The “savior of Michelangelo” died, the man who restored the Sistine Chapel

Gianluigi Colalucci, who restored the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel by the famous Michelangelo for 14 years, died at the age of 92 in Rome, the Vatican Museums reported today.

Colalucci directed the works of the so-called “restoration of the century” between 1980 and 1994, and “thanks to his courage and talent, today the colors of the Sistine Chapel appear in all their dazzling splendor”, the Vatican Museums highlighted when reporting on the network social Instagram of his death occurred last Monday.

The intense restoration task included the replacement of the detached pigment parts and the washing of the darkened paint, with solvents and distilled water to highlight the brilliance of the colors, starting from the lapis lazuli sky, and in this way managed to eliminate the layer of dirt, accumulated for centuries by candle smoke.

As a final result, the splendid colors of the frescoes were visible, with all their expressive force, which Michelangelo Buonarroti, painted on the Sistine vault between 1508 and 1512, and then the Final judgment on the wall behind the altar (1535-1541).

The director of the Vatican Museums, Bárbara Jatta highlighted the figure of the restorer by pointing out that “Colalucci has distinguished himself internationally not only for having had the courage, the strength, the ability to face the restoration of the century. The then directors of the Painting Galleries and the Vatican Museums, Fabrizio Mancinelli and Carlo Pietrangeli, decided to undertake this restoration because they had Gianluigi Colalucci as a technician, as a reference figure ”.

“He was heir to a great Vatican and Italian tradition in the world of restoration, protection and conservation,” said Jatta, reported the daily curator. ABC, from Spain.

Colalucci was born in Rome in 1929 and during his long career he also restored the works of great artists such as Raphael, Giotto, Leonardo, Guido Reni, Titian, Andrea Mantegna, Caravaggio and Guercino.

From the restoration of the Sistine Chapel he wrote several scientific books on the Sistine and Michelangelo. In one of his publications, in the form of a diary, Michelangelo and me, tells facts, discoveries and people who marked the monumental restoration. In 1995 he was named Doctor Honoris Causa by the Polytechnic University of Valencia.