Michelangelo paintings may be restored

By PETER POPHAM in Rome

The last paintings ever executed by Michelangelo, when he was into his 70s, are shortly to be restored if the Holy See can find sponsors willing to put up the estimated Euros 3 million cost.

They are the twin frescoes in the Vatican's Pauline Chapel illustrating the conversion of Saul (later St Paul) and the crucifixion, upside down, of St Peter.

The pictures have never been nearly as popular as those of the Sistine Chapel next door, and the chapel itself is little visited.

Henry Thode, the great Michelangelo scholar, writing a century ago, said that the paintings had been badly preserved, damaged by smoke, restored and over-painted "to such an extent that the original character of the colouring has almost entirely vanished; the colours now produce a disagreeable, almost ugly effect."

The challenge for the restorers is to reach back beyond those defects to rediscover the glory of Michelangelo's last achievement.

According to Francesco Buranelli, director-general of the Vatican museums, the work should start within the next couple of months and could take four years to complete.

"It's a very important restoration from many points of view - technical, historical, artistic, cultural," he said. "So the Holy See will leave nothing to chance."

Detailed studies into what the restoration will involve are already far advanced. The paintings were executed between 1545 and 1550. In the conversion of Saul, God hurls a beam of buttery light from a typically crowded Michelangelo heaven, casting Saul to the ground.

In the Crucifixion of St Peter the apostle, who asked to be crucified upside down as he did not consider himself worthy to die in the same position as Jesus, looks round boldly at the miserable crowd attending the event. A tall, grief-wracked figure in the corner is believed to represent the artist.

- INDEPENDENT