By Frances D'Emilio
.c The Associated Press
3/18/2002 

PADUA, Italy (AP) - From the stubble on a donkey's chin to tears staining a 
mother's face, a just-completed cleaning has revealed telling new details in 
the frescoes of Italian artist Giotto. 

The official unveiling Monday of Giotto's restored frescoes in Padua's 
Scrovegni Chapel, commissioned 700 years ago for a banker's private place of 
worship, included VIP guests, fanfare and entertainment. 

It also revived criticism that restorations - especially those that aren't 
crucial - can harm the original art. 

``Who cares that they found tears,'' said Ornella Livigni, a restorer who 
belongs to ArtWatch International, a group that has criticized many 
restorations in Italy, ranging from the ambitious facelift of Michelangelo's 
frescoed ceiling in the Sistine Chapel to that of Leonardo Da Vinci's ``Last 
Supper.'' 

ArtWatch advocate James Beck, a Columbia University art historian, in a 
telephone interview from New York, called the eight-month restoration ``a 
triumph for public relations for local and national politicians, and a sad 
day for art.'' 

One of the chief restorers, Francesca Capanna, said an accumulation of salts 
under and on top of the frescoes had been threatening to damage the artwork. 

The frescoes depict the life of Christ, the Virgin Mary and the Last 
Judgment, and were finished in 1305. They are widely considered Giotto's 
highest achievement. 

Despite the disputes, the restorers were plainly delighted by what had 
emerged from under the dirt and salt. 

In one of Biblical scenes on the chapel's walls, a tear's path is traced down 
the cheeks of three mothers mourning their infants massacred on orders of 
Herod, the Judean king. Tiny hairs stud the face of a donkey in another 
Biblical scene. 

Restorers stressed that where color had disappeared, such as in much of the 
lapis lazuli pigments favored by Giotto, no attempt was made to replace the 
hue. 

The restoration adds to Giotto's reputation as an artist who foretold the 
greatness of the Italian Renaissance, restorers said. 

``That Giotto is a genius didn't come out of these discoveries,'' said 
Capanna. ``What this restoration did was confirm his genius in a big way.'' 

Starting March 26, the public will be allowed to marvel at Giotto's scenes 
for 15 minutes in small groups. But at $10, the admission is pricey - it's 
higher than the cost of a ticket to see the Sistine Chapel and the rest of 
the Vatican Museums, where tourists can wander for hours. 

Italy has relied heavily on corporate sponsors to pick up the tab of caring 
for its most famous art works. However, the $1.7 million for the Giotto 
restoration came from the country's popular weekly lottery. 

On the Net: 

Restoration project, http://www.icr.arti.beniculturali.it 

ArtWatch, http://www.ArtWatchInternational.org