Sistine Chapel ceiling how the work progressed. It was customary for fresco painters to use a full-sized detailed drawing, a "cartoon", to transfer a design onto a plaster surface—many frescoes show little holes made with a stiletto, outlining the figures. Here Michelangelo broke with convention; once confident the "intonaco" had been well applied, he drew directly onto the ceiling. His energetic sweeping outlines can be seen scraped into some of the surfaces, while on others a grid is evident, indicating that he enlarged directly onto the ceiling from a small drawing. Michelangelo painted onto the damp plaster using a wash technique to apply
Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes to the Last Judgment. The restoration was unveiled by Pope John Paul II on 8 April 1994. The final stage was the restoration of the wall frescoes, approved in 1994 and unveiled on 11 December 1999. The aims of the conservators were as follows: In 1979 Colalucci undertook a series of experiments to discover the right approach for the restoration of the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. The investigation began by testing small areas of the wall fresco, "Conflict over the Body of Moses" by Matteo de Lecce, which had similar physical and chemical attributes to the painting techniques employed