25 September 2010

The Church's New Facade - The Frescoist


The main work was done by Viotti & Soulier of Monaco and today we see Monsieur François Zanatta, the brilliant décorateur fresquiste (frescoist decorator) at work - a true artist. You'll meet him again, of course.

These photos were taken in the middle and end of July - the red hanging is to protect the work from the intense summer heat - and the workers!

Tomorrow, we'll meet Monsieur Zanatta's assistant.



9 comments:

  1. A fresco artist? I am certain that we would have difficulty finding one in the US. This is an amazing art and I am looking forward to meeting both the assistant and M. Zanatta himself.

    Thanks, Jilly, for the story series and these links.

    Bon weekend!
    Genie

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amazing what they do with paint.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is going to be beautiful when it is done. Last week I was in Santa Margherita Ligure in Italy, where they have many, many trompe l'oeuil buildings. I have never seen so many regularly applied in one city. Are there many in Menton?

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is a wonderful series.

    To respond to Genie's question about fresco artists in the USA, I was pleased that when I worked in the U.S. Congress in the late 1970's they had an artist paint frescoes on the ceilings of some of the corridors of the Capitol building that he never been painted before. When people walked around after the frescos were finished, many thought they had been there for a hundred years, not new. So at least 30 years ago we were able to find fresco painters in the USA.

    ReplyDelete
  5. WOW! It looks like you could bump your head on these frescoes. I noticed on the design you showed in an earlier post that there is going to be a statue to the left of the door. Is this church named after a saint?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jack, there's a lot of trompe l'oeil in Menton.

    Karen, trompe l'oeil statues on either side of the door don't represent the saint for whom the church was named in the 17th century. They represent the saints who represent two chapels in Gorbio. Will talk about it in more detail when I feature those two saints.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a talented artist! I'm so glad that even today new opportunities are given for these skills to be applied.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails