the restoration that sows controversy in Italy

All this after the restoration of one of the temple frescoes –on the call chapel of the holy soulsabout the funerary bust of King Umberto II of Savoy – which has sparked controversy in Italy, dividing visitors and curious people and even social networks in the form of memes and sarcastic comments.

To add fuel to the fire, the in charge of this restoration, sacristan and decorator of the basilica, has defended his work in the face of criticism comparing himself to Caravaggio himself. “I portray whoever I want, like him. You can see the resemblance to Meloni, I have only emphasized the figure that existed before,” Bruno Valentinetti assured the newspaper. The Republic this Sunday.

Valentinetti, author of the original painting, denied having altered the image: “I restored what was before… 25 years ago.”

However, The new winged figure with the face of Meloni bears little or no resemblance, one of the two angels in the fresco, to the one that was before of the restoration.

Many critics and the opposition itself interpret that she deliberately gave her features very similar to those of the prime minister, which has motivated a official investigation of the Ministry of Culture on this intervention.

own Melons has reacted with irony, commenting on his Instagram profile, that It is not recognized in the image of the angel. “No, I definitely don’t look like an angel,” he wrote alongside a laughing emoji.

The opponent Five Star Movement has showed his discomfort: “We cannot allow art and culture to run the risk of becoming a propaganda tool.” or anything else, regardless of whether the face depicted is that of the prime minister.”

Focus of tourist attention

The work has become a new focus of tourist attention to which visitors and curious people came this Monday to see the controversial fresco.

“Yes, it’s absolutely Meloni,” Several of the visitors who came to this temple told the Efe agency and took the opportunity to photograph the image, located in the right side chapel of the main altar, in the funerary monument of Umberto II of Savoy.

Francesca Bellinia Roman visitor, considers that “It’s something really very ugly, because, although it attracts many tourists, it is not respectful for everyone, for the Italians and also for the city of Rome.

Curiosity was what pushed Francesco Romanoarchaeologist, to go to the basilica on his day off: “I had heard the news and came out of curiosity. Seeing it, I have to say that yes, it looks like it,” he also acknowledged to the Efe agency, before being critical of the restoration.

“It has been done without scientific purpose and it is something quite serious,” he believes, because leaving “political parties aside,” which he says do not interest him, he believes that “a work of art cannot be transformed” with this type of alterations.

The Inclusion of contemporary characters in artistic works has historical precedentsbut current interventions in protected assets are subject to strict conservation criteria and scientific regulations, which is why this fact has generated a considerable political and institutional reaction in Italy.

Meanwhile, the basilica and some of its chapels continue under construction and with the fresco waiting for the technical inspection ordered by the Italian Ministry of Culture to determine the nature of the intervention and decree the measures it considers.

One of the oldest in Rome

The Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina is one of the oldest temples in Romesince its origins date back to the 4th-5th centuries, when it was built on the house of a matron named Lucina who would have offered her domus as a meeting place for the first Christians.

Consecrated as a church in the year 440 by el is a sixto IIIwas thus linked to the first stages of official Christianity in the city.

Posteriorly, fIt was rebuilt in medieval times, and over the centuries it has accumulated traces of different periods, from the Romanesque portico to the baroque transformations of its interior. That character history turns it into a true stone palimpsest, where styles and devotions overlap.