Jots & Tittles

Pristine Sistine

The Sistine Chapel is back. The vivid colors of the wall and ceiling frescoes are visible once again—thanks to the generosity of donors and the efforts of restorers, who have swept away centuries of soot and dust in a project that began 20 years ago.

“It’s magnificent,” effused Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka, who previewed the restoration before a ceremony with Pope John Paul II. “It’s back to its original beauty.” The restorers began with Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes of the Creation and Flood and moved on to the Last Judgment scene painted on the wall above the chapel’s altar. Most recently, restorers completed work on the side-wall frescoes of St. Peter receiving the keys to Rome, the life of Moses, and other scenes by Botticelli and other 15th-century artists.

Gianluigi Colalucci, chief of the restoration team, told the Associated Press that their efforts should last for decades, perhaps even a century or more. “And then we’ll need only a light intervention,” he said.

An air-filtering system will help remove pollutants that enter the chapel on the heels of 3 million visitors each year. The system’s effectiveness will be tested next year, as 30 to 40 percent more visitors are expected to pass through the Vatican museums during the millennial year.