>I had always assumed that much of the whitewashing and removal of colour
>occurred as a result of the 17th century's interest in a "classical
>aesthetic" which they wrongly assumed included unpainted stone sculpture.
Cecilia's post on this topic, following so many others of interest, sparked the
memory of what has been done in the Italian region of Abruzzo in the 1960s and
1970s. At that time, the person responsible for the maintenance and restoration
of historic monuments made it a habit of arranging for the wonderful Romanesque
cathedrals, basilicas and churches of the region to be completely stripped of all
the baroque painting and ornamentation that had accrued over the centuries, such
that these churches are today stark and at times forboding places. The effect on
those who would have gone to religious services in these places was a negative
ones; these people had grown up going to a richly decorated church, only to find
it replaced by its architectural shell. In some cases, frescos were found
underneath the later whitewash, but mainly one finds silent stone in place of
singing rococo.
George Ferzoco
(my goodness, a rhyme I'd never noticed until now. I must have been loco)
George Ferzoco tel ++ 44 (0)116 252 2654
Director of Studies for Italian fax ++ 44 (0)116 252 3633
University of Leicester e-mail [log in to unmask]
School of Modern Languages
LEICESTER LE1 7RH UNITED KINGDOM
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|