Art & Culture · 3
Art historians who criticized the Sistine ceiling's cleaning believe Michelangelo applied the removed shadow layer using which technique?
Answer
A secco, painted onto plaster after it had dried
Critics contended Michelangelo returned to add dark, dry-applied (a secco) shading after the wet buon fresco plaster had set, and that restorers scrubbed away this final layer.
💡 Did you know?
Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling was nearly destroyed by restorers in the 1980s who removed layers art historians now believe the master intentionally applied.
Other options people guess
- Buon fresco, painted while the plaster was still wet
- Encaustic, using pigment mixed with hot wax
- Grisaille, a monochrome underpainting method
Topics
- sistine-chapel
- michelangelo
- fresco-technique
- restoration
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