"Restoring a castle would no doubt require quite a paint job, but those working on a project in Italy quickly found out that Leonardo Da Vinci [1452-1519] got there first," Mia Watkins writes at Al.com.

Watkins is referencing "drawings sketched by Leonardo da Vinci [that] are emerging from the walls of an Italian castle, announced restorers working on an elaborate fresco devised by the Renaissance master," according to Rosella Lorenzi, who reported the story yesterday at Discovery.com.

"One of most original paintings of the 15th century, the mural covers the vault and walls of the Sala delle Asse in the Sforza Castle in Milan," Lorenzi writes. "It depticts a garden pergola made of 16 mulberry trees bound together by a golden, knotted rope. The trunk of each tree rises as a column supporting 16 half-moon-shaped spaces above a Gothic vault, producing an evocative, fictive grove."

Restorers say the "mural is covered by a thick layer of grime" but that their "cleaning tests indicate that it can be easily removed. Leonardo's paint won't be damaged in the procedure." 

The restoration project "will last two years, ending just in time for the Milan's Expo 2015," according to Milan culture councillor Filippo Del Corno.

Sometimes in life, beauty is lost. But it need not be lost forever. "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly," says Jesus of Nazareth, who is something of an expert on restoration projects.

Whether we are thinking of lost beauty in art, science, politics, or human relations, removing thick layers of grime to restore the God-given treasures of life is a high, noble, humane, and holy calling.

That restoration you have in mind may not happen overnight, but it is well worth the effort.

Are there layers of grime on your marriage, creativity, knowledge, and routine? On your politics, your culture, your church, your neighborhood?

Well, as Francis Schaeffer might have put it, "substantial healing" is possible. And you can experience much joy in getting there. Abundant joy, even amid the ruins.

Related 
A Review of the Da Vinci Code 
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