The Sistine Chapel is still impressive, but it is no longer an original Michelangelo.

Contrary to popular belief, Da Vinci did not paint the Last Supper painting so many travel halfway around the world every year to see. Michelangelo didn’t paint the Sistine Chapel, either.

Yes, there is flawed logic in this argument. The real artists are actually the people who were paid to restore these works. These individuals painted over some parts of these paintings that were falling apart so they could be better preserved for the ages.

However, as a recent study of the Mona Lisa has shown, very often something gets lost in the translation. Scientists have recently found that her wistful smile was actually much wider at one point, and she actually had eyebrows.

I’m aware my view on this subject is going to cause some issues with people, as I personally feel that if a painting must rot away, it may as well rot away in its true, original form. In the end I will admit they do look much better after restoration. But if you look at photos of the Last Supper before and after restoration, the restored version looks, well, fake, and that’s because it is. Da Vinci did not do the work to make this painting look sparkling and new; rather, it was a nameless person who will never receive credit for the hours they worked to bring this painting back to life.

Most oil paint will be able to last a century or so, assuming it was properly finished, before it begins to decay. So, in theory these works would have decayed long ago without proper restoration, meaning in essence they would have been lost to the modern world forever.

We have photography now, though, so I think all these charades should stop. Am I saying we should all go out and start burning every single painting that is showing signs of decay? No, of course not; what I’m saying is the genius of a painting lies in the painting techniques of the original artist.

Before and after pictures of restored works are excellent ways to figure out exactly how some details can be lost forever in the restoration process. These details are often little touches the artist had originally put there to give more meaning and depth to the work.

Once upon a time the Titanic was the grandest ship in the world; today it’s a rotting hulk at the bottom of the ocean. Within the next 100 years it will have collapsed in on itself; 100 years after that it will be a large, dark stain on the ocean floor. Everything has a shelf-life, and it isn’t possible to delay it forever. A few years ago many companies had plans to build replicas of the ship, and they never came to anything. Why? Because the replicas will never be as grand, interesting or as beautiful as the original.

The same goes for restored paintings. The Sistine Chapel is still impressive, but it is no longer an original Michelangelo. However, we have literally hundreds upon hundreds of photographs of the piece; you can find them on calendars, coffee mugs, etc. The painting is public domain – you don’t need to travel around the world to see it.

I am personally opposed to restoration because I feel it cheapens original paintings, but I’m in no position to stop it, and I wouldn’t if I could. I do, however, ask that people stop lying to themselves and to everyone else. A replica of the Titanic is not the Titanic, and a restored Mona Lisa is not the Mona Lisa. It may have been painted on the same canvas, and it may have been carefully done, but it will no longer have been created by the hand of Leonardo Da Vinci.

Everything in nature has a limit imposed on it by nature as to how long it will live, and many paintings, for all purposes, died hundreds of years ago. What you are seeing now is not the original, and if nothing else I feel we should at least write in Leonardo Da Vinci and Joe Schmo as the artists, instead of negating the contributions of the people who technically kept the thing alive. At least that way we will have a better explanation behind why some of these works look completely different in real life than they do in the art books.

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