Monday, September 16, 2002
Michaelangelo's David gets cleaning after 500 years
"After 500 years, things get a little dirty," noted Giovanni Ruoto, one of the artisans involved in the clean-up effort. "Very much the dirt and grime accumulates in the many furrows in the granite. Especially the, how you say, asscrack."
The division between the finely-hewn buttocks of the 16-foot-5 sculpture is itself three-and-a-half feet long. Over five centuries, the crevasse has seen its share of wear and tear from old age, changing environmental conditions, and the probing, dirty fingers of millions of tourists visitng the masterwork in Florence's Galleria D'Accademia. Ruoto leads the team primarily responsible for this area of David, plying his trade with a specially designed toothbrush. "The asscrack is grimy with fingerprints, chocolate, and the sticky gelato. Who eats the chocolate and touches the ass? Not so easy to get out the cioccolato out of the asscrack with the toothbrush before the people arrive."
A separate crew cleans the David's genitaliia, Ruoto said. "We no give the reacharound. That's for Silvio's guys."
