Beginning in October, visitors to the Vatican Museums will be able to view the Sistine Chapel frescos with the help of LEDs, provided by the German lighting company Osram. The new LEDs will replace halogen bulbs installed in the 1980s, boosting illumination fivefold and cutting power consumption by 60%, according to a report by Liam Moloney in the Wall Street Journal.
Until the installation of the halogen lights, the ceiling could be viewed only by natural light or candle light within the chapel, but Vatican officials feared that sunlight would damage the frescos, according to the Journal.
Other museums are turning to LEDs as well—the Boston Museum of Fine Arts has installed LEDs in its impressionist gallery. The Journal quotes Keith Crippen, the museum's head designer, as saying, “Our visitors are impressed by the richness in color, sharper [lighting] and clarity from the LEDs.”
Megan Garber in the Atlantic points out that when Michelangelo painted his masterpiece, he had to account for the architecture in which he was working, and the Osram designers needed to do the same. She writes, “Osram technicians analyzed 280 patches on both the chapel's ceiling and its wall frescos, creating a spectrum map of the colors Michelangelo used in decorating the Sistine’s surfaces. From there, they designed an interactive system of LEDs that blend red, blue, green, and white shades of light—each combination meant to optimize the display of the frescos.”
LEDs Magazine explains that the new LED fixtures will be hidden below windows and will be aimed in the same direction in which natural light would fall on the frescos. The magazine adds that the LEDs don't emit damaging UV-band energy.
LEDs in museums have their critics, but the Journal quotes Paul Ruffles, principal at British consultancy company Lighting Design & Technology, as saying, “All new technology is criticized when it is introduced. If they want it to be lit as it was originally, go back to candles.”