Category: Conservation
Irish Watercolour Sketch Found on Back of Sheet
November 25 2020
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Ireland that an unfinished sketch has been found on the back of a watercolour by artist Samuel Brocas (1792-1843).
The small discovery was made by the National Library of Ireland when the work was being removed from its old mount. Experience has taught me that this tends to happen a lot. The photo above shows a conservator using a scalpel to remove the sheet. Works on paper conservators need nerves of steel, I'm convinced!
Painting Found Underneath Australian Masterpiece
November 23 2020
Video: Sky News
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Australia that another painting has been found underneath a work in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
The painting in question is The Pioneers (1904) by Frederick McCubbin, one of Australian art's most famous pictures. Head of Conservation Michael Varcoe-Cocks had spotted some inconsistent brush work whilst walking around the galleries during lockdown and decided to investigate further. He then consulted some x-rays and discovered that the present work had been painted on top of another painting. As it transpires, this hidden scene was actually a previous work which the artist had failed to sell after it was exhibited in 1893.
Update - A reader has kindly written in to suggest this alternative video which provides more details than the one above. Alas, it's only available for viewers in Australia, unless you're using a proxy.
The Potato Head of Palencia
November 13 2020
Picture: npr.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The 'Potato Head of Palencia' in Spain is the most recent bodged conservation job that is spreading through the news. Dating to the twentieth century, the recent 'restoration' of a plaster figure on a building facade has been ridiculed by the public and professionals alike. Conservation bodies in Spain have highlighted this as a good reason why licenses should be introduced for companies involved in such work.
As a side-note, hand moulded decorative plasterwork is understandably one of the most complex mediums. Despite this fact, there are a few impressive craftsmen and artists working in this medium today. This includes Geoffrey Preston who created this outstanding brand new ceiling for a private house in Devon a few years ago.
Fathers of Confederation Receiving Treatment
November 13 2020
Picture: @torontoartrestoration
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
My attention has been drawn to an interesting restoration project currently being undertaken in Toronto, Canada.
In 2017 a significant copy of one of Canada's most important paintings was damaged by scaffolders. Fathers of Confederation depicts the figures who passed 72 resolutions at the Quebec Conference in 1864. The conference is considered one of the most significant political moments in Canada's history.
The original painting, by Robert Harris, perished in 1916 due to a fire in the Canadian Parliament building. The restoration of this early copy by Frederick S Challener, which hangs in the Archives of Ontario, is being undertaken by Toronto Art Restoration Inc. They have posted several images of their progress on their Instagram Account showing what a truly mammoth task this has been.
Coincidentally, the painting was reinterpreted in 2016 by artist Kent Monkman in his work The Daddies.
Rembrandt in the Mauritshuis (ctd.)
November 10 2020
Picture: Mauritshuis
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I thought it worth pointing out the CODART (International Network of Dutch and Flemish Curators) has uploaded a recording of their recent online lecture 'Reassessing Rembrandt in the Mauritshuis Collection' onto the video sharing site Vimeo (follow the link to watch).
The Conservation Dept. at the Uffizi
November 7 2020
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Laura Rysman of The New York Times has published an interesting article providing a behind the scenes access at the conservation laboratories of the Uffizi Gallery and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence.
Amongst the most interest insights into the minds of conservators is this snippet from the art historian Cecilia Frosinini:
They’re simply objects made of wood, gesso, paint and varnish (...) I’m almost ashamed to say I feel no special emotions for the pieces, but a conservator has to work like a doctor, without any bias for who the patient is.
Video: How we Look at Art: Frames and Framing
November 3 2020
Video: London Art Week
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I've spotted on Twitter (via. @TheFrameBlogMag) that London Art Week have posted a video recording of a recent online talk they hosted on the subject of How we Look at Art: Frames and Framing. The speakers for this discussion were Matthew Reeves, a Director at Sam Fogg, and Peter Schade, Head of the National Gallery's Framing Department.
New Bosch Display at the Prado
November 2 2020
Picture: Prado
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Prado in Madrid have recently opened a new display of their famous paintings by Hieronymus Bosch. New panel supports, lighting and displays have been introduced into Room 56a, improvements which were supported by the technology company Samsung.
Surprisingly, the room also now contains a Samsung TV screen (pictured on the left). Their website explains that the screen "shows an animated sequence of surprising details of the works on display, some shown up to 12 times their original size."
Artworks can be enjoyed in a whole variety of different ways. Personally speaking, I go to art galleries to escape screens. Such electronic displays are undoubtedly a wonderful way to blow up minute details. But will these electric light animations detract from the masterpiece hanging in such close proximity? Let's hope not.
Hermitage's 'School of Raphael' Frescos to be Conserved
October 29 2020
Picture: Hermitage
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper has published news that the US Embassy in Moscow has donated $100,000 towards the conservation of a series of sixteenth century frescos kept in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. The gesture is being hailed as a major step forward in diplomatic relations between the countries. The three frescos, given to the School of Raphael, used to adorn the walls of a small villa in Rome before being acquired by the museum in 1861.
The work will be in anticipation of a exhibition at the Hermitage entitled After Raphael. 1520 - 2020 (due to open in December 2020).
Charterhouse Great Chamber Refurbished
October 9 2020
Video: The Charterhouse
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Charterhouse in London, one of the city's best preserved complex of historic buildings, has recently finished off a refurbishment project on a room known as 'The Great Chamber'. This space happens to be one of the last remaining Tudor great chambers in the entire city.
The Charterhouse also took the opportunity to have several historic portraits, including those of Charles II, the Duke of Monmouth and the Duke of Buckingham, conserved and rehung in the room. Follow the link above to enjoy a 3D tour of the space.
UK Cultural Recovery Fund Announcements
October 9 2020
Picture: HHA
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News announced today that over 450 heritage organisations have benefitted from the first wave of the UK Government's £1.57bn Cultural Recovery Fund. Twitter seems to be full with announcements from individual organisations, many of which hold collections of fine and decorative art. It seems that this will benefit conservation projects the most, rather than front line jobs.
The BBC have announced that:
Organisations, including English Heritage, the Landmark Trust and Historic Royal Palaces, will receive £34m from the Heritage Stimulus Fund to restart conservation and maintenance.
The Historical Houses Association have also announced that several of their associated properties, many with exquisite art collections, have also benefitted from the scheme. This includes properties such as Highclere Castle and Penshurst Place.
Technological Revolutions and Art History at the Frick
October 8 2020
Picture: The Frick Collection
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Frick Collection in New York, in partnership with their Digital Art History Lab, are running a very interesting four part webinar series called Technological Revolutions and Art History.
As their blurb explains:
Historically, science and the humanities were not considered two discrete disciplines: the separation of these two branches of knowledge developed only in the modern era. For art historians in the twenty-first century, this divide is only widening as some scholars embrace technological advances while others remain unconvinced that computational techniques and tools can bring meaningful changes to the field. Like the previous symposium Searching Through Seeing: Optimizing Computer Vision Technology for the Arts hosted by the Library in 2018, this four-part event seeks to encourage art historians to connect with the computer sciences by exploring the role that technology has played in the development of the discipline of art history and providing an opportunity for conversation and the exchange of ideas.
The sessions are free to join, although registration is required, with the first part beginning on 15th October 2020.
Louvre Flood Risk Documentary
October 8 2020
Picture: arte
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The television company Arte has uploaded a documentary it made in 2017 detailing the plans the Louvre has been making in case the Seine burst its banks. This nearly happened after a particularly bad flood in 2016. A renewed look at their disaster plan ended with the construction of a new storage facility in Liévin which was begun in 2015 and completed in 2019.
The documentary, which is only available in French and German, will be available to watch via. the link above until 14th October 2020.
Tintoretto's Last Painting Conserved
October 6 2020
Picture: ArtDaily.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The last recorded painting to have left Tintoretto's workshop before his death in May 1594 has been conserved. The Entombment of Christ, painted for Venetian Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, is believed to be one of the last works completed by the master and his son Domenico.
Work on the picture began after it returned from an exhibition in Washington DC in 2019. The treatment was funded by the organisation called Save Venice's Tintoretto 500 Campaign, and was undertaken by conservator Claudia Vittori in collaboration with Barbara Bragato and others.
The transformation is quite dramatic, especially now that the darks have been reinstated. Let's hope the lighting they have in the church is equally as sympathetic!
Video: Rubens, brush and movement
October 4 2020
Picture: Harvard Art Museums
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Harvard Art Museums have published a video discussing an oil sketch of Hercules Strangling the Nemean Lion by Rubens (click on the link to watch). The video is presented by conservator Cristina Morilla and relates to the techniques Rubens employed in producing such small scale sketches.
Reynolds 3D Printed
September 29 2020
Picture: Factum Foundation
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This story is a few years old now, but one that might be of interest to readers of AHN. In 2018 Strawberry Hill House, former home of Sir Horace Walpole, commissioned Factum Foundation to create a replica of Joshua Reynolds's The Ladies Waldegrave. The original painting was sold, like much of Walpole's collection, in the nineteenth century thus leaving his neo-gothic house rather empty.
The National Gallery of Scotland's original was scanned and photographed, including the frame, ready to produce a 3D copy that has been put on display in the house. The process can be followed here in a blog produced by the Factum Foundation. This ambitious project was funded in part by the World Monuments Fund.
The scanners have even been able to capture the complex craquelure found in the picture, a hallmark of Reynolds's experimental practise with paints. The overall impression from photographs of the copy is very impressive, although I must reserve judgement as I haven't seen the copy in person.
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It seems likely that 3D copies of artworks is a subject that will become increasingly popular over the next few decades. There are always voices to be found in corners of society calling for paintings to be sold from museums to fund XYZ and replaced with 3D copies. 'No one will be able to tell the difference', they often say.
Of course, it is wonderful that ancient artworks and buildings can be scanned with minute details recorded to allow us to understand them better. But in the act of creation, it feels like something of a deception to go to extraordinary lengths to mislead the eye. Copies of old masters in previous centuries, and casts of sculpture for that matter, didn't make the same claims that these print outs seem to be demonstrating.
In the case of Strawberry Hill House, there is a strong argument to recreate Walpole's aesthetic vision. He never intended anyone to see his rooms empty, so why not recreate the 'look' with reproductions? In such a case, the objects matter less individually one might argue.
To my mind, at least, part of the magic of looking at a painting by an old master is that you are there with the artist. You are there conversing with an object created by a human hand. It may be an amusing novelty to watch and listen to a robot play a Beethoven Sonata on a piano, but is it really the spiritual equivalent to watching a human hand do the same?
Here's Bendor's take on the subject made on this blog in 2017.
Restoration of a Carpaccio
September 17 2020
Picture: @RestauraThyssen
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid has been sharing some interesting pictures recently of various conservation projects they are undertaking. Recently, they've been restoring their Young Knight in a Landscape by Carpaccio. It seems that they have followed the lead of the Rijksmuseum in allowing visitors to peer into the process by undertaking the work behind perspex walls in the galleries.
On a related note, it is great to see that so many museums and galleries are setting up specific social media accounts for their conservation departments. General museum accounts can often be commandeered by marketing bumph that most learn to ignore rather than engage with. Accounts like these allow us to bypass the noise and provide these rare insights that many art lovers enjoy so much.
MET Conservation Reveals Background
September 14 2020
Picture: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have shared another fabulous set of images from a recent conservation project on their Instagram Account. The image on the left is a religious painting ascribed to the fourteenth century Master of Vyšší Brod, which appeared at Cortot, Dijon, 2019. An x-ray image suggested that the blue stary background was in fact a nineteenth century addition to the picture, and that something else was lurking underneath. The painstaking work of removing the overpaint with a scalpel was begun. Conservators at the museum eventually reveal the remarkable and original architectural setting for the scene. What a transformation!
Van Meegeren's Blues
September 14 2020
Picture: The Art Newspaper
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper have posted this interesting article regarding recently released police documents relating to the notorious forger Han Van Meegeren (1889-1947). The Metropolitan Police's Special Branch made several enquiries into exactly where the forger sourced his pigments from. It appears that the artist purchased large quantities of the precious lapis lazuli from the British paint suppliers Windsor & Newton. In 1931 he is recorded having purchased 13 ounces of lapis from the company, a shocking amount considering the suppliers would usually only sell 1 or 2 ounces of ultramarine a year.
We might presume that modern forgers still use historic pigment merchants to help create their fakes...
Lely Study Conserved
September 5 2020
Picture: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York recently announced that they have conserved a head study by Sir Peter Lely (pictured). The study has been linked to the actress Nell Gwyn in the past, but this remains unproven.
The difference is very subtle but striking. With the yellowed varnish and overpainting removed, the beautiful hues of the skin tones are once again allowed to sing as Lely had intended. I recommend clicking on the link to head over to the MET's website to zoom in on the beautiful details and brushstrokes.
