These fragments I have shored against my ruin

La Chiesa degli Eremitani in Padua stands a short distance from the justly celebrated Capella degli Scrovegni with its magnificent frescoes by Giotto. Four-square and solid on the ground, the church looks permanent and invincible. But in fact, this church, with priceless frescoes by the 17 year old Andrea Mantegna, crumbled under Allied bombing in World War II. Boys of about 17 fought everywhere in that war, and surely some of them had a hand in the destruction of this 15th century pictorial narrative of Saint John and Saint Christopher. And still others painstakingly picked through the rubble and saved every bit of painted plaster they could find, then matched them to the photographic record of the originals and restored the chapel. Heartbreakingly tiny fragments of plaster lift the flat reproduction off the wall; they bind together our history of caring less and caring fully.

Amee