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Tuesday, August 28, 2012
The Worst Art Restoration Mistakes of All Time
August 28th, 2012Top StoryThe Worst Art Restoration Mistakes of All TimeBy Esther Inglis-Arkell
Here's how art restoration screwups can lead to impromptu nose-jobs, cracked paintings, or sand-blasted sculptures.
But just because someone's paid to restore works of art doesn't mean they can't screw up — especially when seemingly minor mistakes can have major consequences. Let's take a look at the many ways to ruin art restorations. Cleaning It Up When the Sistine Chapel underwent a cleaning in order to get centuries of dust and candle soot off its walls and ceiling, the move was railed against by many experts. Some argued that the painting should not be touched for any reason, and that the visible age was part of the art, but others were more concerned by the cleaning process. A lot of damage is done when people don't know when to stop. Some people shouldn't even begin. The cool white of ancient Greek statues isn't a reflection of the sensibilities of antiquity. It's a reflection of the nineteenth century, when art curators found traces of the garish paint that used to cover them and blasted it away in order to make the statues look more beautiful to them. The 1800s also did a number on David. First he was covered in wax to put a nice white surface on him, and then the wax was removed with hydrochloric acid, along with the original patina of the statue.
When Materials Science Goes Wrong
A Caravaggio painting, lost for centuries, was nearly ruined by one of the people who who discovered it. The man was a skilled art restorer, but when a delay came and he couldn't import from Italy a backing to the painting that approximated the canvases used in the 1600s, he got a high-quality local canvas. It shrunk, squeezing the paint and cracking it all over. The man had to peel off the just-applied canvas and order a new one. Bad materials also claimed Egyptian sarcophagi. To be fair, oftentimes a sarcophagus is ruined already. Ruination generally happens when people bury a bunch of precious materials in a hole in the ground, and mark the treasure with an elaborate tomb. One sarcophagus was decorated with a face which had eyes made of alabaster. The precious material was pried off long before it was carted off to European museums in the 1800s. The museums didn't have a lot of alabaster on hand either, and so decided to use a sloppy plaster job. The plaster yellowed over the years, giving the sarcophagus an evil look with yellow eye-whites. Later restorers had to pry the plaster eyes carefully out, and try again. General Oopsery In the end, there are as many ways to screw up a painting restoration as there are people trying to restore paintings. Every decision is another chance to ruin everything, or at least to have people claim you did. Even the Sistine Chapel restoration, which most people think is an excellent example of restoration, has its critics. Other restorers mention that certain details, or shadows, seem to have been lifted away, sometimes to the point of removing the pupils from the eyes of some of the figures. Since any details that were removed had to have been painted over the fresco, not with the fresco, this criticisms kicked off a big debate over which details Michelangelo painted versus what was painted by other artists or at the insistence of the reigning Pope. Then there are the intentional screw-ups. A group of restorers managed to save almost all of a mural called The Tree of Fertility. They just left out the tree itself. And that tree happened to be filled with nothing but penises. The penis has had a tough time in art, historically, what with being knocked off statues, over-painted with clothes, and generally hidden from view, and that trend doesn't seem to be abating.
Admittedly, it takes an amateur to mess up to a certain extent. The pros, though, a no slouches. Maybe we should accept the grime? Or accept that art is more temporary than we like to think it is. Via Business Insider, NY Times, Multimania, The Independent, Conrad Schmitt, and Egyptian Museum.  |
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How to Run Mac OS X Inside Windows Using VirtualBox
August 28th, 2012Top StoryHow to Run Mac OS X Inside Windows Using VirtualBoxBy Whitson Gordon
Running OS X on your Windows desktop will take a bit of work, but it's pretty easy to do and the final product is awesome. To see what the whole setup will look like when you're done, check out the video above. Then, head to the instructions below to set it up for yourself. What You'll NeedBefore you start the installation process, you'll want to gather the following:
Step One: Install and Set Up VirtualBoxBefore we install OS X, we'll need to set up VirtualBox so the OS X install disc can boot correctly. Here's what you need to do:
Now, your machine is ready to boot for the first time. Make sure you have your Mountain Lion ISO ready to go and proceed to the next step. Step Two: Install OS X in VirtualBoxThe next step involves actually installing OS X to your new virtual machine. When you're ready, start up VirtualBox and follow these instructions:
The rest of the installation should be pretty self-explanatory, and should go off without a hitch. It took me about 20 minutes to install OS X. When it finishes, it'll take you to a black screen with white text. At this point, you can click the "X" in the upper-right corner of the window to power off the virtual machine. Step Three: Smooth Out the Rough EdgesYou're almost there! You've installed OS X, but you'll still need to tweak a few things to get audio and graphics working properly. Here's what you need to do. Fix Audio with MultiBeast
Your audio won't work just yet, but we have a few other things we need to do before we restart. Boot OS X Without HackBootIn order to boot OS X without the HackBoot CD, we'll need to delete a problematic kext. You can do this through the following steps:
Get Higher Resolution Virtual MachineLastly, you've probably noticed your VM is running at a pretty low resolution. That's totally lame, so we're going to make it run at the same resolution as our monitor with a few tweaks. To do so, just:
When you're done, restart your OS X virtual machine and you should be greeted with a full-res desktop and working audio! You can now continue to install your favorite apps, set up your keyboard and mouse, and do anything else you like. You've got a fully working virtual Mac on your Windows desktop!  |
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Venice Review: Kurosawa's 'Penance'
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