Adam... by Tullio Lombardo : a stunning restoration project
Today's technology can do miracles to repair broken art pieces, like
what happened to the Italian Renaissance masterpiece 'Adam' from Tullio
Lombardo, in 2002. Indeed the wood base of the sculpture broke
one night, and the sculpture exploded in 28 large pieces together with
hundreds of smaller ones. It took 12 years to restore this life-size
marble sculpture.
Tullio Lombardo (1455-1532) sculpted this Adam, with his father and brother, as part of the Venetian Doge Andrea Verdamin's
tomb, around 1490. The Lombardo family was famous and sculpted several chrches and tombs.
A new sculpture gallery was created to unveil the restoration result, and to display other Venetian and Northern Italy sculptures.
Various videos (see below) show us the complex techniques used by the Metropolitan Museum experts to master that restoration project, and the time-lapse video is impressive!
