The Iris
Behind the Scenes

Sound: Let There Be (Some) Light

By Steve Saldivar | Published: July 5, 2012

The next time you’re in the Getty Center galleries, look up. The large louvers in the ceiling are working throughout the day to keep light-sensitive artwork from direct sunlight.

The goal is to keep the amount of light coming in to around 20 to 25 footcandles. (One footcandle = the amount of light put out by a candle at a one-foot distance.)

These large blinds run on a motor similar to the one that operates the flaps on an aircraft. They shift about three to ten degrees every hour throughout the day.

While glass keeps the sound to a faint muffle in the galleries, you can hear it in all its glory here:

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      dominusvenustas:

      Andrea del Sarto, Various studies, c.1520’s

      Son of a tailor (sarto). Andrea became one of the best loved artists of Florence. Vasari had good things to say about him.

      …Andrea del Sarto, in whose single person Nature and art showed all that painting can achieve by means of drawing, colouring and invention: and indeed if Andrea had possessed a little more boldness and daring of spirit, to match his very profound judgement and talent as a painter, he would, there is no doubt at all, have been without equal. 

      Browning wrote poems about him:

      Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
      Or what’s a heaven for?

      His drawings are natural, graceful and sensitive, an excellent draughtsman.

      …and he was very much in love with his wife… (something we don’t often hear about Renaissance artists!)

      Our curator Julian Brooks is in Florence now researching del Sarto for an exhibition in 2015.


      05/22/13

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