Michelangelo鈥檚 classic statue David is clean again, having been restored in time for its 500th anniversary in September. But he still has ankle problems.
David was brought indoors in 1873 from the Piazza Signoria in Florence and has resided at the city鈥檚 Accademia gallery ever since. On Monday, a team from the gallery led by Cinzia Parnigoni announced they had completed the controversial two-year 鈧�360,000 restoration project. To gently clean the statue鈥檚 surface of dirt and calcium sulphate deposits, the team used compresses of rice paper soaked in distilled water and covered with a mixture of cellulose pulp and the magnesium silicate mineral meerschaum.
But some critics argue that cleaning was unnecessary and ill-conceived. 鈥淭he restorers are giving David a cosmetic job, without treating his real problem 鈥� stability,鈥� says James Beck of Columbia University in New York, who is a founder of the ArtWatch lobby group, which has petitioned against the project (New 杏吧原创, 17 January, p 42).
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David has cracks in both ankles, which Beck says have weakened the statue鈥檚 right leg and the base. But Parnigoni and her team say they are monitoring the cracks, and engineers will meet to discuss the statue鈥檚 stability on 9 June. 鈥淭he real problem faced by David is the capacity of the large statue to resist powerful earth tremors,鈥� says a statement from the gallery.
The statue has already survived a lightning strike, having its left arm lopped off by rioting mobs, and a dousing of hydrochloric acid during a previous restoration.