by Sophie Humann
Detail from the Nekyia episode in The Odyssey on the ceiling of the Throne Room. © Maël Voyer Gadin-Palais princier de Monaco
About 20 frescoes lie beneath the ceiling of the marble alcove bedchamber in the Palace of Monaco. One millimeter after the next, chisels and small scalpels reveal a presumptuous Bellerophon trying to climb Mount Olympus to get closer to the gods before Zeus throws him off his horse. A laser has just scrubbed the 16th-century fresco without altering the pigments. Then it was cleaned with cellulose pads soaked in distilled water, small gaps were filled in with watercolor and larger ones restored using the a tratteggio technique. Recommended by the Venice Charter, the method involves drawing thin vertical lines in watercolor on a restoration plaster to give an illusion of continuity from a distance while respecting the original work. The restoration, which began in 2021, is expected to last another three to four years. Visitors exploring the Grand Apartments, which have just been refurbished, cannot see the fresco yet, but it can nevertheless be glimpsed standing on tiptoes and shining a flashlight through a hole the size of a grapefruit. Another ceiling, covered with a frolicsome band of satyrs and maenads squabbling over baskets of fruit, is hidden there about 20 centimeters (7.8 inches) above the one in the room. Incredibly fresh-looking grotesques protected from light and air taunt visitors from their hiding place. Click here to read more
