Michelangelo's River God restored after more than 50 years

Restored after more than 50 years in storage is the River God made by Michelangelo between 1524 and 1527.

It was kept in the basement of Casa Buonarroti in Florence, but it belongs to theAccademia delle Arti e del Disegno and will soon be on display again to the public after undergoing careful restoration conducted by Rosanna Moradei under the guidance of theOpificio delle Pietre Dure. The intervention was made possible thanks to the nonprofit Friends of Florence foundation.

Michelangelo created this work with raw clay, river sand, animal hair, plant fibers, wood and iron wire and is the only large preparatory model for a sculpture that was to be placed in the New Sacristy.

“The long and sensitive intervention gives us an image that was not known: a powerful body, to which the newfound whiteness gives the illusory appearance of marble, ready, as it must have been in Michelangelo’s intentions, for a ’dress rehearsal’ in the New Sacristy in San Lorenzo,” said Cristina Acidini, president of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno.

Source: Ansa - Repubblica

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Michelangelo's River God restored after more than 50 years

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