Established Member
An elderly parishioner in Spain apparently took it upon herself to restore a decaying fresco with disastrous results.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19349921The once-dignified portrait now resembles a crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic.
How does that saying go about the road to hell being paved with good intentions?
Order of Kilopi
Oh my. Too bad they didn't do something to conserve it before she got upset!
Art restoration, in general, can be very controversial. Lots of folks got upset about the restoration of the Sistine Chapel. Too bright!
Architcture is also problematic. A fellow named Viollet-le-Duc went through France like a dose of salts in the 19th century, "restoring" many major monuments to his idea of how they should have looked, but in fact never did. He's also responsible for this abomination, which mostly demonstrates his complete lack of understanding of how trebs actually work. Hmm, that reminds me: time for my annual thread!
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
Order of Kilopi
Could I get a hint?Originally Posted by Trebuchet
Order of Kilopi
It reminds me of Mr. Bean's attempt to "restore" an old book. Not safe if you are drinking coffee though.
As above, so below
Established Member
I don't know Art, but . . . man, that is awful!
Order of Kilopi
It's terribly sickening and sad, but also hilariously misguided.oh well...
Order of Kilopi
What amazes me most is: how did she get access to the fresco long enough to do what she did? I mean I believe that the fresco is on the wall of a church. It isn't exactly low profile.
Solfe
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'That was tops! Who's not good at math? I was all, "Four!"' - Finn, Adventure Time.
Banned
I can hear Higgins, from Magnum P.I. shouting, "Oh, my GOD!!!"
Order of Kilopi
The sling seems to have some sort of complicated release thing. It won't release regardless because of overly enveloping the shot. There are some blocks on struts out on the back that seem to have no purpose whatsoever.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
Banned
Hey, I was a mech-e for close to thirty years. I can do the math, but math wasn't my strong suit. What I excelled at was predicting failure points and designing equipment which didn't fail. I was pretty good at cutting out the extraneous redundancies, too, as mistakes there cost lives as well.
Back to trebuchets. It drops a weight, which is linear. The weight follows a mostly linear profile, but is translated by the arm into circular/orbital. The arm translates the force into a combination of linear, circular, and elliptical forces by the nature of the geometry. But the nature of the geometry between the circular arm fulcrum and the payload isn't circular, or even elliptical. It's hyperbolic.
Given that, the most efficient relation between the arm and the cord which propels your target isn't at the tip of an arm, but along the tangential line of an hyperboloid, i.e. a cam.
That's just my gut sense, but my gut tells me this also is a simplification of the action. I'm not capable enough of reducing the equations to their bases, but if I were, I see no impediment to launching a projectile for several miles.
If you want to stick to wood, instead of carbon fiber, I think we're effectively limited to more than a mile, but the limfac keeps pointing at the lanyard used to accelerate the payload, not the trebuchet mechanism itself.
In short, built it big enough, even with wood alone, and all you would need is a stout enough cable to launch whatever you want into the next county.
For the next country, if not orbit, things grow increasingly complex, and it appears as if rockets are the only answer. The forces for trebuchets become ridiculously out to lunch.
Banned
Bottom line, if you'd like to launch a VW into suborbital path, all we need is a very tall building capable of withstanding a good deal of force, and a great deal of force not normally associated with a tall building.
I repeat "suborbital." I can't make it work from the Dubai Tower. It's too fragile, unless you want to orbit a dead frog.
Order of Kilopi
You wouldn't want to orbit a live frog. It might croak.
As above, so below
Banned
Ha. Conceptually, it's a point well worth consideration. Please give further consideration.
Order of Kilopi
I liked the line:
Well, I'm glad she realized she was out of her depth. She was just a bit slow realizing that, though.The woman appears to have realised she was out of her depth and contacted Juan Maria Ojeda, the city councillor in charge of cultural affairs.
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?
The Leif Ericson Cruiser
Established Member
They are going to try and restore the painting. At the bottom of the article in this Spanish link, there is a nice slidey device to compare the before and after images of the 'restoration'. Fortunately, nobody considers the painting to be of much artistic value.
Order of Kilopi
Or, more closely related, his attempt to restore a painting (first Bean movie). Actually, that one ended up suspiciously close to what happened in this church.
Order of Kilopi
That's because we are used to seeing old art with faded colours, darkened veneer, or both.Too bright!
I've seen Da Vinci paintings unrestored (darkened veneer) and restored (new veneer, nothing changed to the paint itself). The colours used were bright and alive. It's only by renewing the veneer that you see the painting as it was actually painted.
Last edited by Nicolas; 2012-Aug-24 at 07:33 AM. Reason: paint without t hurts the meaning of this post
Moderator
O come on, you didn't do that on purpose? :)
ETA: The last paragraph of the article in the OP:
Our correspondent says that to make matters worse, the local centre that works to preserve artworks had just received a donation from the painter's granddaughter which they had planned to use to restore the original fresco.
Order of Kilopi
The movie was the first thing I thought of when I read this story, too - I had forgotten about his attempt to restore the book in the TV series.Or, more closely related, his attempt to restore a painting (first Bean movie). Actually, that one ended up suspiciously close to what happened in this church.
And just to tie the whole thing together, the Latin lyrics to the TV show's theme song begin with the words, "Ecce home qui est faba..."
Order of Kilopi
I think she must have been heavily influenced by Francis Bacon.
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Same here... If someone doesn't know what we are refering to, it's Whistler's Mother(video). (picture)
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When the trebuchet is fully wound, those blocks would appear to be vaguely even to where the counterbalance would be. Maybe he was imagining some sort of peasant-proof stop? "Crank this windlass until the weight reaches the stops. No further."
I did suspect you'd bring up the sling, and I see what you mean. I wonder if that dark bit along the axis is meant to be a slit, and if the ropes at P are intended to spread the sling to free the shot?
Last edited by Moose; 2012-Aug-23 at 01:30 PM.
Order of Kilopi
It seems to me that the release mechanism is intended to release by opening the sling pouch along the bottom.
Like it was based on a verbal description which ended up at someone who has no knowledge of slings and had to invent something from scratch.
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Reductionist and proud of it.
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. Benjamin Franklin
Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails. Clarence Darrow
A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read. Mark Twain
Order of Kilopi
Yes, that's pretty much my feeling on the whole machine. Sadly, Violet-le-Duc exercised the same sort of judgement on historic sites all over France.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
Established Member
The poor old lady who has admitted that she did the restauration has declared before the camera that she hasn't finished yet, making it even worse:
Link"Con toda mi buena voluntad, he hecho una cosa que creía que estaba bien. Además, todavía no está terminada", decía la mujer, sin ser consciente de que ese comentario daría lugar aún a más risas y chascarrillos en la red.
Order of Kilopi
Which reminds me, if we really want to restore ancient art, such as roman and greek statues/sculpture, don't we need to paint them?
Et tu BAUT? Quantum mutatus ab illo.
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Which pretty much highlights the difference between restoration and conservation. If you want to restore them to their original appearance, by all means paint them. And put the missing limbs back on. Except, you don't know what the originals were like so you're better off just preventing further deterioration. "Restoring" stuff by just making up what they should have looked like is a bad thing. On the other hand, restoring Michelangelo's Pieta after it was attacked by a nut with a hammer was appropriate. We knew what it had looked like.
In the present case, there appears to be a pretty good record of what the fresco looked like before the lady "restored" it. There's no point in leaving it the way she left it so they may as well restore it properly.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
Order of Kilopi
Da Vinci's paintings are so ugly, they hurt the eyes.
I missed a "t" somewhere...
Established Member
Makes you rather sad for the original artist.
"It's ruined! Well, it was lousy to begin with!"
"Yeah, let's be glad she didn't choose to 'restore' something good!"
Banned
I'm very thankful they managed to capture pictures prior to the "restoration."
On another note, I'm sure the lady who attempted the restoration is under a great deal of fire. Yes, she's under fire. She goofed, big time, so let's cut her some slack. We have the original pictures.
She meant well.
Let's move on, ok?
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