What The Art World Can Teach Us…

The right restorer, makes all the difference in the world, and the greatest restorer of human lives is Jesus Christ.   ~~~ Through reading Francis Schaeffer’s How Should We Then Live, I have grown increasingly interested in paintings and different works of art and how artwork has influenced culture and every day living. One area of the art world that is little known and under appreciated is the act of restoration. A piece of artwork may have layers of varnish coating it, in order to preserve the painting, but overtime, the varnish makes the painting appear dim or darkened. So a restorer has to work like a careful surgeon, choosing just the perfect solvent and working with a steady hand in order to remove dirt and varnish, and not do additional damage to the piece of art. A few years ago, an angry man rushed through the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam until he reached Rembrandt’s famous painting “Nightwatch.” Then he took out a knife and slashed it repeatedly before he could be stopped. A short time later, a distraught, hostile man slipped into St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome with a hammer and began to smash Michelangelo’s beautiful sculpture The Pieta. Two cherished works of art were severely damaged. But what did officials do? Throw them out and forget about them? Absolutely not! Using the best experts, who worked with the utmost care and precision, they made every effort to restore the treasures. (https://bible.org/illustration/god-can-bring-good-out-our-failures) But there is a condition that must be met before an art restorer can do his or her work. The owner of the painting must submit the piece of art. He must let go and trust the restorer. But you want to make sure you have the right restorer, because there have been some epic failures in the past when it comes to restoring paintings. The right restorer, makes all the difference in the world, and the greatest restorer of human lives is Jesus Christ.