenth century.
Façade
Façade of the cathedral
The original façade, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio and usually attributed to Giotto, was actually begun twenty years after Giotto's death.[citation needed] A mid-15th century pen-and-ink drawing of this so-called Giotto's façade is visible in the Codex Rustici, and in the drawing of Bernardino Poccetti in 1587, both on display in the Museum of the Opera del Duomo. This façade was the collective work of several artists, among them Andrea Orcagna and Taddeo Gaddi. This original façade was only completed in its lower portion and then left unfinished. It was dismantled in 1587-1588 by the Medici court architect Bernardo Buontalenti, ordered by Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici, as it appeared totally outmoded in Renaissance times. Some of the original sculptures are on display in the Museum Opera del Duomo, behind the cathedral. Others are now in the Berlin Museum and in the Louvre. The competition for a new façade turned into a huge corruption scandal. The wooden model for the façade of Buontalenti is on display in the Museum Opera del Duomo. A few new designs had been proposed in later years but the models (of Giovanni Antonio Dosio, Giovanni de' Medici with Alessandro Pieroni and Giambologna) were not accepted. The façade was then left bare until the 19th century.
Main portal of the cathedral
In 1864, a competition was held to design a new façade and was won by Emilio De Fabris (1808–1883) in 1871. Work began in 1876 and completed in 1887. This neo-gothic façade in white, green and red marble forms a harmonious entity with the cathedral, Giotto's bell tower and the Baptistery, but some think it is excessively decorated.
The whole façade is dedicated to the Mother of Christ.
Main portal
The three huge bronze doors date from 1899 to 1903. They are adorned with scenes from the life of the Madonna. The mosaics in the lunettes above the doors were designed by Niccolò Barabino. They represent (from left to right): Charity among the founders of Florentine philanthropic institutions, Christ enthroned with Mary and John the Baptist, and Florentine artisans, merchants and humanists. The pediment above the central portal contains a half-relief by Tito Sarrocchi of Mary enthroned holding a flowered scepter. Giuseppe Cassioli sculpted the right hand door.
On top of the façade is a series of niches with the twelve Apostles with, in the middle, the Madonna with Child. Between the rose window and the tympanum, there is a gallery with busts of great Florentine artists.
Interior
The Gothic interior is vast and gives an empty impression. The relative bareness of the church corresponds with the austerity of religious life, as preached by Girolamo Savonarola.
Many decorations in the church have been lost in the course of time, or have been transferred to the Museum Opera del Duomo, such as the magnificent cantorial pulpits (the singing galleries for the choristers) of Luca della Robbia and Donatello.
As this cathedral was built with funds from the public, some important works of art in this church honour illustrious men and military leaders of Florence:
Dante Before the City of Florence by Domenico di Michelino (1465). This painting is especially interesting because it shows us, apart from scenes of the Divine Comedy, a view on Florence in 1465, a Florence such as Dante himself could not have seen in his time.
Funerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood by Paolo Uccello (1436). This almost monochrome fresco, transferred on canvas in the 19th c., is painted in terra verde, a color closest to the patina of bronze.
Equestrian statue of Niccolò da Tolentino by Andrea del Castagno (1456). This fresco, transferred on canvas in the 19th c., in the same style as the previous one, is painted in a color resembling marble. However, it is more richly decorated and gives more the impression of movement. Both frescoes portray the condottieri as heroic figures riding triumphantly. Both painters had problems when applying in painting the new rules of perspective to foreshortening: they used two unifying points, one for the horse and one for the pedestal, instead a single unifying point.
Busts of Giotto (by Benedetto da Maiano), Brunelleschi (by Buggiano - 1447), Marsilio Ficino, and Antonio Squarcialupi (a most famous organist). These busts all date from the 15th and the 16th century.
Above the main door is the colossal clock face with fresco portraits of four Prophets or Evangelists by Paolo Uccello (1443). This one-handed liturgical clock shows the 24 hours of the hora italica (Italian time), a period of time ending with sunset at 24 hours. This timetable was used till the 18th century. This is one of the few clocks from that time that still exist and are in working order.
The church is particularly notable for its 44 stained glass windows, the largest undertaking of this kind in Italy in the 14th and 15th century. The windows in the aisles and in the transept depict saints from the Old and the New Testament, while the circular windows in the drum of the dome or above the entrance depict Christ and Mary. They are the work of the greatest Florentine artists of their times, such as Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Paolo Uccello and Andrea del Castagno.
Christ crowning Mary as Queen, the stained-glass circular window above the clock, with a rich range of coloring, was designed by Gaddo Gaddi in the early 14th century.
Donatello designed the stained-glass window (Coronation of the Virgin) in the drum of the dome (the only one that can be seen from the nave).
The beautiful funeral monument of Antonio d'Orso (1323), bishop of Florence, was made by Tino da Camaino, the most important funeral sculptor of his time.
The monumental crucifix, behind the Bishop's Chair at the high altar, is by Benedetto da Maiano (1495–1497). The choir enclosure is the work of the famous Bartolommeo Bandinelli. The ten-paneled bronze doors of the sacristy were made by Luca della Robbia, who has also two glazed terracotta works inside the sacristy: Angel with Candlestick and Resurrection of Christ.
In the back of the middle of the three apses is the altar of Saint Zanobius, first bishop of Florence. Its silver shrine, a masterpiece of Ghiberti, contains the urn with his relics. The central compartment shows us one his miracles, the reviving of a dead child. Above this shrine is the painting Last Supper by the lesser-known Giovanni Balducci. There was also a glass-paste mosaic panel The Bust of Saint Zanobius by the 16th century miniaturist Monte di Giovanni, but it is now on display in the Museum Opera del Duomo.
Many decorations date from the 16th-century patronage of the Grand Dukes, such as the pavement in colored marble, attributed to Baccio d'Agnolo and Francesco da Sangallo (1520–26). Some pieces of marble from the façade were used, topside down, in the flooring (as was shown by the restoration of the floor after the 1966 flooding).
It was suggested that the interior of the 45 metre (147 ft) wide dome should be covered with a mosaic decoration to make the most of the available light coming through the circular windows of the drum and through the lantern. Brunelleschi had proposed the vault to glimmer with resplendent gold, but his death in 1446 put an end to this project, and the walls of the dome were whitewashed. Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici decided to have the dome painted with a representation of The Last Judgment. This enormous work, 3,600 metres² (38 750 ft²) of painted surface, was started in 1568 by Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccari and would last till 1579. The upper portion, near the lantern, representing The 24 Elders of Apoc. 4 was finished by Vasari before his death in 1574. Federico Zuccari and a number of collaborators, such as Domenico Cresti, finished the other portions: (from top to bottom) Choirs of Angels; Christ, Mary and Saints; Virtues, Gifts of the Holy Spirit and Beatitudes; and at the bottom of the cuppola: Capital Sins and Hell. These frescoes are considered Zuccari's greatest work. But the quality of the work is uneven because of the input of different artists and the different techniques. Vasari had used true fresco, while Zuccari had painted in secco. During the restoration work ended in 1995, the entire pictorial cycle of the The Last Judgment was photographed with specially designed equipment and all the information collected in a catalogue. All the restoration information along with reconstructed images of the frescos were stored and managed in the Thesaurus Florentinus computer system.
Crypt
The cathedral underwent difficult excavations between 1965 and 1974. The subterranean vaults were used for the burial of Florentine bishops throughout the centuries.
Recently[when?] the archaeological history of this huge area was reconstructed through the work of Dr Franklin Toker: remains of Roman houses, an early Christian pavement, ruins of the former cathedral of Santa Reparata and successive enlargements of this church. Close to the entrance, in the part of the crypt open to the public, is the tomb of Brunelleschi. While its location is prominent, the actual tomb is simple and humble. That the architect was permitted such a prestigious burial place is proof of the high esteem he was given by the Florentines.
Also buried in the former cathedral of Santa Reparata was Conrad II of Italy.
A seguir, um texto, em português, da Wikipédia a Enciclopédia Livre:
A Basílica di Santa Maria del Fiore é a catedral, ou Duomo[1], da Arquidiocese da Igreja Católica Romana de Florença. Notabilizada por sua monumental cúpula - obra do celebrado arquiteto renascentista Brunelleschi - e pelo campanário, de Giotto, é uma das obras da arte gótica e da primeira renascença italiana, considerada de fundamenal importância para a História da Arquitetura, registro da riqueza e do poder da capital da Toscana nos séculos XIII e XIV. Seu nome (cuja tradução é Santa Maria da Flor) parece referir-se ao lilium, símbolo de Florença, mas, documento [2] do Século XV, por outro lado, informa que “flor”, no caso, refere a Cristo.
História
O Duomo de Florença, como o vemos hoje, é o resultado de um trabalho que se estendeu por seis séculos. Seu projeto básico foi elaborado por Arnolfo di Cambio no final do século XIII, sua cúpula é obra de Filippo Brunelleschi, e sua fachada teve de esperar até o século XIX para ser concluída. Ao longo deste tempo uma série de intervenções estruturais e decorativas no exterior e interior enriqueceriam o monumento, dentre elas a construção de duas sacristias e a execução de esculturas e afrescos por Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno, Giorgio Vasari e Federico Zuccari, autor do Juízo Final no interior da cúpula. Foi construída no lugar da antiga catedral dedicada a Santa Reparata, que funcionou durante nove séculos até ser demolida completamente em 1375.
Em 1293, durante a República Florentina, o notário Ser Mino de Cantoribus sugeriu a substituição de Santa Reparata por uma catedral ainda maior e mais magnificente, de tal forma que "a indústria e o poder do homem não pudessem inventar ou mesmo tentar nada maior ou mais belo", e estava preparado para finaciar a construção. Entretanto, esperava-se que a população contribuísse, e todos os testamentos passaram a incluir uma cláusula de doação para as obras. O projeto foi confiado a Arnolfo em 1294, e ele cerimoniosamente lançou a pedra fundamental em 8 de setembro de 1296.
Arnolfo trabalhou na construção até 1302, ano de sua morte, e embora o estilo dominante da época fosse o gótico, seu projeto foi concebido com uma grandiosiddade clássica. Arnolfo só pôde trabalhar em duas capelas e na fachada, que ele teve tempo de completar e decorar só em parte. Com a morte do arquiteto o trabalho de construção sofreu uma parada. Um novo impulso foi dado quando em 1330 foi descoberto o corpo de São Zenóbio em Santa Reparata, que ainda estava parcialmente de pé. Giotto di Bondone então foi indicado supervisor em 1334, e mesmo que não tivesse muito tempo de vida (morreu em 1337) ele decidiu concentrar suas energias na construção do campanário. Giotto foi sucedido por Andrea Pisano até 1348, quando a peste reduziu a população da cidade de 90 mil para 45 mil habitantes.
Sob Francesco Talenti, supervisor entre 1349 e 1359, o campanário foi concluído e preparou-se um novo projeto para o Duomo, com a colaboração de Giovanni di Lapo Ghini: a nave central foi dividida em quatro espaços quadrangulares com duas alas retangulares, reduzindo o número de janelas planejadas por Arnolfo. Em 1370 a construção já estava bem adiantada, o mesmo se dando com o novo projeto para a abside, que foi circundada por tribunas que amplificaram o trifólio de Arnolfo. Por fim Santa Reparata terminou de ser demolida em 1375. Ao mesmo tempo continuou-se o trabalho de revestimento externo com mármores e decoração em torno das entradas laterais, a Porta dei Canonici (sul) e a Porta della Mandorla (norte), esta coroada com um relevo da Assunção, última obra de Nanni di Banco.
Contudo, o problema da cúpula ainda não fora resolvido. Brunelleschi fez seu primeiro projeto em 1402, mas o manteve em segredo. Em 1418, a Opera del Duomo, a centenária empresa administradora dos trabalhos na Catedral, anunciou um concurso que Brunelleschi haveria de vencer, mas o trabalho não iniciaria senão dois anos mais tarde, continuando até 1434. A Catedral foi consagrada pelo Papa Eugênio IV em 25 de março (o Ano Novo florentino) de 1436, 140 anos depois do início da construção. Os arremates que ainda esperavam conclusão eram a lanterna da cúpula (colocada em 1461) e o revestimento externo com mármores brancos de Carrara, verdes de Prato, e vermelhos de Siena, de acordo com o projeto original de Arnolfo.
A fachada
A fachada original, desenhada por Arnolfo di Cambio, só foi começada em meados do século XV, realizada de fato por vários artistas em uma obra coletiva, mas de toda forma só foi terminada até o terço inferior. Esta parte foi desmantelada por ordem de Francesco I de Medici entre 1587 e 1588, pois era considerada totalmente fora de moda naquela altura. O concurso que foi aberto para a criação de uma nova fachada acabou em um escândalo, e os desenhos subseqüentes que foram apresentados não foram aceitos. A fachada ficou, então, despida até o século XIX, mas estatuária e ornamentos originais sobrevivem no Museu Opera del Duomo e em museus de Paris e Berlim.
Em 1864, Emilio de Fabris venceu um concurso para uma nova fachada, que é a que vemos hoje, um enorme e magistral trabalho de mosaico em mármores coloridos em estilo neogótico, com uma volumetria dinâmica e harmoniosa. Pronta em 1887, foi dedicada à Virgem Maria, e é ricamente adornada com estatuária de elegante e austero desenho. Em 1903 terminaram-se as monumentais portas de bronze, com várias cenas em relevo e outras decorações.
Interior
Sua planta é basilical, com três naves, divididas por grandes arcos suportados por colunas monumentais. Tem 153 metros de comprido por 38 metros de largo, e 90 metros no transepto. Seus arcos se elevam até 23 metros de altura, e o cume da cúpula, a 90 metros.
Suas decorações internas são austeras, e muitas se perderam no curso dos séculos. Alguns elementos acharam abrigo no Museu Opera del Duomo, como os coros de Luca della Robbia e Donatello. Subsistem também os monumentos a Dante, a John Hawkwood, a Niccolò da Tolentino, a Antonio d'Orso, e os bustos de Giotto (de Benedetto da Maiano), Brunelleschi (de Buggiano - 1447), Marsilio Ficino, e Antonio Squarcialupi.
Sobre a porta de entrada há um relógio colossal com decoração em pintura de Paolo Uccello, e acertado de acordo com a hora italica, uma divisão do tempo comumente empregada na Itália até o século XVIII, que dava o por-do-sol como o início do dia.
Os vitrais são os maiores em seu gênero na Itália entre os séculos XIV e XV, com imagens de santos do Velho e Novo Testamento. O crucifixo é obra de Benedetto da Maiano, a talha do coro de Bartolommeo Bandinelli, e as portas da sacristia são de Luca della Robbia.
I find that by breaking down the figure into a skeleton of circles, triangles and lines I am able to build up the figure and easily map out the proportions correctly.
The Pukamani tutini sculptural poles (intricately carved ironwood poles inspired by traditional Pukamani ceremonies) display at the Australian Garden, Flower Dome, Gardens by the Bay.
Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
_low light
__a finger on the lens
___a man looking the ground !
____a bigger paint than i think !!
L1270066
Taken from MoMa web site
www.moma.org/collection/conservation/demoiselles/ask.html
_____________
In 1907 Picasso was working in Paris, in his Montmartre studio known as the Bateau-Lavoir. At this time his work was evolving from the structural, Cézanne-inspired figures exemplified by Two Nudes (Spain, 1906) into a new pictorial language that he and Georges Braque would further refine and transform. One Picasso scholar has described the paintings of these early years as a progression from "outer presence to inner shape, from color to structure, and from modified romanticism to a deepening formalism (Schwartz, Cubism, p. 15)." Les Demoiselles d'Avignon churned together Picasso's earlier subject matter, specifically the classical nude, with Iberian statuary—ancient pre-Spanish sculpture—and African art, beloved for its seemingly abstract simplifications. The painting has also been viewed as the young Picasso's brutish reaction to Henri Matisse's bold and idyllic 1906 masterpiece, Le Bonheur de Vivre (Barnes Foundation). Picasso evidently provoked his fellow artists and critics with the monumental bordello scene, formerly titled The Philosophical Brothel, in which five prostitutes seductively invite the viewer into a splintered and faceted space that confounds our understanding of the image.
__________
The following questions were addressed directly to the conservators during the conservation of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
I have some questions on treatments and analyses of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. The questions are listed below.
How do you pick up the best one of hundreds of kinds of varnishes for a target oil painting in terms of colorimetry? Is there any priority of choices?
Colorimetry is not the first criterion for choosing an appropriate varnish for use in a conservation treatment. Conservators tend to use varnishes that have been formulated specifically for superior long-term aging qualities. They offer stability, good handling properties and superior optical qualities. They are soluble in a range of solvents, which offers flexibility in their application, whether via a brush or spray.
How do you manipulate the thickness of varnish? Is the thickness uniform over a painting surface? Is Manipulating thickness (thick or thin) important for a final result?
The thickness (viscosity) of the varnish is determined by the ratio of solvent to solids in the varnish mixture. This will also depend on the choice of solvent and the molecular weight of the polymer making up the varnish. One can build up a thicker coating by spraying successive layers of varnish rather than applying one thick coat with a brush. It is important to achieve the proper optical effects.
The thickness of varnish affects the appearance of a painting. (Of course, not only color but also tone). It might be a reasonable thought that a restorer try to use several techniques of varnish-thickness control with brush, spray, and whatever for a preferred result. That means varnishing is a highly artificial process, not to reproduce the original varnish made by Picasso himself.
Yes, the varnish layers can be manipulated to produce the desired effects of matte and gloss and to help disguise areas of restoration. Picasso did not varnish the painting. He objected to the appearance of varnish on modern paintings. This is one reason why we removed the discolored varnish that restorers used and decided not to revarnish Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
Is it possible to use the different recipe or palette of oil paints from Picasso's one for filling? If so, what is a reason of the possibility?
The filling done was very minimal. The material used was a material consisting of chalk in a water-based synthetic binder. This is a reversible material unlike oil paints, which could not be safely removed at a later date.
Is it not crucial to look at the photo of an artwork taken in the previous restoration in terms of color confirmation? This question comes from the fact that a color photo sometimes does not show precious colors to us.
It is important to document the restoration stages with photography and other imaging techniques. However, we know that color photographs are susceptible to color shifts so they are unreliable documents for color matching. During the retouching stage one would only rely on a photograph to help reconstruct large areas of damage or loss. Fortunately this was not the case for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, and the retouches could be matched to surrounding paint without having to rely on a photograph.
How many times could the painting be restored? Is it possible that one day it couldn't be restored?
The painting has been treated at least four times in less than one hundred years. Depending on the extent of the treatment the painting could be restored many times more. We don't anticipate many future restorations since the painting is monitored very closely in the museum environment. With this in mind, it is conceivable that the painting will be with us for many generations to come only requiring minimal restoration every twenty or thirty years.
I notice that on your web site you mention that although the picture is lined, the evidence indicates that the lining occurred after the paint was applied and dry, probably in 1924. I was wondering how you know that, if you think Picasso did this or someone else, and why?
We know that the lining occurred after the painting was dry since there is evidence on the surface that the heat and pressure used during the lining process caused minor deformations in the paint, such as blisters and flattened impasto. There was also residue of the glue used in the lining on top of the paint, which was removed during the recent treatment. We also know from archival evidence that Jacques Doucet sent the painting to a reliner when he acquired Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1924.
"Paintings that have been varnished are also cleaned, or more accurately, devarnished, when the varnish discolors over time and thus distorts the original colors of the painting. Finally, some paintings should not have been varnished at all, and a varnish can compromise the essential aesthetic." In this case, a painting that may be de-varnished, not to be re-varnished once the cleaning is finished, what steps do you take to help conserve the painting without using varnish?
The presence of the varnish on a painting, which the artist did not intend to be varnished, does not preserve the painting. Indeed it can do much to diminish the essential quality of the painting. To protect the surface of an unvarnished painting from dirt and grime there are, if necessary, a number of things we do. In some cases the paintings are framed with glass or Plexiglas to protect the surface. This not only provides a physical barrier from airborne grime but also provides a buffer against any climactic changes and (in the case of Plexiglas) protection from damaging UV light. In the case of a painting the size of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon we might decide to place a barrier in front of the work to prevent visitors from approaching too closely. Under these circumstances the only treatment necessary would be a routine dusting with a soft brush once a month or so.
How long will this restoration process take, and when will the painting be on view again?
We expect the restoration, cleaning, and retouching, along with documentation of the process, to take about six months.
How does one determine that a painting needs to be cleaned?
The cleaning of a painting may be undertaken for a number of different reasons. One frequent reason is that the surface of the painting has acquired a discoloring layer of dirt and grime, the removal of which is called a surface cleaning. Paintings that have been varnished are also cleaned, or more accurately, devarnished, when the varnish discolors over time and thus distorts the original colors of the painting. Finally, some paintings should not have been varnished at all, and a varnish can compromise the essential aesthetic of the painting. When it is clear from the historical record that a painting has been varnished that should not have been, conservators will devarnish the work—if it is safe to do so—in order to try to restore more of the original surface quality to the painting.
Why is it important that restorations be reversible?
Reversibility is essential because it allows future generations to identify and remove restoration materials from a work of art without affecting the original material of the work. Thus, if these restoration materials change or discolor they can be easily and safely replaced. Similarly, if a current restoration is, in the future, thought to be inappropriate due to additional research, it can be safely removed and redone.
I was just wondering how you match the paint when restoring. Specifically, are the types of paint used in the work available now for the restoration?
We know through technical analysis which pigments were in Picasso's palette. These pigments are still available, in more refined versions and in formulations with synthetic binding media. Light stable restoration paints are also available to today's conservator. They can be used to match Picasso's palette but have the advantage of being soluble in solutions that will not affect Picasso's original oil paint. This ensures that any restorations applied to the original are "reversible" and can be removed easily when and if necessary. The color matching is achieved with a combination of skill and experience gained from a familiarity with original artists' materials and materials available to conservators.
It is great to know that a masterpiece is getting restored to its former glory. How can you match the color (if retouching is needed) to the original that Picasso applied (since most of the early pictures taken of the piece where in black in white?).
Relying on photographs would only be necessary if there were large areas of loss requiring reconstruction during the restoration. Fortunately, this is not the case with Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Inpainting will only be done in small, discrete areas of lost paint and the losses will be toned to match surrounding paint so that they are no longer visually distracting. In this case the color matching will be done using easily reversible restoration paints mixed to match the color and gloss of Picasso’s original oil palette.
Picasso was alive and painting recently enough to know about restoration procedures in some shape or form. Why do we think that his paintings were not meant to age? Is there a way to know that he wanted them always to appear fresh and new rather than letting them age naturally, like a fine wine?
Picasso had a philosophical approach to the condition of his works. Gertrude Stein paraphrased his thoughts: “After all, if it all ages together why not?” This restoration aims to respect that point of view—not to make the painting look fresh and new, but to make it look that it has all aged together. Thus materials that were not original are being removed and the retouching we do of lost paint will match the aged paint. Signs of aging will therefore still be evident, even after our conservation treatment is completed, without distracting from the essential power of the painting.
What characteristics of Picasso's work and style did you have to be familiar with in order to be able to intervene in his work?
An in-depth study of Picasso's painting materials preceded the treatment of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. These materials were found to be consistent with other works from the same period, including the small study in MoMA's collection and published results of other technical studies of Picasso's work (cf. Delbourgo and Koussiaki). Information on the original materials, coupled with knowledge of the materials used by restorers/conservators in the past (e.g. wax and synthetic varnish), allowed us to arrive at an appropriate treatment that will allow Picasso's original materials to be conserved while removing restorers' later additions that have discolored over time.
What is your attitude when you face art pieces by completely different artists?
It is best to be familiar with many examples of an artist's work before a restoration is attempted. Knowing the range of materials that one may encounter helps the conservator make an informed decision about conservation treatments and materials that are both compatible with the original and easily reversible should they discolor over time.
Have you ever noticed a recurring damage or problem you have treated that is found characteristically on the work of Picasso or any other artist?
Fortunately Picasso used materials that were of high quality. His training as an academic artist meant that he knew exactly how to use art materials in a way that would ensure their longevity. Even still, his technique could sometimes be slightly at odds with his materials. He worked so quickly that sometimes under-layers of paint did not have time to thoroughly dry before he applied another layer on top. This could result in areas of drying cracks where the under-layer is visible (cf. the face of the crouching figure in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, where a layer of cadmium yellow is visible through cracks in the uppermost paint layer). These cracks surely developed while the painting was still in Picasso's possession and maybe soon after the work was finished. Picasso was known to admire these kinds of conditions as a sign that the work had a life of its own. These drying cracks will not be altered since they are now stable and serve as evidence of Picasso's working methods.
We couldn't find a signature. Do you know about that?
Picasso did not always sign his finished works. However, paintings from this period (such as the monumental Three Women [autumn 1907–late 1908], now in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg) were sometimes signed on the reverse of the canvas. The lining canvas applied in 1924 obscures the reverse of the original canvas of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. It is possible that a signature exists but has remained obscured. However, our attempts to discover it through several examination techniques, including transmitted light, infrared photography, and X-rays, do not show any such signature.
A Starliner structural test article at Boeing's Huntington Beach Facility in California, where the spacecraft, including the service module and other hardware of the Atlas V upper stage, are undergoing rigorous qualification testing, including tests like shock, separation and vibration. Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner will launch on the Atlas V rocket to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Photo credit: Boeing
Wedding Cake Decorating Kit from Michael's Crafts ($49.99) include 6 of these columns - 13" high each.
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Urbex Tip #47: Sagging Ceilings
When exploring a building, if you should come across a ceiling that is bulging or sagging significantly in some way...go elsewhere.
Conversely, if while exploring you should come across a place where the ceiling has in fact already given way and there's a rather large tree growing up through the hole...setup your tripod and take a picture; somebody might think it's cool.
This concludes today's urbex tip. :-)
Swift Meat Packing Ruins, Fort Worth, Texas.
Night, mostly full moon, xenon flashlight.
The Lockheed Martin Orion structural test article team performed a critical jettison test on June 1, 2020. During the test, the three large service module fairings that cover the solar arrays on the structural test article, were jettisoned into large nets. This test, performed at Lockheed Martin Space’s Waterton Canyon facility near Denver, validated the structural shock and stresses seen during the launch milestone.