Antique Roadshow has taught me to never refinish an antique anything.

There was an equal, if not greater, uproar, when they cleaned the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

In the case of the Chartres Cathedral, the lighter colored interiors were meant to be that way, because the original builders wanted it to reflect the light of heaven on earth, or something to that matter. It also helps light up the interior of the cathedral, by accentuating the natural lighting, something the…

I feel so conflicted about the cathedral. On the one hand, I enjoy anything that allows me to see things as they were and get even the slightest feel of what it might have been like to experience them as the original users did. On the other hand, that wasn’t just straight dirt that was removed - it was the soot of…

Wow, seems like soot is really amazing and powerfully effective (it must have come only from candles or normal breathing air). Soot!

Fun fact! Black Madonnas were actually popular for a long time because the fair wood turning dark was considered a miracle. If you had a wooden Madonna that turned black, it was fantastic for pilgrimage (tourist) money. The realities of the world being what they are, I’m willing to bet many a Madonna statue was…

Ah, the only reason people got fwowed up about that is because they grew up in a world where the “black” Madonna looked a certain way. The new generation will think it’s supposed to look all pale like this, and get mad when a drunken Bishop accidentally tips it into a vat of ink again.

I visited the cathedral a few months ago, and you have to keep in mind that most of the interiors are painted. There is very little natural patina. The only difference between the light and dark areas are a few hundred years of filth on top of the paint. Still, it does seem that they are repeating the mistake of the…

Yeah, it’s not exactly like the Statue of Liberty which was supposed to turn green.

Thanks for your thoughts. I wonder, though, if the sculptor, particularly of the Black Madonna, had any idea that it would turn black over the centuries. It’s impossible to know his intent, but I doubt he intended it to turn black.

I’m torn, as a huge self-proclaimed history buff I see it both ways. On one had I would absolutely love to see something in its prime but on the other hand I also feel like we should allow it to stay the same, dirt and all as it has appeared throughout history.

I won’t equivocate... they really fucked up with that restoration.

Literally “White-washing” hahahahahaha.

Mmmh, Chartres is a bit different. They didn’t just remove soot, they painted the limestone and painted the Madonna. This is less “cleaning” and more “redoing.” People are particularly upset about the cathedral and the Madonna because there isn’t a whole lot of evidence presented for what they are doing. There is very…

That’s true. I’m far more sure in my preference to leave the building itself as-is than I am about the statues inside. Like paintings they were in fact ultimately form over function.

I feel artworks (in this context meaning their primary purpose is to be visual art) sit in a different realm than buildings or architecture, which is a functional structure that is also made to be art.

Refreshingly neither the car nor the girl appear to have been modified from their factory configuration.

Hahaha! I see what you mean.

Just stumbled across this post. As a PM for a large commercial construction company in our nations capital I can’t even tell you how many times we’ve had an inspector lose his fkin shit because the paver/concrete sub didnt put ADA pavers at the aprons to sidewalks.

Hey, don’t blame this on Omar Bradley! He may not have ever beaten Trinidad & Tobago, but he did beat the nazis.