Sunday

Masterpiece With Botched Nose Job

The Guardian reports that 'the Louvre Museum in Paris is facing accusations that restorers have carried out two botched nose jobs on a woman pictured in one of its 16th-century masterpieces. Art experts on both sides of the Channel say that a principal character in Supper at Emmaus, a 1550s painting by the Renaissance master Veronese, has been scarred by "vulgar cosmetic" surgery. After the first operation, the patient emerged with "a mutilated nose tip that hovers disconnectedly over an anatomical void", according to critics. Subsequent corrective surgery has left her with an unnaturally wide nostril and swollen lips, they say. Michel Favre-FĂ©lix, president of the Association for the Respect and Integrity of Artistic Heritage (Aripa) in Paris, said: "Veronese had pictured a noble family mother, as an echo to the Virgin Mary, and it has been turned into a caricature of a 21st-century adolescent, with bloated cheeks and a ridiculous pout." His concerns were echoed by Michael Daley, director of restoration watchdog ArtWatch UK, who said: "It's an astonishing own goal by the Louvre because this time, after criticisms of their first repaint had appeared in the French press, the Louvre covertly repainted it again, but without leaving any record of their action in their own files." He criticised "picture surgeons" who act like cosmetic surgeons, "prettifying" unique images, and condemned restorers who are doing more harm than good. Before-and-after photographs of the Veronese offer "incriminating" evidence, Daley said, proving that the changes were "unwarranted and indefensible". Mark Zucker, professor of art history at Louisiana State University and a specialist in Italian Renaissance art, said: "Shocking is a good word to describe what the restorers have wrought." Although restorers concede the errors of their predecessors, the rate of restorations is accelerating, critics say. Their criticisms, to be published this month in ArtWatch UK Journal, come ahead of a meeting on 18 June by a Louvre committee, apparently to decide whether to restore another masterpiece, Leonardo Da Vinci's Virgin and Child with St Anne'. For full source and full article including "nose job images" click the Headline. Irish Art