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The Vatican Mosaic Studio, under the direction of the Fabric of Saint Peter, today performs a dual function: the conservation of the Basilica's mosaics, with restoration work, and the production of mosaic works for sale to the public.
Mar 1, 2015 · The Basilica’s only large painting can be found in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament: it is a work by Pietro da Cortona representing the Holy Trinity. For centuries St. Peter’s Mosaic Studio has maintained this enormous treasury of mosaics — more than 33,000 square feet of them.
- Overview
- Inside the ongoing preservation of the Vatican
- Transcript
Inside the ongoing preservation of the Vatican
Learn about the restoration of tiles in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City.
Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz
•Inside the ongoing preservation of the Vatican
•How graffiti can be removed from a masterpiece painting
•Visit St. Peter's Basilica and learn about the history and architectural styles of this holy place
NARRATOR: The Vatican's history spans centuries. It is a secret world concealed behind high walls and kept in shape by many helping hands to ensure that time doesn't take its toll on the world's largest palace complex. One of these helpers is restorer Gabriele Matiacchi. Today he is working on a large mosaic, but first he needs tiles in the right color.
GABRIELE MATIACCHI: "Got it! I've found the color we need. We'll take it upstairs to the restoration site. All of these colored stones were baked here in our oven at the end of the 19th century, and we can still use them all. Michelangelo's dome is from the 16th century, but the mosaics are one hundred years younger."
NARRATOR: Restorers are often happy to simply have enough work to make ends meet. But restoration in the Vatican is a job not just for life, but for all posterity. The bounty of artworks and architecture is a feast for restorers. Hundreds of thousands of mosaic tiles cover Michelangelo's ceiling masterpiece in the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. After 400 years many of them have become loose. Gabriele has chosen just the right red tone from the 164 red hues the mosaic warehouse has in storage, and now the work can continue. The restoration site is 72 meters above the ground. It is a puzzle of colors and shapes. Hollow spaces have formed in the plaster. To find them, the dome is examined like an elderly patient who then receives a revitalizing jab of plaster, administered today by Gabriele's co-worker.
RESTORER: "And when I hear that the mosaic tiles are loose, I drill a small hole into the façade. We can see that the mistakes in this eye were painted over. You can see that the background is a light color and that everything on top is paint."
- 3 min
Jul 5, 2018 · Here, a handful of highly talented artists and craftsmen have worked tirelessly over the years to restore the 10,ooo square meters of mosaics in Saint Peter’s Basilica, while at the same...
The work of decoration of the Gregorian Chapel begins on June 5, 1576 and ends May 30, 1579. Pope Gregory XIII wanted to create the first new chapel in St Peter's and decorate it with mosaics. The Gregorian Chapel, which has an extraordinary iconographic wealth, takes its name from him.
The Navicella (literally "little ship") or Bark of St. Peter, of Old Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, was a large and famous mosaic by Giotto di Bondone that occupied a large part of the wall above the entrance arcade, facing the main facade of the basilica across the courtyard.
People also ask
How many mosaic tiles are there in St Peter's Basilica?
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Mosaic is the art of taking little colored tiles, either of stone or glass, and fixing them with cement in figurative or geometric patterns. Long before frescoes adorned the vault of the Sistine Chapel, mosaic was the greatest artistic medium of Christianity.
