Inside look! Climb with us to see Michelangelo’s cleaned-up work

On Saturday, the Vatican Museums woke to a few accredited journalists, welcomed before the arrival of visitors in the sacred silence of the Sistine Chapel. The clicking of the first camera shutters quickly breaks the calm, much to the chagrin of an employee who grumbles as she pulls her cart. She didn't have time to finish cleaning the cosmatesque pavement. This colorful carpet of marble’s splendor is almost overlooked, as all eyes are irresistibly drawn upward to the wonders of Michelangelo and his brilliant 16th-century colleagues.

At the far end of the chapel, engulfing the altar, an impressive six-story scaffold has been erected to restore the fresco of the Last Judgment. The installation is covered with a high-definition canvas reproduction of the fresco. However, its translucent fabric reveals the solid metal structure where, since the beginning of February, a dozen employees from the Vatican Museums' restoration department have been working.

Behind the door that gives access to the scaffolding, once you have put on the mandatory safety helmet, you can climb a few steps and discover Michelangelo's masterpiece at your fingertips. Foot by foot, as you climb the levels, the convulsed bodies of the damned and the monsters of hell appear first. Then, little by little, an intertwining of men and women whose naked flesh oscillates between fall and redemption; and higher up, representations of ancient and Christian virtues, sages, saints, and angels.

And finally, at the sixth level of scaffolding, the haloed figure of the risen Christ dominates the entire fresco. Such close proximity reveals some secrets that are usually invisible, particularly the fine stigmata on Christ's hands and side.

On the top floor, the scaffolding stops a few meters from the chapel's vault, another masterpiece by Buonarroti, painted a few years before The Last Judgment.

Pointing to the wall, Fabrizio Biferali, curator of the 15th- and 16th-century art department of the Vatican Museums, explains why this impressive project — funded by major American donors — was launched. A thin white film of “calcium lactate” — an organic material derived from substances released by humans through perspiration — covers the entire fresco.

The culprit: the flow of millions of visitors who have come to admire the chapel over the years — 25,000 visitors a day, according to Barbara Jatta, director of the Museums. Eight o'clock strikes and hundreds of people, from countries all over the world, begin to file in.

During the work, their numbers are strictly controlled by the Museums, keen to let their employees work in a calm and safe atmosphere.

The current project isn’t the first of its kind. However, it doesn't compare with the previous one carried out in the 1980s and 1990s to restore the entire Sistine Chapel, points out Paolo Violini, head of the Vatican Museums' painting restoration laboratory.

A few blackened squares have been preserved on the wall as a reminder of the scale of the operation carried out last time. The papal conclave room regained all its colors, but at the cost of some controversy that had stirred up the small world of restoration, with some considering the intervention excessive.

This time, the method used by the Museum teams shouldn’t be controversial. It consists of delicately flattening a small square of Japanese paper, almost transparent, onto the fresco, then just as carefully passing a brush dipped in demineralized water over it. In a few minutes, the paper absorbs the whitish patina and is removed.

The operation has already been carried out on a large part of the wall and should be completed in a month, in time for the start of Holy Week.

“It's a less demanding project than others, but nevertheless necessary to preserve The Last Judgment,” says Fabrizio Biferali, who says he is honored to be part of this small gesture in the history of painting and restoration. “And what a thrill to have the time to see this work up close ... We know we have the best workplace in the world!” he says.