BRONX W www.BXTimes.com EEKLY December 16, 2018 10
Fordham U gifted Met’s Sistine Chapel fresco replica
BY ROBERT WIRSING
You don’t need to travel to
Vatican City to view Michelangelo’s
frescoes.
In November, Fordham
University was gifted the Metropolitan
Museum of Art’s reproduction
of the Sistine Chapel
ceiling fresco from their
‘Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman
and Designer’ exhibition.
The digital reproduction of
Il Divino’s High Renaissanceera
masterpiece currently resides
inside Duane Library’s
Butler Commons at the university’s
Rose Hill Campus.
According to Maria Ruvoldt,
Fordham University
Art History associate professor
and chairwoman, the
quarter-scale reproduction is
The awe-inspiring reproduction is a digital photograph of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling printed on fabric and displayed in an illuminated plexiglass
frame. Photo by Argenis Apolinario
displayed on a flat surface in
contrast to the original which
embraced a curved (barrel
vault) surface.
She added that the reproduction
is a digital photograph
of the Sistine Chapel’s iconic
ceiling printed on fabric and
displayed in an illuminated
plexiglass frame.
Vincent Burke, Fordham
University Capital Programs
and Planning director, said
the replica measures approximately
16’ 4” wide and 41’
long.
Painted between 1508 to
1512, the fresco residing in the
Sistine Chapel measures approximately
131 feet long by 43
feet wide.
The reproduction was produced
for the Met’s ‘Michelangelo:
Divine Draftsman and
Designer’ exhibit which ran
from November 13, 2017 to February,
12, 2018.
It was created in house by
the Met’s exhibition design department.
“The Creation of Adam is
perhaps one of the most recognizable
images in the history
of art often reduced to the interaction
of the hands of God
and Adam, this is only a fraction
of the complex decoration,”
explained Ruvoldt.
Like the original, its replica
depicts several stories from
the Book of Genesis from the
separation of light and dark
to the story of Noah, images
of the Old Testament prophets
and the ancient world’s sibyls,
the ancestors of Christ and
four narrative scenes from
the Old Testament including
Judith and Holofernes, David
and Goliath, the Punishment
of Haman and the Brazen Serpent.
The acquisition of the piece
began when Fr. Joseph Mc-
Shane, Fordham University
president, was touring the exhibit
and he remarked, “What
I wouldn’t do to get this to
Fordham!”
To his and Fordham’s luck,
Erin Pick, the Met’s then senior
administrator, said the
institution would look into his
request since once the show
ended, the Met would dispose
of the piece.
The university was informed
a few weeks later that
the Met approved its proposal.
Fordham University was
only required to cover the cost
of its removal and transportation.
McShane said the fresco’s
installation was completed in
ten days and it has since been
met with great enthusiasm by
faculty.
He said the university
will introduce students to the
breathtaking fresco during
a prestigious ribbon-cutting
ceremony slated for late January.
“When you’re at the Sistine
Chapel, they rush you to see
the fresco, but here at the university
you can spend time appreciating
every detail of it,”
expressed McShane.
The larger-than-life gift
is the latest collaboration between
the two institutions.
In 2017, Fordham lent the
Met Cristóbal de Villalpando’s
‘Adoration of the Magi’ which
the museum restored and included
in its July exhibition,
‘Cristóbal de Villalpando:
Mexican Painter of the BaThe
Sistine Chapel fresco replica serves as the centerpiece for the university’s art history classes. roque.’
Photo by Argenis Apolinario
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