The restoration of the Gozo Cathedral’s false dome – known in the artistic world as a Trompe L’Oeil – is currently underway by Maltese restoration company Prevarti.

The Trompe L’Oeil is an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. While the ceiling looks like a dome, it is actually flat.

The work of art, created by Antonio Manuele, known as Pippi, a Sicilian scenographer from Messina, was put in place in 1739. It has now been lowered back down to be given some much needed attention and care.

The restorers from Prevarti explained that it was extremely challenging to bring the painting down due to the fact that it was close to the ceiling and there wasn’t a lot of space to work in.

Scaffolding was mounted in order to access the painting and to begin treatments of consolidation work using Japanese paper in areas that were fragile. This is done in preparation for handling.

The wooden strips were removed and then the painting could start to be brought down.

The painting was brought down in halves.

In order to do this, it required great teamwork and a group of around 12 people in all – a lot of communication between all and immense attention for them to be brought down safely.

Upon lowering the paintings, work had to commence immediately in the Cathedral itself.

Here the PrevArti team of restorers removed the canvases from their strainer frames and also removed the old lining from the verso of the paintings in preparation for them to be transported.

Custom-made cylindrical structures were devised in order for the paintings to be rolled on to them and brought to the lab in a safe manner.

The last restoration on the painting was carried out in 1823.

Gozo Express were in charge of transporting the paintings from Gozo Cathedral to the PrevArti lab.

In the lab, conservation and restoration work continued by starting with a series of cleaning tests prior to fully clean the whole paint layer.

At the moment, the restorers are still carrying out the cleaning and consolidation treatments of the paintings.