Works of art
Artwork restoration techniques
DNL 1S
AIM: To discover some techniques used in art restoration nowadays.
Thorough – Approfondi, complet Layers / coats - Couches Lead – Plomb Figures – Les formes
Useful vocabulary Varnish – Le vernis Art dealers – Marchands d’art Grime – Crasse To implement – Mettre en place
Sheen – Brillance To overlap - Chevaucher
Behind the scenes at major art museums, conservators are hard at work, keeping masterpieces looking their best. Indeed, beside human abuse, art objects suffer from sunlight, humidity and poor maintenance with the wrong product. Conservators’ methods are meticulous — and sometimes surprising. In the 1800s and 1900s, paintings were redone frequently to match the taste of the time. For example, a study of “The View of Delft” by Vermeer, which looked back to the early 1800s and found that it had been modified about 50 times. The more famous the painting, the more often it has been redone. So, the first goal of the modern conservator is to determine how the painting had been treated over the years, and conservation always begins with a thorough examination. After observations with a magnifying glass or microscope, initial analysis consist of x-rays radiography in order to gain information about the different paint layers. Indeed, lead white paint, often used for figures and faces, is very absorptive so you can see them. Next, the conservator would use infrared imaging to see the original drawings.
Original painting and result of X-ray radiography
Original painting and result of infrared analysis
Once the painting structure has been analyzed, the proper restoration begins. Varnish is the main enemy here: painters, dealers or buyers often put a clear coat of it on to preserve a painting, or give it a nice sheen, but when the varnish ages, it actually changes the colors of the painting. Treatment begins with the removal of dirt and grime from the varnish layer by means of aqueous solutions. The discolored varnish is then removed with chemicals that will not harm the original paint layers. In addition to varnish, conservators also need to get rid of paint that was applied in earlier restorations and then replace it with colors that match sometimes centuries-old originals. It is difficult to remove unwanted material from the surface of a painting without removing, disturbing or altering the organic dyes and pigments in the original layers. A trial and error approach is usually implemented, where chemical cleaning substances are applied in small regions of the painting to select the most appropriate substance to be used to clean the entire painting. The chemical composition of paints and pigments allows conservators to understand which cleaning methods are best, and solubility is the key to finding the most appropriate cleaning method. Restorers try to find cleaning materials that cause the dirty layer to be more soluble than the clean layer Finally, dry pigments are used in synthetic, non-yellowing medium, and paint is used in areas of color loss, using exactly the same colors, texture and surface sheen of the surrounding areas. The principle here is that the conservator’s paint should only touch areas of actual paint loss and should never overlap undamaged original paint. When these steps are complete, the painting has been restored.
Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” before and after restoration Text adapted from http://www.yalescientific.org/2010/12/art-restoration-the-fine-line-between-art-and-science/
Introductory questions 1. What are the causes of the yellowing of varnish? 2. What are X-rays and infrared? What are they used for in this case? 3. What are the French words for “pigment” and “dye”? What is the difference between them? 4. Why is solubility “the key to finding the most appropriate cleaning method”? Written paragraph Imagine you are a restauration technician and you have been given a damaged painting: it is yellowed, and a part of the painting has been deteriorated so badly we can hardly see the image. By groups of 2 or 3, write a short paragraph which summarizes and explains as best as possible the different steps you would take to restore this piece of art. Restoration laboratory at the National Art Gallery in Washington DC, USA
