Word: pelliccioli
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Dates: during 1953-1953
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...world's greatest paintings and muttered in annoyance as the tourists clustered around. To the spectators, his knife-wielding seemed the final indignity to the remains of Leonardo da Vinci's famed Last Supper, sorely damaged by 400 years of weather and bungling restorers. Professor Mauro Pelliccioli, 65, knows better. Next month Italy's No. 1 art restorer will finish up his work on the 15th century masterpiece, and one government official has already pronounced it "the greatest undertaking ever accomplished in the art and science of restoration...
Scraping one tiny area at a time, Pelliccioli started his monumental job on the 13¼-by-29¼-ft.surface almost two years ago. His main guide was a faithful copy of the Last Supper painted by a follower named Andrea Solario in 1520, only 22 years after Leonardo had finished the mural. Solario's copy was destroyed during World War II, but Pelliccioli has a photograph of it and a vivid memory. First he took minute samplings of the surface where past restorers had painted on overlapping layers, then painstakingly scraped down to the original, finally swabbed over...
Professor Pelliccioli knows that no restoration can bring Leonardo's Last Supper back to its original brilliance. It is too far gone for that. But Italy's experts think that the restoration job has brought the Last Supper closer to the original than it has been within the memory of living man. And what's more, says Restorer Pelliccioli, his special shellac skin ought to keep it that way as long as the wall stands...
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