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Medallion by
sculptor Ivan Shafovsky before and after restoration (SK-2100)
Restorer Oleg Ivanov. 2011 |
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There are three fundamental methods that are
particularly important in contemporary conservation practices. One is preservation, i.e., work that does not
change the item’s appearance from the condition it is in when the work
begins. There is also the analytical method, which
was largely developed during work in the Acropolis in Athens. Its main
principles were clearly defined by Italian conservators in their 1932
Charter of Restoration, still the foremost methodological guide for art
conservation in Italy. In Russia, a similar method was adopted by Igor
Grabar, who formulated rules and applied them in practice under his
supervision. Finally, there is the synthetic method, which
is used only in exceptional cases to completely restore a piece of art, and
includes the possible replacement of lost details. The analytical method’s most important
principles, affirmed by the Second International Congress of Architects and
Technicians of Historical Monuments held in Venice in 1964, can be
summarized as follows: a work of art is a scientific document, a historical
primary source; the main objective in art conservation is to “read” this
document and thoroughly stabilize the authentic, old parts of it.
These goals are best achieved when only the
minimum amount of work is done on an item. All non-original elements must
first be removed, and all subsequent additions use the latest innovations in
art conservation. Modern art conservation techniques make use of all the
newest scientific achievements and physio-chemical research methods in the
attempt to stabilize the work of art. Many types of materials can be used in
art conservation, but their outward appearance should resemble the original
materials from which the piece was created, and the work should be
reversible. Before any conservation work is done, the item must be
scrupulously and comprehensively studied -- visually, technologically, and
historically. The reason for any damage is investigated both visually and
with special instruments, while technological means are used to determine
the state of the original elements. With this information, possible ways of
repairing the damage emerge.
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The Summer
Garden sculpture The Rape of the Sabine Women in 2004
(left) and 2011 (right) |
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If the item is in very poor condition,
certain actions aimed at preservation are taken as early as during the
preliminary inspection. Afterwards (or possibly during the preliminary
study), photographs are taken to document its current condition. For the
historical and archival research, everything available concerning the item
is studied, even tangential written sources and photographs, paintings,
drawings, medals, stamps, etc. in which the work of art is depicted. For
items of particular historical or artistic significance, as well as for
objects significant as artifacts of the history of material culture, usually
only preservational or analytical methods are used, with limitations on what
is removed, preserving layers that have historical or artistic value.
Today’s scientifically-based art conservation
methods evolve by studying the materials and technology used to create
various objects, causes and types of damage and distortion, and the history
of art and material culture. Before any conservation methods are applied to
an object, a there is a comprehensive study of the item, involving chemical,
optical, and physical investigation (e.g., x-ray, micro- and
macro-photography, examination in infrared light, and spectral,
chromatographic, microcrystalline, and other kinds of analyses). The
conservation process returns lost structural strength to an object by adding
similar materials (for example, by saturating the layers of plaster
underneath a mural in limewater, or by applying isinglass to a primed layer
of an icon or an oil or distemper painting) or very strong and stable
synthetic materials that have no adverse effects on the item and can be
removed. Deformations in the base material, primer, and painted layers of
the painting are rectified, lost color and gold-plating are restored to
sculptures and carvings, and elements of the object that have undergone
chemical and structural changes are removed (completely or in part) or
restored (e.g., removing darkened lacquer or varnish from paintings,
removing flaking patina from sculptures and other articles made from copper
alloys and various metals, whitening paper, restoring the color of white
lead, etc.). Later additions to sculptures, decorative and applied artworks,
paintings, and murals are partially or completely removed.
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The progress of work is discussed
at a meeting of the Russian Museum's Conservation Committee.
2016 |
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Additions to a painting (most often
encountered with Old Russian artwork) are preserved as an artistic
historical document if they have been made in areas where the original paint
had been lost and if they do not hinder a cohesive understanding of the
original work. If the later layers of the painting have artistic or
historical value, then, if possible, they are removed and placed on a new
primed medium. It is only acceptable to add lost parts to material culture
artifacts, paintings, or sculptures when it is to stabilize the original
pieces (such as restoring the plaster layer of murals, the primer layer of
an icon, or lost sections of canvas and primer in oil painting; replenishing
paper pulp in graphic works, documents, etc.). In sculpture, disparate parts
are connected and mounted (sometimes on a specially prepared frame). Bright
white or colored insertions of primer that interfere with the image of the
original painting are toned down with easily discernible but less noticeable
paint. Arbitrary reconstruction of lost areas in a painting is unacceptable;
but an exception can be made for oil and some other types of paintings,
provided that the artist’s painting layer and primer is first isolated from
any additions with a layer of easily soluble varnish.
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