PSAT Writing and Language Practice Test 26: The Sistine Chapel

Questions 8-15 refer to the following information.

The Sistine Chapel

One shudders to contemplate Michelangelo's reaction if he were to gaze up today at the famous frescoes* he painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel over four centuries ago. A practical 8 man: he would no doubt be unsurprised by the effects of time and environment on his masterpiece. He would be philosophical about the damage wrought by mineral salts left behind when rainwater leaked through the roof. He would probably also accept the layers of dirt and soot from coal braziers that heated the chapel and from 9 candles, and incense burned during religious functions. However, he would be appalled by the ravages recently inflicted on his work by restorers.

The Vatican restoration team reveled in inducing a jarringly colorful transformation of the frescoes with 10 special, cleaning solvents and computerized analysis equipment. However, the restorers did not achieve this 11 effect as they claimed merely by removing the dirt and animal glue (employed by earlier restorers to revive muted colors) from the 12 frescoes: the team removed Michelangelo's final touches as well. Gone from the ceiling is the quality of suppressed anger and thunderous pessimism so often commented upon by admiring scholars. That quality was not an artifact of grime, not a misleading monochrome imposed on the ceiling by time, for Michelangelo himself applied a veil of glaze to the frescoes to darken them after he had deemed his work too bright. The master would have felt compelled to add a few more layers of glaze had the ceiling radiated forth as it does now. The solvents of the restorers 13 stripped away the shadows of the frescoes, reacted chemically with Michelangelo's pigments, and ultimately produced hues the painter never intended for his art.

Of course, the restorers left open an avenue for the reversal of their progress toward color and brightness. Since the layers of animal glue were no longer there to serve as 14 protection the atmospheric pollutants from the city of Rome gained direct access to the frescoes. Observers already noticed significant darkening in some of the restored work a mere four years after its completion. It remains to be seen whether the measure introduced to arrest this 15 process: an extensive climate-control system—will itself have any long-term effect on the chapel's ceiling.

8 questions    6 minutesAll test questions


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