Encased in marble, is a man on the verge of giving into temptation. The statue is of Adam, the first man, holding the Forbidden fruit and readying to take a bite. Every inch of Adam shows the mastery of the artist behind the sculpture. In their article, “Adam by Tullio Lombardo,” Luke Syson, Chairman of the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts; and Valeria Cafà, assistant curator, explain that Tullio Lombardo was commissioned to carve a statue of Adam for a Venetian doge (chief magistrate) named Andrea Vendramin in 1490. He finished the sculpture in 1495. For around 65 years, Adam had been gracing the halls of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, located in New York City. On October 6, 2002 tragedy struck. The wooden pedestal holding
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The Adam task force needed to first understand and quantify the different forces being exerted onto specific areas of the fractures (Riccardelli, et al. 54). Conservationists relied on technologies such as laser scanning and finite element analysis to provide an almost complete picture of the statue’s internal stresses and the possible reactions to those stresses (Riccardelli, et al. 107-108). Material scientists and engineers used this information to develop performance markers used to test the effectiveness of different adhesives pins; they also contributed to the design of the external framework used to compress the pieces and provide support (Riccardelli, et al. 108). The tests conducted by the material scientists concluded that reversible, thermoplastic adhesives was the best in both strength and creep factor and was more than enough to attach most joins (Riccardelli, et al. 108). There was an extensive discussion concerning whether the conservators should pin the left knee of Adam (Riccardelli, et al. 83-85). The authors gave the pros and cons of adhesive-only join versus pinning the join within the article, “The Treatment of Tullio Lombardo’s Adam: A New Approach to the Conservation of Monumental Marble Sculpture” (Riccardelli, et al. 85-86). In the end, the conservationists decided to pin the left knee (Riccardelli, et al. 86). When a large fragment needed pins, the scientists found that the pinning material should be either bendy elastic or stiff depending on the medium that is being mended (Riccardelli, et al. 108). The conservationists even went a step further and developed a specialized drill assembly that would reduce the size of the drill holes and guarantee precision in how the holes were drilled (Riccardelli, et al. 88). The restored statue of Adam contained only three pins, an extremely low number, considering the damage
The Adam task force needed to first understand and quantify the different forces being exerted onto specific areas of the fractures (Riccardelli, et al. 54). Conservationists relied on technologies such as laser scanning and finite element analysis to provide an almost complete picture of the statue’s internal stresses and the possible reactions to those stresses (Riccardelli, et al. 107-108). Material scientists and engineers used this information to develop performance markers used to test the effectiveness of different adhesives pins; they also contributed to the design of the external framework used to compress the pieces and provide support (Riccardelli, et al. 108). The tests conducted by the material scientists concluded that reversible, thermoplastic adhesives was the best in both strength and creep factor and was more than enough to attach most joins (Riccardelli, et al. 108). There was an extensive discussion concerning whether the conservators should pin the left knee of Adam (Riccardelli, et al. 83-85). The authors gave the pros and cons of adhesive-only join versus pinning the join within the article, “The Treatment of Tullio Lombardo’s Adam: A New Approach to the Conservation of Monumental Marble Sculpture” (Riccardelli, et al. 85-86). In the end, the conservationists decided to pin the left knee (Riccardelli, et al. 86). When a large fragment needed pins, the scientists found that the pinning material should be either bendy elastic or stiff depending on the medium that is being mended (Riccardelli, et al. 108). The conservationists even went a step further and developed a specialized drill assembly that would reduce the size of the drill holes and guarantee precision in how the holes were drilled (Riccardelli, et al. 88). The restored statue of Adam contained only three pins, an extremely low number, considering the damage