Category: Conservation
Chirk Castle Servant Portrait
March 14 2024
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Trust published a press release last week regarding a conservation and research project into a rare portrait at Chirk Castle. The painting depicts a former servant at the castle, John Wilton (c.1691-1751), who suffered from physical disabilities.
According to the trust's website:
John Chu, National Trust Senior Curator for Paintings and Sculpture explains: “We don’t know why Sir Richard Myddelton specifically gave John Wilton a home at the castle and why his cousin commissioned such a large portrait of him. The rarity of examples of full-length portraits of servants means we don’t know for sure how they were regarded at the time.
“While John Wilton is being celebrated as an individual, the gold inscription describing him as the ‘glory’ or ‘pride’ of the kitchen is in Latin. If there's a play on high and low forms of art and stations in life here, how fully could he have been in on the joke in this learned language?
"However, historic portraits typically record a relationship between at least three people; the artist, the sitter and the person who commissioned it. While this picture was painted for Robert Myddelton, a man of very high status, this is also an artistic document of one working man's encounter with another. We're seeing Wilton through Whitmore's eyes: and in that respect it provides an incredibly rare if not unique insight."
Click on the link to read more about this very intriguing work of art.
Holkham's Rosalba Carriera Conserved
March 14 2024
Picture: holkham.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm a little late to the news that Holkham Hall have conserved their portrait of Edward, Viscount Coke (1719-1753) by Rosalba Carriera. Click here to read a blog about the artist and sitter, alongside a description of the conservation work undertaken by Deborah Bates. Many readers will know of how tricky it is to conserve pastels due to their incredible fragile nature. What a transformation!
Holbein's Anne of Cleves Cleaned
March 13 2024
Picture: Louvre
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A few accounts on social media have pointed out that the Louvre in Paris have conserved Hans Holbein's portrait of Anne of Cleves. As you can see, the results are miraculous, especially compared with its previous appearance (click on the link to see the old images). It just shows that Holbein really was amongst the leading portrait painters of his era, the face, colouring and details are just otherworldly. For an institution that is usually rather cautious with restoring their masterpieces, perhaps the tides are finally turning?
I can't see any further details yet on their press room website, so stay tuned!
Uffizi Restores and Redisplays Bronze
February 28 2024
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that the Uffizi Gallery in Florence have restored and redisplayed Jacopo Del Duca's bronze of Silenus and the Infant Bacchus. The work took six months to complete and included a readressing of bronze's surfance and base.
Conservation at Woburn Abbey
February 27 2024
Picture: Woburn Abbey via. Instagram
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Woburn Abbey, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Bedford, have started populating their Instagram account with interesting details regarding the conservation of the building and historic collection. The historic site is currently undergoing a large-scale restoration project which is expected to last until 2026. Their most recent post details the cleaning and retouching of a portrait of Queen Victoria which usually hangs in the State Bedroom there (pictured).
The British Museum conserve Michelangelo's Epifania
February 26 2024
Picture: The Telegraph
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Telegraph have published news that The British Museum have finished a six-year conservation project on Michelangelo's Epifania. The two-metre-tall cartoon consists of no less than 26 sheets that are glued together.
The project was undertaken in anticipation of the museum's Michelangelo: The Last Decades exhibition which will run from 2nd May 2024 until 28th July 2024.
Grimsthorpe Castle to conserve Thornhill Monarchs
February 21 2024
Picture: grimsthorpecollection
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire have announced on their Instagram page that they will be sending Sir James Thornhill's monumental English Monarch grisailles to the Hamilton Kerr Institute for a special conservation project. This scheme of decoration was completed in the 1720s and the current restoration campaign will presumably take some time to complete!
Prado Conserves a Giampietrino
February 9 2024
Picture: @museoprado via. Instagram
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Prado in Madrid have published a very interesting video (in Spanish) regarding the recent conservation of a Giampietrino painting of St Catherine. The video with conservator María Moraleda explains that the background had been completely overpainted with some kind of blue sky. I'm sure speakers of Spanish will be able to gain further insights and might be able to point out where the painting can be found on the museum's website (my search has proven fruitless, alas!).
Van Eyck Restored at the Louvre
February 6 2024
Picture: Louvre
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre in Paris will be opening an exhibition next month dedicated to Jan van Eyck's La Vierge et l'Enfant au chancelier Rolin. The painting has just been conserved as part of a wider technical examination project of the artist's works. Alongside the recently restored painting, visitors will be able to delve deeper into the paintings and its history, alongside viewing 60 other relevant paintings, drawings, manuscripts and sculpture brought together for the exhibition.
Museo Diocesano de Teruel redisplays and conserves 'Attributed to Michael Sittow' Work
February 5 2024
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Regular readers will remember a painting 'Attributed to Michael Sittow' which was rediscovered in the Museo de Arte Sacro de Teruel back in 2021. The work has recently been conserved and redisplayed in the museum. Attempts have been made to look into the attribution of the picture, the results of which still under discussion (click on the article to read more).
Free Talk: A Technical Investigation into the Materials and Methods of Evelyn De Morgan
February 5 2024
Picture: demorgan.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This Thursday (8th February) the De Morgan Foundation are putting on a free talk on the subject of A Technical Investigation into the Materials and Methods of Evelyn De Morgan. The talk at 4 Cromwell Place in London will be given by the conservator Alexandra Earl, a final year student in conservation at the Courtauld Institute.
According to the blurb:
Through close technical examination and art historical analysis of two paintings, ‘Queen Eleanor and the Fair Rosamund’ (1901-02) and ‘In Memoriam’ (1890-1919), Alexandra Earl will illustrate how De Morgan’s practice was influenced by her Pre-Raphaelite contemporaries as well as driven by her artistic training and own idiosyncratic methods. New primary material, coupled with the first in-depth scientific analysis of her paintings and palette, has enabled De Morgan’s oeuvre to be better understood – thus contributing to the expanding recognition of De Morgan as an artist in her own right.
Conserving Petr Brandl in Prague
February 2 2024
Video: Národní galerie Praha
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Národní galerie Praha have produced the following video showing the enormous task of conserving Petr Brandl's Joseph Receives his Brothers in Egypt. This enormous canvas was taken from the castle of Jindřichův Hradec and conserved especially for the gallery's current Brandl exhibition.
The Fondation Bemberg Reopening in February
January 31 2024
Picture: claudinecolin.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from France (spotted via. @LaforeAlexandre) that the The Fondation Bemberg will be reopening its museum located in the Hôtel d'Assézat in Toulouse on 2nd February 2024. The foundation, which preserves the art collections and legacy of Georges Bemberg (1915-2011), has spent the last three years renovating the building and exhibition spaces. For the full press release, which gives an idea of the extent of the works and many of the highlights within the collection, click here.
Louvre Conserves Lubin Baugin
January 30 2024
Picture: @milovanovic_nicolas
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre curator Nicolas Milovanovic (@milovanovic_nicolas) has shared a striking photo on Instagram of the ongoing restoration project of Lubin Baugin's Adam and Eve Mourning the Death of Abel. The painting, covered in a particularly dirty varnish, was pre-empted by the Louvre at an auction in Toulouse last March (see link above for more details).
Conserving Boucher at the Timken Museum
January 23 2024
Video: Balboa Art Conservation Center
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm a little slow to the news that the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego have recently conserved a large painting by François Boucher. The conservation project on the artist's Lovers in a Park was made possible due to a $1m grant from the Paull Mellon Foundation, which includes a wider project to broaden the museum's conservation work. Have a look at the museum's Instagram page to see before and after shots, including a video of the varnish removal.
Antonio Rossellino Conserved
January 19 2024
Picture: ansa.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that a marble Madonna and Child by Antonio Rossellino has been conserved. The sculpture, originally deposited in the Church of San Domenico in Ferrara, will go on display in the city's Museo della Cattedrale from 22nd January. The project, first initiated in 2022, was undertaken by the conservator Fabio Bevilacqua.
Conserving Eden
January 19 2024
Picture: getty.edu
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Getty and Norton Simon Museum have partnered up for an interesting conservation project. In particular, the J. Paul Getty Museum’s conservation department has just conserved two paintings of Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach the Elder, two pictures which are from the Norton Simon Museum. Regular art followers will remember that the pair had been claimed by the Goudstikker heir Marei von Saher, a legal claim which was rejected by a US court in 2018.
The accompanying exhibition to highlight the work, entitled Conserving Eden, will run at the Getty from 23rd January until 21st April 2024.
11 Allan Ramsay Paintings to be Restored and Redisplayed
January 8 2024
Picture: The Georgian House, Edinburgh
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The American Friends of British Art have announced that they will be giving a grant to assist with the cleaning and restoration of 11 paintings by Allan Ramsay. The conserved works are intended to be exhibited this year at The Georgian House, Edinburgh, a building cared for by The National Trust for Scotland. No specific details yet as to which paintings will be conserved, so stay tuned!
New Research on Night Watch Ground Layer
December 21 2023
Picture: science.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
For those interested in the depths of technical analysis for works of art, the journal Science Advances has published an extended article on the ground layer of Rembrandt's Night Watch. The article entitled Correlated x-ray fluorescence and ptychographic nano-tomography on Rembrandt’s The Night Watch reveals unknown lead “layer” is free to read online.
Here's the abstract:
The Night Watch, one of the most famous masterpieces by Rembrandt, is the subject of a large research and conservation project. For the conservation treatment, it is of great importance to understand its current condition. Correlated nano-tomography using x-ray fluorescence and ptychography revealed a—so far unknown—lead-containing “layer”, which likely acts as a protective impregnation layer applied on the canvas before the quartz-clay ground was applied. This layer might explain the presence of lead soap protrusions in areas where no other lead components are present. In addition to the three-dimensional elemental mapping, ptychography visualizes and quantifies components not detectable by hard x-ray fluorescence such as the organic fraction and quartz. The first-time use of this combination of synchrotron-based techniques on a historic paint micro-sample shows it to be an important tool to better interpret the results of noninvasive imaging techniques operating on the macroscale.
Closer to Memling in Bruges
December 20 2023
Video: Musea Brugge
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Musea Brugge in Bruges has published a digital project on its website exploring high-definition images of paintings by Hans Memling (1430–1494). The Closer to Memling project allows visitors to the website to get closer than ever before with exquisite images of works in its collection and those in the Museum Sint-Janshospitaal. Anyway, it's now time to go and 'look into the eyes' of Sibylla Sambetha, I think!
