Ow! ow! … ooohagh … don't they realise all that chafing hurts – much more than a cut-throat scrape …
What are they doing … restoring me, repairing, re-painting me, cleaning me …? I know I'm 500 years old but … it is 1997 after all.
They've been nibbling pieces of my paint, crushing the rough pieces of oils in their fingers to dust – for some reason they put this stuff into little vials – now I could gaze at those pieces of me …
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiIJ5faw0UF1d_Rh_XAK0trIshO25cny2DedHri_qcIwkQ5FnYTbUIioTmw8j2n35fh6t5Ax_uiBbTHpjlL5ZSGM1RhqYVcQi7RKCw15pIFYjA-g3ZNGBUDi20YjGo-Zqa-Tu1zZeEZh9VQp4TcpsNbRqMt4-vsO6qz7vNwWj7EhqmCcEx53C4iR9Bgww=w200-h174) |
Cut-throat razor |
... they take me off into their ether … there I'm scrutinised from all angles, put into metal boxes which flash lights at me, other containers brightly shine at me … some close-up, sometimes from afar …
… those people stand and stare, gossip until I'm subjected to some infraction … they seem to think it improves me – how could it? I am me – me - Narcissus – I, I cannot be perfected …
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhkN9DMxPfv5G3Y7GRSFYCLWSGJjXuQHHIpm1NjwGBaCZVyT71ii_XQ92-0t-NorMXxqGgcpR6-yLsFtYZrVAz-tx3sEozIvfL23qcLUnJ9ldCa4W1LRp-8qbqfnuDHrmussYirOxg3KLBt1IanL6GaaFGx8yjN-o2eWiR2ZWc03VBVbDJK7vc7DdA2aA) |
Syrian Vial from the 4th C - today they are made from glass |
Caravaggio created me using chiaroscuro … now he was allowed to pore over me, observe my very movements … so that I, in all my perfetto youth, would be captured tenebroso...
I believe they call it research … to see how dark and grubby this masterpiece of me has become – but look ... I shine so brightly out of the shadowy canvas … you can still see my reflection clearly in the pool – but they keep working, thinking they can buff me up …
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi362ziD_CtjbVtcKvn8VfxRiQUz3ePW37qdaX4K-ijdE3gvGLMv9Q9A658G-Ax19QRaTAkySp1RXYKsQmNfekOgyVXIjBWjtkUt9d-CrllUt9jdbmZr62v_kL_uywjWgcxoyJAoocWJBe3up4SmW_7rKtvDEiR6egacvcyUXgjehn-oSYQ_coODnu7gA) |
St John the Baptist by Caravaggio (1604) highlighting Tenebrism |
Over the centuries they've dusted me off – then they attack me – it's nearly the 21st century – what do they expect … I am valuable as a masterpiece (that has not been so closely examined).
Yet if only I had known what was to come in the next 24 years … they've lost their creativity … it seems they punch things like keyboards (similar to clavichords) and out appears from the constantly changing mirror in front of them many images of me …
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhqJCwT-a6283a7u-W1tReOPOnnY50JoINdQL3L4LsAA8UgZ0woE17PAG4XfjKAhLhBSgECQxATi6sakaZ0_8YB4iLl8_6nAR9JCbxkcm53MRoR6wKosWVSSDhOIWgSnvkO72z_UWfAejLgRxXGS5Tos0PtKC1C8P511z7j68bRcda8xTP_vSMlGBNEPQ) |
1977 unfretted Clavichord |
I am me – me - the way Caravaggio painted me so empathetic to my youthful appearance – these 'reproductions' as they are called – do not credit me with Caravaggio's sympatico art-style.
Really they should leave me alone – I enjoy my place on the wall of the National Gallery of Ancient Art, Rome – where everyone can and does so admire me … completely fawning over Caravaggio's creation.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhnvBohcRBtS3iaIRPel3_mQbQDoen9TaglzqlFJt_YFmrQsPZAFIF_EfU9I5nRh2v4wjECzTF-Bl3h-2JATs_68ZDftpafbREzJv3afJ4a4pp4kyiiumZELxDPq-VK2qJe_5U9SoI4ZYDONFdG2Kiv-hwyS92XlrDGHhiLxrPoDWi60q7yXzneunshmw) |
National Gallery of Ancient Art, Rome |
Wear and Tear – they need to look at their own lives … I've lasted more than 500 years, expect they only live about one fifth of my life.
Oh I'm so sensuously beautiful – and will be forever more … no wear and tear for me … more importantly no ageing.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJybilaVO8b7DOUHlShBNJ4SqbI4jooJ6HjasyeyILW2zRUOpvG5QEaXU8ayBKBPgf1oduEasxJLmt7Qf2rN6domvBdQ0WLQAMWnUTgFBInBF-kJCi-jn-GKKwCwHT0l2wyVCkTwTUbFqskQ1rvAMHj9ib71m-uzQvNTytymksL3idebZoSg3wSbOnZg) |
Smartphone screen 21st C |
The art work may age – and they can do their damnedest to restore, repair, or conserve – definitively in the era they live in … the technology seems to find things that would not have been found in earlier centuries, but I remain me – "Narcissus".
Wear and Tear begone!
Fine Art Conservation YouTube video by
Julian Baumgartner of Chicago - for anyone interested
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories