{"id":5825,"date":"2022-10-14T13:02:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T13:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/this-italian-icon-suddenly-looks-different\/"},"modified":"2024-06-17T20:46:21","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T20:46:21","slug":"this-italian-icon-suddenly-looks-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=5825","title":{"rendered":"This Italian icon suddenly looks different"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Editor\u2019s Note: <\/b>Sign up to CNN Travel\u2019s free nine-part Unlocking Italy newsletter <\/strong>for insider intel on Italy\u2019s best loved destinations and lesser-known regions to plan your ultimate trip. Plus, we\u2019ll get you in the mood before you go with movie suggestions, reading lists and recipes from Stanley Tucci.\n<\/p>\n
\n For over 500 years, Michelangelo\u2019s sculpture of David in Florence has stood unchanged, the marble icon of masculinity, and one of the world\u2019s most famous works of art.\n <\/p>\n
\n But as Italy emerges from the pandemic, the David has got a whole new look.\n <\/p>\n
\n A new lighting system has revolutionized how the famous statue looks, with small details visible for the first time in its history.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cA few days ago, I noticed muscles on the body that I\u2019d never seen before,\u201d says Lucia Lazic, a guide who visits the Accademia Gallery most days.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI said, \u2018What on earth? How have I never seen this?\u2019 The lighting is much better on the David.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Accademia, said in a statement that the lighting has \u201cchanged the visual perception of the artworks,\u201d telling CNN that the David\u2019s marble looks \u201cwhiter\u201d and that the details are \u201cmore visible.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The lighting \u2013 completed in September as part of works that were unveiled this week \u2013 aimed to bring the \u201cdynamism of sunlight\u201d into the Tribuna room where the statue is kept under a domed skylight.\n <\/p>\n
\n LED spotlights were installed in a circle above the statue, allowing them to \u201ccompletely envelop the David and leave the rest of the space in the background.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The color of the light changes imperceptibly during the day, while the spotlights are of varying warmth, allowing visitors to get a new perspective with every step around the statue.\n <\/p>\n
\n The new-look David is part of a wider revamp of the museum, which was Italy\u2019s second most visited in 2019.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Galleria dei Prigioni, or \u201cprisoners corridor\u201d \u2013 named after Michelangelo\u2019s four semi-finished sculptures of prisoners of war, which share the space with two of his other works \u2013 has also had its lighting switched up, with several spotlights pointed on each sculpture.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt used to be that the prisoners looked yellow, and David was white. Now they\u2019re the same color,\u201d Hollberg told CNN.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cYou can now see every chisel mark on them.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The new lighting system, which \u201crestores the right balance of chiaroscuro and color to the works,\u201d is also energy-efficient. Hollberg says the gallery should use around 80% less electricity than in previous years.\n <\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s not just the headline works that are looking different. Several of the other rooms of the gallery have had their previously beige walls painted in colors that maximize those in the paintings.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Sala del Colosso, the gallery\u2019s first room, is now a bright blue, while the 13th and 14th-century rooms are a pale green, chosen to bring out the gold used in most of the paintings.\n <\/p>\n
Sala Colosso in the Accademia Gallery<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n And the new lighting everywhere has transformed the paintings from things tourists used to rush past en route to David, to unmissable in their own right.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cOne regular visitor said, \u2018Where was all this detail? We never saw it,\u2019\u201d Hollberg told CNN. \u201cIn one painting by Domenico Ghirlandaio you can now see all the gold dots in the [saints\u2019] halos. Before, the beige walls flattened the gold. In another, it feels like you could pluck the pearls from the painting \u2013 before you couldn\u2019t see them at all.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cMy job is to give value and visibility to all the works. Every single work here is a masterpiece, but works die on a beige background \u2013 they need to be lifted and supported by color. I want to give them what they deserve.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n In the past, the lighting was so bad that some paintings were barely visible \u2013 like those beside the David. \u201cBefore it was all dark, you couldn\u2019t see them \u2013 no one stopped,\u201d said Hollberg. One time she saw a guide shining their phone torch on another painting in a bid to show it to visitors.\n <\/p>\n
\n Tourists have already changed their behavior, she said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cNow they stop and look. They\u2019re not all in front of the David like before. I\u2019ve followed groups, and they used to cut through the Sala del Colosso and never stop. Now I see that room full of visitors \u2013 it\u2019s redistributing the crowds.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Lazic, a guide with Elite Italian Experience, agrees: \u201cThere are more people stopping in the Sala del Colosso.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The renovations, which started just before the pandemic and which have been rolled out this year, have finished with the revamp of the Gipsoteca. The plaster cast gallery was another rush-through place. That\u2019s if it was open \u2013 with no open windows or air conditioning, it used to close at midday during the summer.\n <\/p>\n
\n But now with air conditioning, powder blue walls and a new layout for the 414 plaster casts \u2013 mostly done by sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini, whose works are found in the Louvre, Amsterdam\u2019s Rijksmuseum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art \u2013 it\u2019s a place to linger.\n <\/p>\n
\n Hollberg says that locals are starting to appreciate the museum, too. \u201cBefore it was a space for tourists, but Florentines are rediscovering it. We got the last resisters in with a concert series.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Dario Franceschini, Italy\u2019s minister of culture, called the reopening of the Gipsoteca \u201can important step\u2026 in bringing [the Accademia] into the 21st century.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n He added: \u201cThe works across the entire building have allowed significant innovations in the systems, transforming a museum conceived in the late 19th century into a modern venue without distorting it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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