ABSTRACT
Sempiternal time is incorporated in the re-making of St. Peter's in its dual nature of drawing and building. It is made visible in Alfarano's drawing by looking in two directions in time, through metaphoric transparency, translated into a drawing facture materialized through decoupage techniques and unique color renderings. The transformation of the Vatican temple is one where relics, spoils and images were assembled together in the three-dimensionality of the building, and in the fourth-dimensionality of sempiternal time, according to the concept of renewal of the corporate body of the Church. The temporal dimension of the Renaissance renovation allows multiple beginnings' within an uninterrupted process of making as re-making. Built conservation is essentially concerned with the dilemma of how to maintain a building's existence, assuring continuity of identity, while allowing changes over time. Conversely iconic portraiture is polysemic, and in so doing generates an equivocal space where multiple meanings and the proliferation of simultaneous stories is possible.
