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Discussion 8.2: Restoration

Discussion 8.2: Restoration

Q Congratulations! You are now fully responsible for The Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci. The year is 1978 and you have to make the decision about what to do with this painting. What is your end goal? Do you restore the painting or conserve it? To save the work? To get back to the "original" Leonardo? To make the work look better? What makes you confident that you can do this? How do you justify your personal end goal to the rest of the world (this is a serious question, by the way), especially if you are deciding to go into the work and make significant alterations? Lay out your rationale and argument concerning why you decide to proceed the way you do. Take into account the possible objections to your project, and find a way to respectfully put forward your view. Does your decision come with some reservations? What are these? Finally, what is the most historically accurate rendition of the painting in your view? Which approach tries its best to preserve history as it "actually" happened? We will present the following scenario, related to Ross's discussion, just to underline the weightiness of the issue, and as food for thought as you contemplate what you will do. Let's suppose that we happened, by some miracle, to have an actual recording of Chopin playing the piano. Let's also suppose, however, that if we decided to restore this recording, we lived in a world where we could not make a copy of the "original." This would present us with a problem similar to that faced by the restorers of The Last Supper, in that the changes are irreversible. What do you do when confronted by this situation? And how does that decision translate over to painting? Your post should be two to three (well-developed) paragraphs long.

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If I was responsible for The Last Supper painting, my main would have been to preserve it correctly so that of the artwork does not get any further damaged. I believe that rather than restoring the artwork, if we can leave the damaged version itself, it will have more historical value. Instead of restoration, I would have ordered a new copy to be made and I can keep them in the museum side by side so that people can view them together. They can then get an idea of what it could have looked when it had been made, and at the same time, they can see the original piece that is carrying the weight of time and history.