Category: Conservation
Works on Copper Video
September 4 2020
Video: The National Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery in London have published this very interesting video exploring why and how artists painted on copper. The talk is given by art historian and curator Letizia Treves.
Refreshed British Galleries in Cleveland
September 4 2020
Video: Cleveland Museum of Art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Cleveland Museum of Art have produced this video showcasing the museum's newly refurbished British Galleries. It gives some fascinating details on the conservation history of several pieces from the collection, including a painting by Sir Peter Lely.
Here you can find an interview with some of the curators involved in the refurbishment. Media reports have focused in on the new interpretation that highlights what it describes as 'the sins of empire', with particular focus on a the museum's newly acquired Wright of Derby portrait of Colonel Charles Heathcote. I hope the interpretation includes a note on Wright's close friendship to key figures in the abollitionist movement.
Modigliani Retouching Controversy
September 3 2020
Picture: The Art Newspaper
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper has reported on controversy that has arisen surrounding a retouched painting by Modigliani. The painting is caught up in a lawsuit between the scholar Marc Restellini and the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, with whom Restellini has been finishing a long awaited catalogue raisonné for the artist.
The most interesting part of the story, it seems to me, is the above painting of Beatrice Hastings Seat (1915). This picture sold at Christie's last year for $4.8m and given to Modigliani in full. Restellini has claimed previously that the auction house should have pointed out that the painting was retouched in the 1950s. The image on the right shows the painting in 1953 showing large areas where the work was clearly unfinished. The scholar's criticisms have also been interpreted as a concerted attempt to correct misattributions made in a previous catalogue raisonné by Ambrogio Ceroni in 1958.
The article quotes Restellini having said in 1997, when it sold previously, that:
It had been transformed by someone else to make it more marketable. I showed Christie’s the original work’s photograph from the Paul Guillaume archives and said I could never include the painting as it stands today, because to me that is fake.
Christie's, quite rightly I think, have stood by the fact that the picture is still a Modigliani, albeit it a slightly altered state. The old master paintings world has a slightly more liberal view of paintings in different physical and restored states, for example.
Overall, the story shows how political catalogue raisonné projects can be, especially with an artist whose works commands such high prices on the market.
Picasso Vandal Sentenced
September 1 2020
Picture: Artsy
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A twenty-year-old student who vandalised Picasso's Bust of a Woman (1944) at Tate Modern last December has been sentenced to eighteenth months in prison. The student, who attacked the work with metal padlocks, managed to punch through the protective glass and tear it off the wall. Fortunately, the judge managed to see through the defendant's claims that this was part of an elaborate piece of performance art. It also transpires that the painting was in fact a loan from a private collection. One can only imagine how awful that telephone call must have been.
Furthermore, artnet have reported:
In court, experts testified that repair efforts would take up to 18 months and cost over $450,000.
Although it seems that the damage was extensive, these costs do sound quite astronomical. It reminds me of the $487,625 figure that was supposedly spent on fixing a tear in a Picasso that was damaged at Christie's in 2018.
Maltese Chapel Painting Restored
August 20 2020
Picture: Prevarti Ltd
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The conservation and restoration of a painting in a historic and isolated Chapel has made the news over in Malta. The Return from Egypt, a copy of a known work by the artist Giovanni Battista Paggi, has been on display in a Chapel on the Isle of Comino in Malta. The conservation work was funded by the Bank of Valletta.
A video featuring interviews with the conservators, showing some images of the work during the process, can be found by following the link.
Van Eyck's Mystic Lamb
August 3 2020
Picture: Ars Technica
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
ArtNews have published an article on the news that researchers from Antwerp and Washington have come out in support of the restoration of Van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece. Experts from the University of Antwerp and the National Gallery of Art in Washington have asserted that the restored image of the Mystic Lamb is consistent with its original 15th century depiction. The restoration shocked several figures in the art world when it was unveiled last year (pictured).
This article by Ars Technica provides lots of interesting images of the conservation work conducted on the picture, including infrared scans etc.
The Courtauld are Hiring!
July 22 2020
Picture: The Courtauld Institute of Art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Courtauld Institute of Art in London are hiring a Lecturer in Conservation of Easel Paintings. The post will focus on teaching postgraduate students. This part-time role carries a salary of £30,734 per annum.
The closing date for applications in 19th August 2020. Good luck if you're applying!
Vermeer Milkmaid Examined
July 22 2020
Picture: @Rijksmuseum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam shared the above photograph on their Twitter account yesterday. It shows Vermeer's Milkmaid undergoing an examination by the museum's 'Macro XRPD Scanner'. This will allow the conservation and science department to understand more about which materials and techniques went into making this work of art.
Famously, Vermeer is known to have used costly lapis lazuli in his shadows, which has become one of the unique markers of his method. This proved crucial in supporting the attribution to Vermeer which sold at Sotheby's in 2004.
Let's hope the museum will make a nice video explaining the results of this study.
Royal Collection Conserves Ostade
July 15 2020
When preparing works of art for an exhibition, conservators painstakingly clean and repair paintings, and sometimes they...
Posted by Royal Collection Trust on Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Video: The Royal Collection Trust
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Royal Collection have uploaded this video regarding the recent conservation of a painting by Isaac van Ostade (1621-1649). The cleaning revealed that a figure of a boy, loosening his bowels, was painted out of the scene at some point during the nineteenth century. As the video points out, the lost figure has now been reinstated into the scene.
Microbes that can Authenticate Old Masters (?)
July 8 2020
Picture: DailyStar.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I missed this rather bizarre news story a few weeks ago, do forgive me. A team of scientists from the J. Craig Venter Institute in California are developing a system to test the microbes found on artworks in order to help prove their authenticity.
As the Institute's own press release states:
Genetics scientists with the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), collaborating with the Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project and supported by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, say identifying and managing communities of microbes on art may offer museums and collectors a new way to stem the deterioration of priceless possessions, and to unmask counterfeits in the $60 billion a year art market.
In the art world context, studying microbes clinging to the surface of a work of art may help confirm its geographic origin and authenticity or identify counterfeits.
It seems that this project is still in its early days and there would be enormous hurdles to overcome before a system has proven itself to be worthy enough to be relied upon. Scientific testing on pigments has been a part of dating artworks for a long period of time, of course. There are several existing ways to test whether an artwork contains materials that are later than the work purports to be.
More interesting is the claim that:
"Many Renaissance artists used their own biological material in their artwork," [Microbiologist Manolito Torralba] told AFP. "Leonardo and others were very known for using their own saliva and some used their own blood"
It is interesting to imagine a day when authorship debates would be settled by microbial tests, but, I think we are probably a long long way away from that. It is obvious though that the ultimate goal of this scientific route is to pin down a process which will allow a computer to decide who painted what.
Sure, such a test might provide some interesting results for works that came out of Rubens's Studio, for example. However, for this to be reliable one would have to have an enormous sample size. In other words it would only be useful if samples were obtained by the hundreds (if not thousands) of paintings by Rubens's hand and the many studio, workshop, period and non-period copies. Organising such an enterprise would also require a truly Herculean effort.
Until then, training the human eye through repeated experience, supplemented by thorough scholarship, is still essential.
Hidden Layers on Google Arts
July 2 2020
Picture: MFA Houston
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston has uploaded its 2018 exhibition Hidden Layers: Painting and Process in Europe, 1500–1800 onto Google Arts & Culture. The exhibition focuses on technical analysis undertaken on their collection of paintings. It includes many fascinating x-rays and infrared images that show exactly how painters created, and often modified, their artworks.
Van Dyck's Charles I Rehung!
July 1 2020
Picture: The National Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
One story that was swept away by the virus crisis was the completion of conservation and restoration on Sir Anthony Van Dyck's Equestrian Portrait of Charles I in the National Gallery, London.
News has reached Twitter that the painting was finally rehung in the gallery today. The painting has a new black and gilded frame too. This means that visitors returning to the gallery from 8th July will be able to see the work in all its splendour! For those who can't wait to go and see it, the gallery have uploaded this high resolution and zoomable image on their website.
One of the most remarkable aspects of conservation work was the reinstating of the blue pigments in the sky. The retouching of the sky has really revived and rebalanced the colour scheme of the picture, which harks back to the bright colours of Titian whom Van Dyck admired above all others. Blues are so often lost due to overly-harsh cleaning in the past and general degrading of the various pigment over time. I do recommend watching the videos of the conservation work found on the gallery's website.
Dodgy Restoration Strikes Again!
June 23 2020
Picture: The Guardian
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News broke last night of another botched painting restoration incident in Spain. This time, a copy after Murillo's Immaculate Conception was left in a disfigured state after a private collector paid €1,200 to a furniture restorer to have the work cleaned. (Note - the image on the left is the original on which this copy was based, the two on the right show the two attempts at 'restoration'.)
This comes only a few years after the so-called 'Monkey-Christ' incident in Borja, north-eastern Spain. Art professionals in the country have called for new regulations to stop this from happening again.
Personally, I think this story might be a little overblown. Firstly, the articles do not present an image of the private collector's painting before restoration. As any art historian knows, copies can dramatically vary in quality. Some copies manage to capture the spirit of the original, yet some can make figures and faces appear like taxidermy. The conservation and restoration of a bad copy might have only accentuated the poor quality of the painting. As you old saying goes, you can't polish a (you know what).
Update - There are some images floating around on the internet purporting to show the painting before restoration. It's difficult to tell whether these show the same painting. The canvas and finishing on the 'restored' pictures suggests that the 'copy' might not have been as old or as valuable as the reports suggest.
Europe's Oldest Wooden Statue ?
June 22 2020
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
ArtDaily has reported that an eight foot tall wooden crucifix known as 'Volto Santo de Lucca' might be Europe's oldest surviving wooden statue.
The sculpture had previously been thought by scholars to date to the 12th century. This was based on stylistic grounds, assuming the piece may have been a copy of a much older original. New carbon dating undertaken in Florence, taken from several areas of the work, suggests that the wood dates:
“to the end of the seventh century and the middle of the ninth,”
Accompanying photos suggest to me that the statue must have had several makeovers during the past few centuries.
Facelifts at the Mauritshuis
June 22 2020
Picture: Mauritshuis, The Hague
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Have you begun organising your 2021 diary yet? If so, this upcoming exhibition at the Mauritshuis should definitely be pencilled in.
Facelifts & make-overs is the upcoming Mauritshuis exhibition dedicated to showcasing the conservation projects undertaken by the museum's inhouse team of conservators.
As the website explains;
In Facelifts and Makeovers the most intriguing restorations of the past twenty years will be unveiled, including paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Steen and Rubens, but also by some lesser-known artists such as Cornelis de Heem and Jacob Ochtervelt. Restoring centuries-old paintings appeals to the imagination. What does it involve? What can we learn from conservation treatment? What do paintings look like ‘before’ and ‘after’? And what have been the most surprising findings?
The exhibition has been postponed due to the current crisis and will run from 7 October 2021 - 9 January 2022.
History of Dyes and Pigments Webinar
June 18 2020
Picture: SDC
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Society of Dyers and Colourists (SDC) are running two interesting webinars on the history of dyes and pigments in art from ancient history to the present day.
A History of Dyes: from Ancient Egypt to modern times will take place on Tuesday 23rd June and A History of Pigments: from cave paintings to the present day will take place on Tuesday 30th June. Both webinars will take place at 2.00pm (UK time). Both are led by the pigment scholar Dr Christine Holdstock, formerly of the University of Leeds.
The webinars cost £5 to attend for non-members of the SDC.
Barts Heritage Project
June 8 2020
Picture: @BartsHeritage
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here is an upcoming project that looks rather exciting. The historic portions of St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, more commonly known as Barts, are due to undergo a vast conservation and restoration project.
The Hospital's trustees turned to architect James Gibbs in the 1730s to add some new wings to the existing complex. The surviving north wing includes a fine historic staircase containing two murals painted by none other than William Hogarth (pictured). The project, which is split into two £10m tranches, will aim to conserve and restore these areas in time for the hospital's 900th anniversary in 2023.
Barts Heritage is a relatively new organisation entrusted to see through the project. Its CEO is William Palin, son of British comedian Sir Michael Palin, is an architectural writer and was previously engaged at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
William has shared this fabulous high-resolution image of the above mural on his Twitter account. It will be quite the transformation once all the dirt has been removed!
Rembrandt Revealed in Allentown
May 29 2020
Video: Allentown Art Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania will be opening a new exhibition later this summer unveiling a recently upgraded Rembrandt in their collection. Portrait of a Young Woman had long been considered a studio work, however, a detailed conservation project which began in 2018 revealed that this was a painting from the master's hand. The above video details some of collaborative work with conservators from the MET and other institutions.
I can't seem to find any details on which scholarly authorities authenticated the work. Such details are of equal interest when it comes to upgrading a Rembrandt.
Paint Roller Punches Through Picasso
May 26 2020
Picture: ArtNet
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
ArtNet has reported on an expensive accident in which a Picasso worth $100m was damaged by a paint roller. Picasso's Le Marin (pictured), owned by casino mogul Steve Wynn, was due to come up for sale at Christie's in 2018. However, before the sale an employee from the decorators T F Nugent left out a paint rod extension that came crashing down on the work which was waiting on foam pads ready to be installed. The auction house's insurers Steadfast Insurance Co. is suing T F Nugent for $18.4m in damages.
Bizarrely, the article reports that an enormous sum was spent on restoring the picture;
Following the incident, Christie’s had the work restored, spending $487,625 to close the gaping hole and the surrounding damage, a total area of seven inches long and two inches wide.
Steadfast hired two art experts to appraise the restored work and assess how much the accident had impacted its value. The lawsuit contends that the appraisers found that the painting had previously been worth up to $100 million, but that the accident had lowered its worth by 20 percent, or $20 million, “given the extent of the physical damage to the Le Marin, and the accompanying reputational damage.”
Vatican Frescos Unveiled
May 19 2020
Video: Vatican City News
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Vatican Museums have unveiled a newly restored fresco cycle in the Aula Pontificum Superior, a room on the second floor of the Apostolic Palace designed for banquets and receptions. The restoration, which began in 2015, has led to several new discoveries including the reattribution of two figures in cycle to Raphael himself. Most of the work, however, is given to Giulio Romano, Giovan Francesco Penni and other workshop collaborators.
These rooms will soon be open to visitors as Italy begins to reopen its museums.
