Fotoreproductie van de fresco's op het plafond van de Sixtijnse Kapel te Vaticaanstad door Michelangelo c. 1875 - 1900

Curator: What immediately strikes me is the solemn tone of this gelatin-silver print, aged as it is. A certain reverence seems almost baked into its sepia tones. Editor: Indeed. What we have here is a photographic reproduction of Michelangelo’s frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. The print itself dates from about 1875 to 1900. Curator: It's dizzying just to think of photographing a ceiling like that. It is, I believe, even more challenging than photographing a large history painting of equal size. The result has this ethereal quality. One can't help but imagine generations gazing at Michelangelo's masterpiece through this photographic lens. Editor: The composition is quite interesting here. The photographer chose a wide, panoramic view, emphasizing the vastness and intricacy of Michelangelo’s design. The use of toned paper, and the effects of time add depth but also present something of a semiotic problem, perhaps, drawing viewers away from pure representational accuracy to… Curator: …To its symbolic interpretation, I think? I see your point. We’re no longer purely considering what Michelangelo wrought but the dialogue between artwork, media, and viewer—mediated again by time itself. It encourages one to dwell on its history. The fading is its own mark. Editor: Precisely! This aging accentuates the historical layering but there is something in it, that I'd say it accentuates structure and form as a study. If it weren't of something of high-Renaissance magnificence, it might well read as modernist in nature. The emphasis on structure in spite of subject. Curator: Fascinating thought! It almost lets you glimpse a blueprint of artistic interpretation, wouldn't you say? Editor: In its own, strange way, I would say precisely that. Curator: Well, looking at the way the past speaks to us through art certainly has my brain doing a double somersault. A wonderful end to today's tour!