Art Article I

          From the beginning of their existence, human beings have always been creating. Whether it be on the walls of a cave, into the surface of a wooden block, or dozens of other mediums, humans have been painting their lives, hopes, beliefs, and dreams into visual creations for future generations to admire for years to come. However, after centuries of wear and tear, these ancient works get closer and closer to being disintegrated into nothing but colored dust. So, over the years, there are people who rise to the challenge of renewing these beloved masterpieces.

          But, not all of these “art restorers” are up to par. In fact, there are many works of art that have been destroyed by the careless acts of restorers over the years. For example, Greek statues were not supposed to be plain white. In fact, they were very colorful; however, the worn paint was washed away instead of repainted, because historians thought that the sculptures looked “better” that way. Oftentimes, built-up dirt on a canvas and actual darker values in Da Vinci-era paintings have been ignored, leaving some classical paintings looking like they were taken by an out-of-focus camera. Sometimes restorers think it’s a good idea to risk completely destroying a work of art by repainting over an image with watercolors or other paints; oftentimes, this is not too big of an issue, other than certain minute details being blotted out. But when things don’t work out so well, images can be completely decimated; for example, the disastrous results of an elderly woman attempting to restore the painting “Ecce Homo” in a church in Borja, Spain, left the old fresco painting completely unrestorable and lost forever.

          To summarize, people have always been trying to save pieces of the past that have been gifted to them by their ancestors. But sometimes, those works of art would have been better off if they had been left to crumble.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Work Cited

Inglis-Arkell, Esther. "The Worst Art Restoration Mistakes of All Time." io9 - We come from the     future.. N.p., 28 Aug. 2012. Web. 5 Sept. 2013. <http://io9.com/5938377/the-worst-art-restoration-mistakes-of-all-time?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+io9%2Ffull+%28io9%29>.

Author Unknown. "Spanish artist Cecilia Gimenez to share riches from botched restoration of a painting of Christ." Artdaily.org - The First Art Newspaper on the Net. Agence France-Presse, n.d. Web. 5 Sept. 2013. <http://artdaily.com/news/64519/Spanish-artist-Cecilia-Gimenez-to-share-riches-from-botched-restoration-of-a-painting-of-Christ#UhZOY2TXip1>.