Wet-Wall Tattoos: Ben Long and the Art of Fresco Review

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(More customer reviews)I dipped into this book because I'm interested in Italy and wanted to learn a little about fresco technique (but I wanted to learn it painlessly, which for me means tucked inside a narrative instead of laid out in a textbook). But I found that I stayed with the whole story, genuinely interested in the personalities and the outcome of the project, a religious fresco executed in Charlotte, North Carolina in the late 1980s.
Clearly Ben Long is a difficult albeit talented man, but just as clearly he seems willing to do what he must to keep fresco alive. We read stories of earlier musicians and artists (Mozart and Renaissance painter Lorenzo Lotto come immediately to mind) who produce a work and present it, uncertain the agreed-upon compensation will be forthcoming or that there will be any at all. Much of Long's work has followed the same pattern: slow, steady execution of a religious fresco, in Italy or the United States, followed by a small "purse" from a grateful priest. The North Carolina project followed by the author in this book was, by design, more lucrative and more modern, but the negotiating, the arguments, the temporary withholding of final compensation, the frayed nerves, the eager acolytes working just for the experience--all of it could have happened 400 years ago. And just when you're starting to realize this, the author deftly segues into the relationship between Pope Julius II and Michelangelo during the frescoing of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
It's refreshing to see such a quiet subject get such careful, journalistic treatment. There are no fireworks here, just a well-told story of interest to thosewith a fascination with the making of art, with Italy, with fresco in particular, and with the intersection of history and modern times.

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