Patrick Comerford
Part of Michelangelo’s ‘Libyan Sibyl’ has become an eye-catcher on the gable wall of a café in the centre of Bedford. The fresco at Frescoes in Mill Street is a reproduction of Michelangelo's Libyan Sibyl.
The Libyan Sibyl, named Phemonoe, was the prophetic priestess presiding over the Oracle of Zeus-Ammon at the Siwa Oasis in the Libyan Desert. She is one of the 12 prophetic figures on the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in 1511 because in classical mythology she foretold the ‘coming of the day when that which is hidden shall be revealed.’
Now the half-mortal, half-divine oracle, who was said to foretell the future, can be seen on the café gable wall on the corner of Mill Street and Howard Street, almost facing the former Howard Chapel and just a few steps away from the Bunyan Meeting Church. She was recreated by the artist Iain Carstairs who painted her using a technique that dates back to ca 1500 BCE.
The fresco was commissioned for the outside wall of the café by then owner of Frecoes, Kevin Kavanagh, who described himself as a ‘bit of an art lover’.
The fresco was created for Frescoes in 2012-2013 by the artist Iain Carstairs and the plasterer Jim Smith. They spent two or three months working from scaffolding on their own version of the masterpiece using pigment paint on lime plaster, a technique that dates back to ancient Greece, ca 1500 BCE.
‘It’s so pleasing to see and it’s prettier than I thought,’ said Iain Carstairs. ‘The most exciting thing is looking out of the window and seeing people’s reaction to it. They seem to connect and react to it.’
‘Painting on lime with pigment paint gives it longevity, which is why you can see works of art around the world which have lasted for hundreds of years,’ he said. ‘The lime plaster mix that you put on first, you could hit it with a sledgehammer and it wouldn’t break.’
The fresco measures about 34 square metres and it took three months to complete. Kevin Kavanagh claimed would ‘last for a thousand years’, saying: ‘The building will fall down before it fades’.
Kevin Kavanagh describes himself as a ‘bit of an art lover’. It cost about £12,000 to complete, and most of that cost came from his own pocket, saying it was his way of ‘adding to the culture of the town’.
Iain Carstairs and Jim Smith began working on their fresco in Bedford on 31 October 2012, 500 years to the day after the unveiling of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, and completed their work on 1 January 2013. The artist Iain Carstairs said: ‘I hadn’t realised how tricky it would be but I am very happy with the result and want to do some more.’
‘It’s had a tremendous impact locally and really taken off,’ Kevin Kavanagh said. ‘People have been amazed to see the incredible work that has gone into it and the final result certainly has the wow factor.’
He has now moved on to running Blue Glass wine bar in St Peter’s Street. Since 2021. Frescoes Coffee House has been under the management of Xanthe Jackson, a former employee, who had worked at Frecoes for 16 years.
Xanthe Jackson said at the time: ‘I’ve always loved this work and now I am excited to take on the new challenge of being the owner as we come out of lockdown.’
Frescoes regularly displays pieces from local artists and is a cosy, independent coffee shop spread over three styled rooms in a former bookshop on Mill Street, with a blend of traditional comfort and contemporary décor.
It has a traditional shop front on Mill Street, with a downstairs seating area, an outside dining space on sunny days, and a creaky staircase leading to two rooms each with their own display of original works by an artist in residence. There are regular art and music evenings, including a glass of wine.
And the fresco at Frescoes continues to give people in Bedford an unusual Italian experience, continuing to bring Michelangelo to Mill Street and the Sistine Chapel to the street with the former Howard Chapel.
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