Passersby and art lovers alike
can watch restoration in action as a 1609 masterwork by Italian painter
Caravaggio is treated in Italy’s lower chamber of parliament. Restorers have set up
a temporary laboratory at street level to touch up Caravaggio’s Adoration of
the Shepherds in the Chamber of Deputies, on via Parlamento 19, in Rome.
On October 7, the work site was also opened for indoor
guided visits on Wednesdays and Fridays from 3pm to 5pm.
Reservations are required and can be made at www.fastweb.it (click on the box at the right-hand side that reads ‘Caravaggio Restauro
Aperto’).
When the work is completed, in January 2010, the
painting will be temporarily showcased in the gallery of the Quirinale
presidential palace to mark the 400th anniversary of Caravaggio’s death.
After that, it returns to its
permanent home at the Regional Museum of Messina. The painting was commissioned
to adorn the central altarpiece of the Cappuccini Church in Messina, during Caravaggio’s sojourn in Sicily in the early 1600s.
