A Restoration Chronicled

The ceiling fresco in the Treppenhaus at the Würzburg Residenz in Bavaria stands as one of the superlative examples of inter-regional artistic collaboration of the Baroque era. After Balthasar Neumann completed the new palace in 1744, the Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo executed the fresco between 1750 and 1753, elevating the space to true Gesamtkunstwerk status. Though Tiepolo’s work did survive a devastating bombing of the Residenz during the Second World War, two and a half centuries after its creation, the welfare of the fresco depended on some serious restoration efforts. Between 2003 and late October 2008 the painted surface was cleaned and missing or severely damaged passages were conserved or restored. All the while, technicians and officials at the Residenz documented the project with great care, resulting in an engrossing trilingual web resource with extensive and sumptuously illustrated coverage of the initiative.

Link to Treppenhaus Restoration Site