e Conservation

the online magazine No. 2, December 2007

e_conservation

the online magazine

http://e-conservationline.com/

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It's all about sharing...

Since our first number was published, I have seen with pleasure the

conservators community being active and excited about our project. I see

readers curious to know more about what was published and authors willing

to participate. But I’ve also seen that the conservation community is busy.

I know how demanding our profession is but I believe we can always find

some time to get involved. Lately, I’ve noticed many of you are keen to

participate but do not believe their experience is interesting enough to be

shared. We all can learn even from mistakes and failures. As John Powell

said, the only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. We all

know how hard conservators confess mistakes but the truth is that

sometimes we commit them…

On this second number you will continue to read a series of interesting articles.

Since nowadays there is a major preoccupation with Conservation of

Contemporary Art, some of you may be interested to read about a recent

project of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Porto, where a 1972's neon installation

was reconstructed.

If you are interested in material characterization, you will find engaging the

article about the alteration of cinnabar red from the church of Suceviţa.

We continue our Case Study section introducing the problematic of

derestoration. What do we do when we are confronted with layers of

repaintings during a conservation intervention? Here you can read what was

done in the case of a World Heritage Monument, the church from Arbore.

What’s special about this number?

We opened a new section dedicated to the associations of conservators from

all over the world, thus if you were ever curious about organizations in other

countries, read about the Chamber of Restorers in Slovakia in this first article.

Furthermore, you can find information from interdisciplinary domains like

art history, architecture and documentation.

I hope you will enjoy it!

It is a fortunate coincidence that this issue is launched just before Christmas.

Holidays are always needed and so we should all take a well deserved break

from the daily routine and start the new year in the best way possible.

In the name of the whole team, I wish you a successful 2008!

Rui Bordalo,

Executive Editor

www.prorestauro.com

http://www.prorestauro.com/

http://www.prorestauro.com/

Index

NEWS 6

12

15PROJECT

24ARTICLES

CASE STUDY

34

46

ORGANISATIONS 66

DOCUMENTATION

70

78

BOOK REVIEW

79

81

83

2007 WorksitesMedieval Values Discovered at the Assumption Church,

Cepari Village, Argeş, Romania (1752)

by Mihail Gabriel Bîrhală

Events ReviewsLecture on Preventive Conservation of Contemporary Art30 November 2007, Sintra, Portugal

Berlin Conference on Preservation of Himalayan Culture4-5 December 2007, Berlin, Germany

Upcoming Events December 2007 to February 2008

Cultural ProjectThe Sibiel Cultural Centre, Ecomuseum – Contemporary Art Galleryby Ovidiu Daneş

Material StudiesAn Alteration Phenomenon of Cinnabar Red Pigmentin the Mural Paintings from Suceviţaby Ioan Istudor, Anca Dină, Geanina Roşu, Doina Şeclămanand Gheorghe Niculescu

Conservation of Contemporary ArtReconstructing a 1972’s Neon Light Installation at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Portoby Filipe Duarte

The Church of "The Beheading of St. John the Baptist" from ArborePrevious Interventions from the Perspective of Derestorationby Anca Dină and Oliviu Boldura

Conservation Organisations in EuropeChamber of Restorers in Slovakiaby Barbara Davidson

The Crucifixes of Marginimeby Ovidiu Daneş

Documentation for Architecture Conservation:La Villetta Cemetery in Parma, Italy (part 2)a project coordinated by Michela Rossi

Formal References in Funerary Architectureby Maria Carmen Nuzzo

The Urban Planning of Parma Cemeterial Systemby Silvia Ombellini

The Master Plan for the Safeguarding and Restoration of La Villettaby Elisa Adorni

The Virtual Museum - The Memory of the Cemetery Heritageby Simone Riccardi

Lost City, Resumed Architecturesa book by Michela Rossi, reviewed by Federica Ottoni

LACONA VI Proceedings (Laser in the Conservations of Artworks)reviewed by Rui Bordalo

ART HISTORY

EVENTS

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Worksite supervision:

Mihail Gabriel Bîrhală, Specialist Restorer

Period: 2006 - 2007

2007 Worksites

MEDIEVAL VALUES DISCOVERED AT THE ASSUMPTION CHURCH,

Cepari Village, Argeş, Romania(1752)

The conservation works of the

mural paintings from the church

of Cepari Village brought to light

the existence of a valuable

ensemble of Romanian

medieval paintings from 1752.

The discovered frescoes were entirely

covered by oil paintings executed between

1889 and 1890. Unexpected evidences of

older painting beneath the new one were

found during the preliminary research

performed for the submission of the

e_conservation

conservation project. Several stratigraphic

exams and successive cleaning tests were

carried out in the narthex on the paintings

from the dome, the arches, the

pendentives and the vertical walls. It was

proceeded with maximum care, taking

advantage of all exfoliations and lacunas

of the oil paint layer. The results showed

that there were well preserved frescoes

beneath the entire surface, the new layer

of painting being applied directly or over

a very thin and strong intermediary layer

of chalk and linseed oil.

Two conservation projects were submitted

to approval: one regarding the

preservation of the present oil paintings

and the other proposing to reveal the old

painting through the removal of the new one.

This last was approved by the Minister of

Culture due to for the remarkable value of

the original paintings and the opportunity

to recover them. The actual intervention

on the original paintings was as less

intrusive as possible due to the well

preserved state of preservation and

mainly in respect for the preservation

Short History

In the north-west side of Argeş

County, on the Topolog Valley,

Cepari Village can be found.

The church from Cepari was

erected between 1751 and

1752 by jupân Ştefan Balotă.

Nave shaped, the church is built

of brick masonry, consisting of

the altar, the nave and the

narthex. A later inscription

located at the church’s entrance

says that on the occasion of

the restoration works in 1888

an exonarthex was added and

the church was entirely

repainted. The original painting

was made in a fresco

technique, on a intonaco

support (lime with addition of

fine sand and hemp). The

1888’s intervention consisted in

a new layer of oil painting

applied directly over the

frescoes or over a thin

separation layer.

During the intervention - different stages of thecleaning process.

News

e_conservation 7

of the original matter. During the cleaning

of the painting in the narthex, major

lacunas of the support in the inferior

register and at the north-west and north-

east pendentives were observed, but after

completing the intervention around 90%

of the original painting was recovered.

It is expected to meet the same

situation in the rest of the church.

Unfortunately at this point the works are

stopped due to major structural

problems that require immediate solution.

These paintings are unique, having being

made by village painters with no academic

education but with a native talent and

skills. Cepari’s discovered paintings can be

discussed about at large, from both

professional and personal point of view.

Cepari is now a point of interest for those

specialised in conservation-restoration or

art history and a controversial event for

its inhabitants, those village people

and their capability of acceptance of the

message that this work of art transmits.

Text and photos by Mihail Gabriel Bîrhală

Whereas the ulterior layers

provoked physical-chemical

deterioration of the original

paintings, they also protect it

against other degradation

factors. In consequence a fairly

good preservation state was

observed.

During the conservation works

started in 2005, the church

environment was monitored and

the presence of high, abnormal

content of moisture in the

interior walls was identified in all

church’s compartments. It was

proceeded to the removal of the

cement repairs which obstructed

the exclusion of capillarity

moisture from the walls. The

small size lacunas were filled

with mortar and chromatically

retouched.

Areas where the painting and the

original support were not

preserved were filled below the

surface’s level with coloured

mortars.

News

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In every number of the magazine we will

report temporary worksite activity.

If you want to see news about your worksite

here, please contact us.

However, our news section is not limited to

on-site projects, but to any kind of

conservation activities. If you are involved in

an interesting project and you want to share

it with everybody else, please send us your

news or announcements.

News

The Leal da Câmara Museum is a small

institution dedicated to the life and work

of the Portuguese master Leal da

Câmara. Among several artistic

activities, the museum promotes regular

talks on several subjects including

museology and conservation. On this

context, on November 30th Nuno

Moreira, conservator and adviser of the

Portuguese Museum Network, gave a

talk on Preventive Conservation of

Contemporary Art. The audience, with

an average age of nearly 50 years old

and from the most diverse backgrounds,

showed high interest in the subject.

The talk was structured around three

main topics: what contemporary art is,

the importance of preventive conservation

in this field and reflections on the new

problems that conservation faces with

the introduction of new materials in

works of art.

The public was eager to participate in

the discussion that took place after the

presentation, making plenty of questions

mainly about the difficulties of the

conservation practice in museums.

In our opinion, this contact between

conservators and the general public is

fundamental for a better understanding

of preventive conservation and

contemporary art, thus these initiatives

should be encouraged as much as possible.

LECTURE

Preventive Conservation of Contemporary Art

30 November 2007, Sintra, PortugalOrganiser: The Leal da Câmara Museum

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News

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Conference ReviewCULTURAL HERITAGE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF HISTORICAL CITIES IN ASIA

4-5 December 2007Berlin, Germany

A project implemented by:

ASIA Onlus and

Tibet Heritage Fund,

Co-funded by European Commission

Safeguarding traditions & ancient knowledge to promote development

This was the motto of a project planned

and carried out by the two NGOs ASIA

Onlus (Rome) and Tibet Heritage Fund

(Berlin). Both organizations have been

working for over a decade on

development projects in Tibet that include

the preservation of Tibet's unique cultural

heritage. With support from the EU, a

program to investigate the issues of

sustainable preservation of the heritage

of Tibet seeks to evaluate adequate

methodologies to preserve aspects such

as Tibet’s ancient architecture, its

traditional cities and its monastic art was

launched. Activities include seminars and

exhibitions in Italy and Germany, and

publications of the results.

In June 18 - 22 2007, three seminars

were held in Napoli, Torino and Roma,

addressing the same topic. The papers

presented gave an overview of Buddhist

and Tibetan architecture in the region

(Napoli); of the need for and examples of

sustainable interventions in architectural

design, architectural conservation, urban

planning and financial investment in the

region (Torino); and examples of

successful interventions in Buddhist wall-

painting conservation (Roma).

To bring these topics to a conclusion, THF

and two German universities have

organized an international conference in

Berlin from December 4-5 2007. This was

designed to create a forum to discuss and

define parameters and strategies for

intervention in the Himalayan areas,

addressed to experts working in the fields,

policy makers, donor institutions and the

general public. More important, it was

also meant to link different people

http://www.tibetheritagefund.org/

http://www.asia-onlus.org/

News

e_conservation 11

working in Himalayan areas with different

expertise, to create more holistic project

approaches. The first day, held at

University of Technology, dealt with

themes related to architecture and

planning, and included presentations on

Lhasa, Ladakh, sustainable new

architecture in Burkina Faso and

resettlements in Qinghai. The second day,

held at Humboldt University, dealt with

the relation between Tibetan material

culture and development, with a particular

emphasis on wall-painting conservation.

Speakers included architect Prof. Dr. Peter

Herrle from TU Berlin, who regularly

advises German development institutions

on urban sustainability; Aga-Khan-Award

recipient Francis Kere; the eminent

Tibetan art historians Heather Stoddard

and Erberto Lo Bue, wall-painting

conservators Anca Nicolaescu and Luigi

Fieni, and THF and ASIA representatives.

In parallel, there was an exhibition made

by THF about Tibetan architecture on

show, entitled: Exploding City Lhasa:

Urban Development on the Roof of the

World, shown in the foyer of the Main

Building, Humboldt University, Unter den

Linden 6, Berlin.

More information, including conference

abstracts for download, under

www.tibetheritagefund.org/pages/news.php

Reviewed by André Alexander,

Tibet Heritage Fund,

photos by André Alexander and Lala,

2007 International Seminars Proceedings - Naples, Turin, Rome18, 20, 22 June 2007, published by Politecnico Di Torino 2007.

Tenzin Nyandak (New Delhi School of Architecture and Planning) presenting Modern Tibetan Architecture in Exile.

http://www.tibetheritagefund.org/pages/news.php

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Jan

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08Pre-Columbian Textile

Workshop

Date: 8 January Read more...Place: Lima and Yarinacocha, Peru

Workshop organised by Museum Textile Services- document, conserve, and mount pre-Columbian textiles- conserving textiles and ceramics salvaged after the August 15, 2007, earthquake, which damaged buildings and archaeological sites around Huaca Malena.

Restoring the Royal Pavilion

Date: 12-20 January Read more...Place: Brighton & Hove, UK

The Royal Pavilion will host a series of lectures and guided tours exploring the craftsmanship and materials used in the on-going restoration of the most exotic palace in Brighton.Speakers, such as architects and engineers who have worked on the Royal Pavilion, will give specialist lectures including a talk on the current major project to restore the stonework.The project is currently in its fourth phase on the east front of the palace and is due to be completed towards the end of 2009.

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08 Nigel J. Seeley

Memorial Lecture

Date: 13 December Read more...Place: London, UK, University College

A range of speakers from different disciplines is invited to give their own unique views on "Sustainable Heritage".These lectures, which are open to the public and free of charge, take place monthly at UCL.

Cleaning the Uncleanable

Treatment of Millais' Hearts are Trumps

Date: 19 December Read more...Place: London, UK

Natasha Duff from Tate will be talking about the recent treatment of Millais' 'Hearts are Trumps' prepared for the current Tate Britain exhibition.This talk addresses the dilemmas tackled and decisions made as part of such a complex cleaning treatment.Register no later than Monday 17December.

Architectural Paint Research In Building Conservation

Date: 17-19 January Read more...Place: New York, USColumbia University

Topics:Cultural Significance. The examination of finishes as a social, economic and cultural component of material culture.Paint materials and their development, as a history of technology.Wallpapers, historical uses as well as modern conservation and replication approaches.Analytical and instrumental techniques used in architectural paint research and standards for these techniques.Practical Applications. Replicating, recreating and conserving historic finishes.

The links in this section

will take you to the homepage

of the event. In case the event

does not have an individual page,

you will be directed to

our website, from where

you can check more details

and find out how to apply.

e_conservation

http://conservationevents.com/events/past-events.html

http://www.aprconference.us/



http://www.royalpavilion.org.uk/events/restoringthepavilion.asp

pro

ject

Pigment, extender or adulterant

A discussion on artists' white, watercolour pigments in the early twentieth century

Date: 25 January Read more...Place: London, UK

The lecture will review the historic and current literature on the manufacture, usage and issues surrounding the ageing characteristics of these pigments. Of particular focus are the potential detrimental effects to paper substrates when zinc oxide and titanium oxide are present.

The Object in Transition

A Cross Disciplinary Conference on the Preservation and Study of Modern and

Contemporary Art

Date: 25-26 January Read more...Place: Los Angeles, CA, USA

Presented by the Getty Institute.The conference will explore some of the key issues surrounding the conservation of contemporary sculpture, painting, and mixed-media artworks, and the collaborative possibilities, primarily between conservators, art historians, and curators, working in these fields.Free entrance. Registrations will be accepted until the conference is full.

Napoleon’s Legacy

The Development of National Museums in Europe,

c. 1794-1830

Date: 31 January - 2 February Read more...Place: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

International conference, organized by the Huizinga Research Institute of Cultural History (Amsterdam) and the Institute for Museum Research (Berlin).The French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars had a major impact on European museums. The central question is how did various European countries in this period, stimulated by these confiscations and subsequent restitutions, design and disseminate the image of a ‘national culture’ through their museums.

Training Seminars – ARCHAIA

Research Planning, Characterisation, Conservation and Management in

Archaeological Sites

Date: 28-30 January Read more...Place: Copenhagen, DK

Addressed to 90 post-graduate students, scholars and professionals of different backgrounds. The results of some funded EU research projects and COST actions will be presented.

Jan

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Terra 2008

10th International Conference on the Study and Conservation of Earthen Architecture

Date: 1-5 February Read more...Place: Bamako, Mali

Organized by the Getty Conservation Institute and the Ministry of Culture of Mali with the collaboration of Africa 2009, CRATerre-ENSAG, ICOMOS South Africa, and the World Heritage Centre, under the aegis of ICOMOS and its International Scientific Committee on the Earthen Architectural Heritage.The 10th conference to be organized by the earthen architecture community underthe aegis of ICOMOS since 1972, and the first to be held in Africa.It provides a unique opportunity to discuss and observe firsthand conservation issues particular to sub-Saharan Africa, a region rich in earthen architecture. During this conference, specialists will present papers and posters that reflect the latest research and practices in the study and conservation of earthen architecture worldwide.Funding opportunities for participants from developing countries to attend the conference will be available.

Jan

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Feb

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Events

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http://conservationevents.com/home/view_detail-6.html

http://www.getty.edu/conservation/science/modpaints/modern_materials_conf.html

http://www.archaia.eu/


http://www.getty.edu/conservation/field_projects/earthen/earthen_2008_conf.html

Polychromed Wood

Icon Stone & Wall Paintings Group: 'Polychromed Wood' - Part 2

Date: 22 February Read more...Place: London, UKHampton Court Palace

A conference in two instalments on the care and conservation of polychrome and gilded wood including architectural panelling, structural timbers and wooden statuary both in-situ and in museums.

Feb

ruary

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08The Science behind

Paper Structure

British Museum Lecture Series - Part 3

Date: 6 February Read more...Place: London, UK

The physical properties of paper. Tensile strength, tear strength, folding endurance, bending stiffness, brightness, whiteness, opacity, gloss, smoothness, air permeability, resistance to water penetration. How and why each property is measured.

Was David Hockney right?

Did van Eyck, Lotto, Memling and de la Tour trace projected images?

Date: 8 February Read more...Place: London, UK

In 2001, artist David Hockney and scientist Charles Falco stunned the art world with a controversial theory that, if correct, would profoundly alter our view of the development of image making. They claimed that as early as 1420, Renaissance artists employed optical devices such as concave mirrors to project images onto their canvases, which they then traced or painted over. Analysis of the paintings, infra-red reflectograms, modern reenactments, internal consistency of the theory, and alternate explanations allow to judge with high confidence the plausibility of this bold theory.

Risk Assessment and management strategies in Preventive Conservation

After (the flood) = Before (the flood)

Date: 15-16 February Read more...Place: Aschaffenburg, Germany

The conference is to set the state-of-the-art in the field of risk assessment and management strategies.The official languages are German and English.Registration closes by January 31st 2008.

Holding it all together

Ancient and modern approaches to joining, repair and consolidation

Date: 21-22 February Read more...Place: London, UK

The aim of this meeting is to bring together conservators, scientists and curators with an interest in the methods by which artefacts have been manufactured, repaired (both in antiquity and modern times) and conserved.

Call for Papers - Deadlines

International WorkshopSMW08 - In situ Monitoring of Monumental

Surfaces

Date: 27-29 October Read more...Place: Florence, ItalyAbstracts, preliminary registration: 15 February

The main objective of this workshop is to illustrate the ultimate state of the art of portable diagnostic technologies for monitoring cultural heritage and their general and specific uses.The typologies of artefacts involved in this workshop are focused on: monumental buildings, painted facades and archaeological remains, whilst the materials to monitor are: stones, mortars, plasters, bricks, ceramics, tesserae, wooden structures and metals.

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Events

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http://www.restauratoren.de/index.php?id=240

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_news/british_museum_conference.aspx


http://www.surfacemonitor.eu/

pro

ject

THE SIBIEL CULTURAL CENTRE

Ecomuseum – Contemporary Art Gallery

by Ovidiu Daneş

DALA Cultural Foundation

www.dala.ro

http://www.dala.ro

Ovidiu Daneş

Introduction

The project of the DALA Foundation

started from the idea of restoring the

dialogue between two cultures, rural and

urban. The setting of the Sibiel village

provides, through the dynamic of

changes, interesting documenting-

research-experimenting material. The

Sibiu outskirts, currently going through a

transformation process that can be

followed along several lines (image,

human composition, and oral tradition),

provide their journey of identity

development up to present times.

Rearranged old boundaries, drawn anew

on the basis of the recent law on

residential colonisations, weave new

centres of tension, new village hearths

into the rural realm. One of the most easy

to observe constants is the immediate

The DALA cultural foundation was

established in May 2006 in Romania

and operates as an NGO.

Objectives

1. Promoting and supporting projects in

the area of visual arts, curatorial

activities and cultural management;

2. Drafting and implementing alternative

educational projects on various

components of contemporary arts;

3. Drafting and supporting architecture

projects with an effect on public spaces;

4. Supporting research programmes in

the areas of stable and mobile heritage,

of monument restoration and

conservation projects, of research in

the area of old Romanian art;

5. Book publishing.

e_conservation16

Ovidiu Daneş

alternation between well preserved areas

of vernacular architecture, clearly defined

in vicinity, with the current ambiguous

insertions, oversized and with standard

purposes. The demolition or abandonment

of the area specific housing system is

joined more or less symbolically by the

disappearance of crafts, traditions, or by

the transformation of the image of

identity-giving monuments. The

phenomenon is new to the Sibiu outskirts

villages, and interventions in recent years

are radical.

The Sibiel Cultural Centre will emphasise

the contemporary reality in a particular

manner, by means of the location, the

architecture project and the program.

In the summer of 2006, the recently

established DALA Foundation acquired a

house registered in the local patrimony, in

an attempt to mediate the conflict

between the former owner and the Local

Patrimony Department. After the

takeover, dismantling and transportation

to its new location (approximately 200 m

from the original location), the house was

prepared for restoration on a land

property at the end of the village. Placing

the Cultural Centre on a land separating

the old Sibiel village from its more recent

extension allows for the taking on of the

double discourse of boundary. Physically,

the proposed boundary is a river stone

alleyway, a historical emphasis which will

articulate the architecture project. Being

the first of the village from the point of

Image 1, 2. Wood houses from Răşinari village (left) and Gura Raului (right).

e_conservation18

The Sibiel Cultural Centre

view of the traveller and the last seen

from the village hearth, the alleyway

separates the Centre in its two

components, the Ecomuseum and the

Contemporary Art Gallery, proposing a

face to face dialogue between them.

The Ecomuseum, seen as a future space

for the local community to present its

current daily life, will use as raw material

the image of the local household; the

typology of the latter is that of a U-

shaped living area which makes

maximum functional use of the land,

where the house is always smaller than

the auxiliary spaces – stables, barns,

workshops.

Image 3, 4, 5. Wood houses from Sibiel village (right, up), Fântânele village (right) and Arpaş village (down).

e_conservation 19

Ovidiu Daneş

The Ecomuseum program will be

organised around a long term exhibition

of 6-9 months, during which one family

from the village at the time will manage

the living space, and the auxiliary spaces

will host workshops; glasswork, ironwork,

wood sculpting and cutting, pottery – all

trades which survived until recently in the

region. The cellar and attic will be used to

store preserves made according to

methods specific to the area of the Sibiu

outskirts. An accommodation centre for

20 persons will be built on the same side

of the alleyway and in the immediate

vicinity of the Ecomuseum, following the

same typology of the U-shaped living

area. The basement of this space will

serve as cooking and dining area.

The materials used for the two buildings,

the Ecomuseum and the accommodation

centre, will come from demolished or

abandoned houses and barns; wood

pillars, large stones strapped with

wrought iron, gates, river stone, tiles.

On the other side of the alleyway, the

Contemporary Art Gallery conceived as a

container space will host a research

centre and a multi-functional space for

events hosted by the Sibiel Cultural

Centre: exhibitions, workshops, training

sessions, seminars, lectures.

Both the multifunctional space and the

accommodation centre will periodically be

made available to companies interested in

organising events: training sessions,

seminars etc., thus ensuring the

sustainability of the Sibiel Cultural Centre.

The purpose of the Cultural Centre entails

Image 6. Old house moved to new location and rebuilt.

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art

icle

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finding technical solutions with minimal

impact on the environment, such as: heat

pumps with shafts, a combined system

with solar cells for hot household water,

thermal insulation through processed

sheep wool, wall covering out of clay

mixed with sand, hemp and straw fibres.

Image 7. Wood house from Fântânele village.

Buildings

- Ecomuseum – old house moved to new

location and rebuilt

- Workshops of the ecomuseum

- Multifunctional building with research offices

- Accommodation rooms with dining room

- Administrator’s house

The Sibiel Cultural Centre

Project team:

Ovidiu DANEŞ - art historian,

project manager

Şerban STURDZA - architect

Klaus BIRTHLER - architect

Luiza ZAMORA – art historian

Ioana POPESCU - research director

Romanian Peasant Museum in Bucharest

Laurenţiu TOMA - visual artist

DALA Cultural Foundation

e_conservation 21

http://www.dala.ro

we accept articles in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian, acceptăm articole în Engleză, Spaniolă, Portugheză, Italiană şi Română, aceptamos artículos en Inglés, Francés, Español, Portugués, Italiano y Rumano, nous acceptons des articles en Anglais, Français, Espagnol, Portugais, Italien et Roumain, accettiamo articoli in Inglese, Francese, Spagnolo, Portoghese, Italiano e Rumeno, aceitamos artigos en Inglês, Francês, Espanhol, Português, Italiano e Romeno.

art

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AREAS OF PUBLISHING

Conservation TreatmentMural Painting

Painting (any support)

Stone

Sculpture (any support)

Textiles

Paper / Documents

Photography

Metals

Tile / Ceramic / Glass

Furniture

Music instruments

Ethnographic assets

Archeological objects

Conservation ScienceScientific research

Material studies and characterisation

Analytical techniques

Technology development

Biodeterioration

State-of-the-art

Reviews

Preventive ConservationTheoretic principles

Case studies

Documentation in ConservationStandardisation

Documentation methods

Data management

Conservation Theory

Ethics

Conservation History

Art History, Iconography,

Iconology, Chemistry,

Physics, Biology,

Photography, Cultural

Management, Museology,

Computer Science,

Legislation and Juridical

Processes, Conservation

Policies and any other

field applied to

Conservation and

Restoration

Check out more: www.e-conservationline.com

http://www.e-conservationline.com/content/category/8/18/34/

AN ALTERATION PHENOMENON OF CINNABAR RED PIGMENTin the Mural Paintings

from Suceviţa

Ioan Istudor, Anca Dină, Geanina Roşu,Doina Şeclăman, Gheorghe Niculescu

Introduction

The mural paintings from northern

Moldavia have always been a point of

interest for specialists in conservation, due

to their technical qualities that assured

their preservation over the years in the

severe climate of this region in Romania.

Over the years, both exterior and interior

paintings showed colour alterations caused

by environmental factors like atmospheric

deposits, humidity and light among

others. Through physical, chemical or

biological processes, these factors induced

superficial chromatic alterations of the

colours, modifying the artistic expression

of the paintings.

These alterations are generally considered

as patina. The term patina, according to

Paul Philippot1, is attributed to the

modifications that occur in normal

conditions in the colour layer under the

action of the previously mentioned factors.

When the painting materials are submitted

to environmental factors which take

course at high intensities on long time

periods, we deal with other alterations

which can not be considered as patina

anymore. Some of these alterations made

the subject of a previous paper2.

The conservation works started in 1989

by Oliviu Boldura and Tatiana Pogonat

gave us the possibility to perform a detailed

scientific research on the exterior and

interior mural paintings. Even from the

beginning our attention was drawn to the

phenomena of alteration of pigments in

these paintings from which here we shall

focus on the alteration of cinnabar red.

In a first phase, while analysing the state

of conservation of the paintings from the

church’s dome, we observed significant

surfaces coloured in red having dark

aspect and turning into black-brown.

Ulteriorly, once the conservation works

were started, the same phenomenon

could be observed as well in other

1 Paul Philippot, La notion de la patine et le nettoyage des peintures in Bulletin de l’Institut Royal du Patrimoine Arttistique, Bruxelles, IX, 1966, pp. 136-142.2 Ioan Istudor, Alteration de la couleur observees sur les peintures murales des eglises de Bucovine, in Colloque sur la Conservation et la Restauration des Peintures Murales, Suceava, Romania, 1977, pp. 21- 35.

Image 1. General view of the church, east facade.

Alteration of Cinnabar Red Pigment

e_conservation 25

compartments of the church. The visual

inspection and the first cleaning tests led

to the conclusion that we do not deal just

with common dirt deposits but with a

colour alteration.

Literature mentions the alteration of

cinnabar (red) into metacinnabar3

(black). The same phenomenon is

mentioned in the painting manuals of the

old masters. Cennino Cennini4 described

the alteration of cinnabar as follows: “bear

in mind that it is not its nature to be

exposed to the open air; it is more lasting

on panels than on walls, because, by long

exposure to the open air (all’ aria) it

becomes black when applied to walls.”

Dionysius of Furna writes in his manual

(Erminia)5: “[…] as for the cinnabar, when

you want to paint outdoors in a place with

wind, you should give up, because it turns

black while the white must have a high

concentration; when you want to paint

indoors you should add some ceruse6

and Constantinople ochre and like this it

won’t turn black.”

The old masters had already noticed the

phenomenon, without knowing exactly

what causes it and still recommended the

use of cinnabar for interior and panel

paintings, “in order to keep it away from

air and wind”.

The exact explanation of the phenomenon

was given later afterwards. The mercury

sulphide presents two enantiomorph

states: a red one, stable, crystallised in

the hexagonal system known as cinnabar7

and very appreciated in painting, and a

black one, metastable, crystallised in the

3 Rutherford J. Getens, Robert L. Feller and W. T. Chase, Vermillion and Cinnabar, in Studies in Conservation, 17 (1972), pp. 45-69.4 The book of the art of Cennino Cennini: a contemporary practical treatise on quattrocento painting (1922), 15th century, George Allen & Unwin, London, Chapter 40. Of the properties of a red called cinnabar, and how it ought to be ground, free to download from:www.archive.org/details/bookofartofcenni00cennuoft

5 Dionysius of Furna, Carte de Pictură, Meridiane, Bucharest 1979, pp. 86, “Cartea întâi, îndreptar pentru meşteşug”, 66 paragraph.6 Term used by Dionysius of Furna for the white pigment usually used in the Byzantine frescoes, prepared from grinded old intonaco.7 The red pigment based on mercury sulphide was artificially prepared since the antiquity from sulphur and mercury. Starting with the 18th century (1785), it is commercialised under the name “vermillion”.

Image 2. Altar, east apse and triumphal arch

Ioan Istudor et. al.

e_conservation26

http://www.archive.org/details/bookofartofcenni00cennuoft

Image 3 and 4. Nave, dome, Prophet David. Sampling area. Images during the conservation of the painting.

cubic system or in amorphous state,

known as metacinnabar (polymorphism).

After a long exposure to solar light, the

cinnabar red turns into black

metacinnabar. The change takes place

through the absorption of a light radiation

of 400 to 570 nm wavelength. The

alteration is only superficial, under the

black layer being the unaltered red.

A similar process occurred in the paintings

from Suceviţa, thus we proposed to prove

that the red pigment and the alteration

product are indeed mercury sulphides.

Methods and materials

The analysed samples were taken from

both the red and the superficial overlayer

of black colour from the paintings in the

dome of the church (sample no. 1, 1st

scene, garment of Prophet Solomon and

sample 14, 2nd scene, red frame between

the scenes) (see images 3 and 4).

The first data were obtained by

microscope examination with reflected

light. In the cross section no. 329 (90x)

from image 5 can be observed the

presence of a 5µm thick black layer and a

25µm thick red layer.


e_conservation 27

Image 5. Sample no. 329. Cross section (90x) showing a 5µm thick black layer of metacinnabar and a 25µm thick red layer of cinnabar.

Image 6. Microchemical identification of the mercury tetrathiocyanatocobalt - CoHg(SCN)4.

For the chemical analyses, the samples

were dissolved in aqua regia (a mixture of

HCl and HNO, 2:1, v/v). Hg2+ ion was

microchemically identified as mercury

tetrathiocyanatocobalt8 (blue crystals,

CoHg(SCN)4, which belong to the

rhombohedral system) (see image 6) by

comparison with HgCl2 (reference

substance) and by the reduction of Hg2+

to metallic Hg on the copper lamella,

which makes a deposit similar to a silver

mirror.

8 S. Savencu, A. Bordea, J. Linde, A. Luca, Chimie Analitică Calitativă, Ed. Didactică şi Pedagogică, Bucharest 1963, pp. 185 - 186

The obtained results were verified also by

X-ray Diffraction (XRD), using a Dron 2.0

equipment and the working parameters:

- Cu Kα radiation; 36 KV, 20 mA, Ni filter;

- angle range 2θ, goniometer speed 4°/’,

- cinnabar ASTM 6 – 256, metacinnabar

ASTM 6 – 261

The obtained spectrum is shown in figure

1 that shows the presence of both forms

of mercury sulphides.

Figure 1. Spectrum obtained by XRD, showing the presence of both forms of mercury sulphides:

- cinnabar HgS ASTM 6 – 256, - metacinnabar HgS ASTM 6 – 261.


e_conservation28

Results and discussion

The chemical reaction has shown crystals

of the same shape, colour and size for

both the samples and the reference

substance. This allows us to state that the

analysed samples contain mercury

sulphite (cinnabar, metacinnabar, HgS).

The metacinnabar presence was

confirmed by XRD.

The initial hypothesis was confirmed.

This is the first case in Romania of mural

paintings presenting an alteration of

cinnabar.

At Suceviţa, the cinnabar red pigment

was used in many scenes from all the

compartments of the church. It was

applied according to the Byzantine

technique, on a fresh plaster made of lime

and hemp fibbers. The alteration took

Image 7. Nave, south apse, jamb of the west window. The direct action of sunlight

over the mural paintings.

Figure 2. Longitudinal section, south facade. Drawing adapted from G. Balş, Bisericile moldovenesti din veaculal XV-lea, BCMI, Tiparul Cultura Nationala, Bucharest (1928).


e_conservation 29

e_conservation30

place not only in the dome’s paintings, but

also on scenes from the nave, narthex

and exonarthex, on the walls exposed to

solar light through the rather large

windows. The dome, with an interior

diameter of 3.64 m is fully exposed to

solar light due to the four 1.83 m

windows. The affected surfaces

correspond precisely to the strongly

lightened areas. A graphic representation

of the surfaces from the dome is

presented in figures 2 and 3.

In the summer of 2007, together with the

coordinator of the conservation works

Prof. Oliviu Boldura, our research

extended to other compartments of the

church and to the areas in undergoing work.

The cinnabar red did not suffer any alteration

in areas where the sun light did not reach.

In the nave, due to the six windows

symmetrically disposed in the north and

south apses (three windows in each), we

can observe the paintings from the

intradoses and jambs suffered a

progressive and differentiated alteration

of cinnabar red pigment. A first

observation is that the alteration is more

obvious in the windows of the south apse,

where the sun is stronger in the morning.

A differentiated degree of alteration can

be seen in each of the three windows,

progressive from east to west. Moreover,

the west side of the windows was clearly

more exposed to sun, thus the paintings

from the west jambs are more altered

then the ones from the east.

Figure 3. Longitudinal section, north facade. Drawing adapted from G. Balş, Bisericile moldovenesti din veacul al XV-lea, BCMI, Tiparul Cultura Nationala, Bucharest (1928).


e_conservation 31

A detailed analysis of a scene9 shows the

transformation process or cinnabar red

pigment. In near proximity of the window

can be seen that cinnabar turned into

dark-grey and black, the drawing lines

applied with ochre-red becoming visible

(see image 8 and 9). Next garment

painted with cinnabar is located at 0.5 m

9 The chosen area to exemplify this process is located in the south apse, west window, west jamb, as the painting here is rich in cinnabar, applied on several decorative elements located at variable distances from the window.

window (solar light) interior of the church

distance from the window, thus here only

a slight alteration to black can be seen

(see image 10). The alteration is

superficial so it is still possible to see the

original red colour. Proceeding to the

inside opening of the jamb we notice the

alteration becomes discontinuous, insular

and the red is much better preserved

(see image 11).

In the narthex we meet a similar situation

but a more pronounced alteration, due to

the wide size of the windows and their

large opening angle. Here the alteration

Image 8. Nave, south apse, jamb of the west window. The differentiated alteration of red cinnabar.


occurred not only at the jambs of the

windows, but also on the north and south

walls, especially in the inferior parts.

In the exonarthex, due to the three wide

windows from the west wall and the two

lateral doors that are permanently open,

important areas where cinnabar was used

were affected by light. A similar case was

mentioned in literature at a late Byzantine

church from Cyprus10, where the light

penetrated through a window and

produced on the lightened areas the

darkening of the red pigment from a

repainting of a interior decoration frame.

The inversed process of metacinnabar into

cinnabar, possible in the laboratory (e.g.,

by sublimation or sodium polysulfide

treatment), was not achieved by now on a

painting. Thus, in the present, when the

removal of metacinnabar is required it is

performed by mechanical means.

10 Rutherford J. Getens et al., loc cit., pp. 54.

Image 9. Strong alteration of cinnabar red.

Image 10. Alteration of cinnabar in a smaller degree.

Image 11. Areas where cinnabar is well preserved. Image 9, 10 and 11. The conservation state of the cinnabar red on various surfaces located at different distances from the window.


e_conservation32

Conclusions

To prevent this alteration phenomenon

from producing the use of adequate

window filters (to retain the too strong

radiations) is recommended. Knowing

these types of alterations and taking the

right decision to prevent them we avoid

the formation and thus, the mechanical

removal of metacinnabar as an integrant

part of the original painting.

Ioan ISTUDOR

S.C. CERECS Art S.R.L. Bucharest

Contact: [email protected]

Anca DINĂ - S.C. CERECS Art S.R.L.


Geanina ROŞU - S.C. CERECS Art S.R.L.


Doina Şeclăman

Romanian National History Museum


Gheorghe NICULESCU

National Research Institute for

Conservation and Restoration, Bucharest


Image 12. Narthex, north wall, inferior level, scene from the life of St. George.

Image 13. Narthex, north, jamb of the east window.


*Note: Partial data presented in this article were previously published by Ioan Istudor and Geanina Roşu, in "Un fenomen de alterare al pigmentului roşu cinabru la Biserica Mănăstirii Suceviţa", Buletinul Centrului de Restaurare-Conservare, Iaşi, no 3/2004.

e_conservation 33

RECONSTRUCTINGA 1972’S NEON LIGHT

INSTALLATION

FILIPE DUARTE

at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto

35e_conservation

Reconstructing a Neon Light Installation

A 1972’s neon light installation from

the artist António Quadros Ferreira

was investigated and reconstructed

35 years after its original

presentation, under a pilot project on

Conservation of Contemporary Art at

the Museum of the Faculty of Fine

Arts of the University of Porto

(FBAUP). The reconstruction of the

artwork was carried out in close

communication with the artist without

whom this project would not have

been possible to be accomplished -

such was the lack of information

available on the artwork. This article

aims to describe the whole process

behind the reconstruction of Quadros

Ferreira’s installation, from the

identification of what was left from

the original components at FBAUP’s

Museum depot until its reinstallation

and public exhibition in April 2007.

Introduction

In 1972 António Quadros Ferreira

presented his final work for graduating in

Painting at the Fine Arts School of Porto

(Portugal), a peculiar and innovative

artwork in its academic context: a study

of light, colour and movement in the

shape of a neon light installation. That

same year, following its original exhibition,

the artwork would have been dismantled

and all its different components stored in

the depot of the Museum of the Faculty of

1 In 1992 the Fine Arts School of Porto (ESBAP) was integrated in the University of Porto and became the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (FBAUP).

2 Note that the original article was published in Portuguese at the Portuguese Association for Art Historians’ (APHA) bulletin no.5, 2007.

3 The Fine Art Museum and the Science Department of the University of Porto, in collaboration with the Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg (The Netherlands), are developing a project focusing on the conservation of modern and contemporary artworks. A group of 10 representative objects, on non-traditional supports, was selected from the museum’s collection and is currently under investigation and/or conservation treatment. The investigation includes topics such as materials’ characterisation, art historical relevance, conservation needs, preservation strategies and artists’ interviews.

Fine Arts, University of Porto1, of which

collection Quadros Ferreira’s installation is

currently part of.

The very scarce written documentation

available on the museum’s database as

well as the inexistence of any visual

record of the original assembled

installation led to a scenario of extremely

poor information regarding several

aspects of the artwork (even its overall

appearance), situation lived in the

museum until the beginning of 2007.

The case study presented in this article2

reports to the investigation and

reinstallation of the artwork by Quadros

Ferreira, 35 years after its original

presentation and was carried out in the

context of a pilot project on Conservation

of Contemporary Art currently being

developed at the University of Porto3.

The intervention was carried out in close

communication with the artist between

February and April 2007.

36 e_conservation

Filipe Duarte

The installation

Despite having been created in the

academic context of a Paintings Degree,

Quadros Ferreira’s neon light installation is

an example of the diversity of the means

of artistic expression explored by artists in

early 1970’s. In this particular case,

Quadros Ferreira explores the numerous

possibilities of colour and movement

through neon lights, in a work understood

by the artist as an example of kinetic art,

not by the physical movement of the work

itself but by the constant movement of

light and colour.

The installation is made of six vertical

neon light tubes housed in six black-

painted independent columns with cca. 2

metre high. The neon lights are divided in

three pairs of primary colours (i.e. two

blue, two red and two yellow lights). Each

of the columns, with its own light tube, is

connected by a series of electrical wires to

a transformer which in turn connects to a

central element, a black-painted box with

a keyboard/programmer, fully designed by

the artist. The installation is meant to be

exhibited in a totally darkened room. The

spectator is invited to interact with the

installation either through the keyboard,

which allows him to turn on/off each of

the lights independently (creating distinct

rhythms and light patterns), or by

accessing an automatic cycle,

predetermined by the artist in the

programmer. This cycle was developed in

such a way that it would never repeat

itself and therefore is called by the artist

as the perpetual movement of colour.

The introduction of this technological

component as support of the artwork,

without which the work does not fully

exist, mirrors the modernity sought by

Quadros Ferreira. The physical structure

of the installation (columns, electrical

wires, transformers and keyboard

/programmer) work as a mere support for

the essence of the artwork: the colour, the

light and the movement.

The original documentation that was

presented in 1972 together with the

installation was still in possession of the

artist. This documentation was the

theoretical fundament of the work, an

exhaustive and complex study with

drawings, diagrams and texts in which the

artist explores numerous possibilities of

use for his installation.

Condition of the installation prior to reconstruction

Until February 2007, very little was known

at FBAUP’s Museum about the neon light

installation created by Quadros Ferreira 35

years earlier, as a final thesis for his Degree

in Painting. In the depot of the Museum

there were several disperse and non-

identified elements, stored together with

parts of other artworks (Image 1).

A cardboard-box with a bundle of crooked

electrical wires and wooden supports; black-

painted wood columns lying on the floor;

old neon light bulbs on top of wood shelves...

37e_conservation

In the Museum files, an inventory record

dating back to early 1980’s (Image 2)

recorded Quadros Ferreira’s installation as

part of the museum’s collection (included

in the “Paintings” collection). The inventory

file of the installation did however not

contain any photograph of the work

assembled nor did it have any description

of the artwork. Furthermore, a series of

elements were missing from the brief list

of materials that make up the installation.

This scenario was clearly insufficient to

allow an overall image of the complete

artwork, to understand the way the

different elements of the installation

connect to each other or even to

understand the way the installation

relates to the surrounding space.

Image 1. Card-box with some elements of the installation stored, FBAUP’s Museum depot, February 2007.

Image 2. Inventory record of Quadros Ferreira’s installation, FBAUP’s Museum database,

early 80’s.


e_conservation38

First steps

In February 2007, following preliminary

investigation on the work, the artist was

contacted and invited to participate in this

project of reconstruction of his 1972’s

installation. Quadros Ferreira, currently

teacher of Painting at FBAUP, was fully

available to collaborate and to provide any

useful information, without which it would

not have been possible to reconstruct and

re-install his work as close as possible to

the original work as exhibited in 1972.

In the working plan drawn together with

the artist in the first meetings it was

defined as a starting point the

identification of each different original

element that make up the installation in

the Museum’s depot and to evaluate the

condition of each of these separately. This

would allow, on one hand, to know

whether the installation was complete

and, on the other, to obtain an overall

view of the complete installation. In order

to facilitate the process of identifying the

elements and the subsequent

reconstruction of the artwork the artist

was asked to draw a sketch of the

structure of the installation.

Thus, all the elements stored in the

Museum’s depot were identified and

collected at FBAUP’s workshop. The artist

also brought along with him a more

sensitive element which he had kept in his

possession since 1972 (the keyboard and

programmer), as well as the original

documentation which was exhibited

together with the installation.

The elements that make up the

installation were isolated and organised

according to their typology:

1. Six wooden columns and six

supports

The columns, referred to as “modules” in

the original documentation of the artist,

measure cca. 2 metre high and present a

Image 3. Constituting elements of theinstallation - columns.

Filipe Duarte

39e_conservation

central rail which houses the neon light

tubes. The six supports (or “feet”) have

small wheels to facilitate the transport of

the columns and their adaptation to the

surrounding space. Each foot has a

metallic rod onto which the columns are

screwed. Both modules and feet are

coated with a monochromatic black paint

layer (evenly applied over a grey ground

Image 4. Constituting elements of theinstallation - feet.

Image 5. Constituting elements of theinstallation - neon light tubes.

layer). None of the elements presented

damages of particular relevance on these

layers, only small damages caused by

wear and abrasion and minor losses,

particularly along the bottom part of the

columns. Structurally, both columns and

feet were in good condition

2. Six neon light tubes

The six neon light tubes measure

approximately 2 metres long and are

grouped in three pairs: yellow, red and

blue4. Regarding their condition it was

observed that, from the six original light

tubes, three were irreversibly damaged

(two clearly broken and one presenting

small cracks in the glass which proved to

be irreversibly damaged as well). A thick

and opaque dirt layer was covering the

light tubes (Image 5).

4 In general terms, the light tubes usually denominated as “neon lights” are made of a glass tube with two electrodes in the ends. When these electrodes are connected to an electricity source, the gas (in vacuum) inside the glass tube is passed through by the electrical current and light of a specific colouration is produced. Despite being known as neon lights, this is not the only gas used to obtain colour, since different gases and different processes permit different light colours to be produced. While neon gas produces a bright red light, argon gas produces blue. In order to obtain colours other than these two, powder pigments are usually added to the gas or sometimes even painted glass tubes are used. This type of illumination was discovered around 1950’s and was initially used in the publicity world, slowly becoming adopted by artists as a new mean of artistic expression, entering the international scene some years later. Initially, only blue and red colours were available but gradually new colours were introduced in the market, with advancing technology.


40 e_conservation

3. Six transformers

Each of the “archaic” transformers is

housed in a metallic box (20x18x15cm).

These make the connection between the

central keyboard/programmer and the

neon lights and have the function of

momentarily increasing the received

electrical current to a much higher current

in order to allow the lamps to be turned

on during the energetic peak. Tests

carried out at a later stage showed that all

the transformers were in good working

conditions (Image 6).

4. Electrical wires

The long electrical wires establish the

connections between all the elements in

the installation: keyboard/programmer,

energy source, transformers and neon

lights. Despite being crooked and rigid

from being stored in a box for the past 35

years, all the cables were in good working


5. Central keyboard/programmer

The central device is made of a keyboard

and a programmer, housed in a black-

painted wood box (35x25x10cm),

similarly to the columns. The programmer

is an electrical system associated to a set

of meal gears which defines the patterns

and light sequences. The keyboard, on

top of the box, allows the spectator to

Image 6. Constituting elements of the installation - transformers.

Image 7. Constituting elements of theinstallation - electrical wires.

Filipe Duarte

41e_conservation

access an automatic program,

predetermined by the artist in the

programmer, or to access the manual

programme. In this case, the spectator

creates his own light sequences and

patterns through the six buttons,

corresponding to each of the six lights.

This device was in possession of the artist

since 1972. In the preliminary tests

carried out, it was observed that the

programmer was not working in perfect


Course of action

Once every element of Quadros Ferreira’s

installation was identified and separated,

a strategy for the intervention was

defined. Dialogue with the artist as well as

the access provided to the original

documentation were of extreme

importance for this procedure since they

provided essential information about the

way the different elements relate to each

other. The different steps taken in the

process of conservation and

reconstruction of the installation are listed

as follows:

1. Removal of thick layer of dirt from the

surface of the neon light tubes (Image 9)

and surface cleaning of columns, feet and

programmer/keyboard. This procedure

was carried out by dry cleaning with

microfibre cloth and soft sponges.

2. Retouching of small damages and

losses of the black monochromatic paint

layer in different elements of the

installation. Retouching was carried out

with gouache, which allowed replicating

the matte feel of the original paint in the

damaged areas5.

3. Following information provided by the

artist in the first meetings it was possible

to find and contact the original supplier

company which provided the neon light

5 The original monochromatic black paint layer was identified through infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) as an acrylic-based paint, in the Scientific Department of the University of Porto.

Image 9. Detail of neon light tubes duringsurface cleaning.

Image 8. Constituting elements of theinstallation - central keybord/programmer.


e_conservation42

tubes and gave technical support to the

artist in 1972. The company, “Neolux”, is

still functioning and was keen to

collaborate with this project. The original

and intact light tubes were taken to their

specialised workshop and their condition

was investigated by Neolux’s technicians

(Image 10). Although the three structurally

intact tubes were to found to be working

(light was produced), the intensity of one

of the blue tubes was considerably

reduced in comparison to the others.

Since it would not be possible to

reconstruct the installation with all the

original elements (half the lamps were

irreversibly damaged) it was necessary to

take a decision regarding the replacement

of the missing elements. Therefore,

decision was taken together with the

artist to order new lamps to the original

supplier, with the same length, diameter

and colour/light intensity as close to the

original as possible.

Original material versus artist’s

intention

The six neon lights (three 1972’s originals

and three 2007’s reconstructions) were

then fit in the rails of the columns, set

side by side and turned on. However, as it

may be observed in image 11, the blue

“pair” presented an enormous disparity of

light intensity emitted. The new tube

presented a much higher luminous intensity

than the original one, worn by time and

Image 10. António Quadros Ferreira (left) and Neolux’s technician performing preliminary tests to investigate the condition of the original neon lights.

Filipe Duarte

43e_conservation

possibly weakened by small damages.

Although the original blue lamp was

functioning it would have been technically

impossible to replicate its partially lost

light intensity onto a newly made light

tube. In this context, taking the decision

of keeping the original blue lamp as part

of the reconstructed installation would

imply accepting that the “blue pair”

would not work as a single colour since, as

shown, they presented different intensities.

After considering different possibilities and

discussing these questions with the artist

it was decided to order a new blue lamp

to replace the original one. This way the

blue pair, made of two new neon light

tubes, would present a single colour and

intensity of blue, which would go much

more in conformity to the artist’s original

intent of exploring the three primary

colours with three pairs of lamps in this

installation. The original blue tube, not

used in the reconstruction, was stored in

the museum’s depot and registered as “an

original piece, replaced”.

4. The entire electrical device that makes

up the programmer and keyboard was

carefully cleaned and lubricated (Image 12).

The terminals of the electrical wires were

reattached in the correct positions in the

programmer and the metal clips

associated to each of the rotating gears

were individually repaired in order to allow

a fluid functioning of the programmer.

Image 11. Blue neon light tubes, reconstruction and original side by side.

Image 12. Programmer, after cleaning and repairing.


e_conservation44

Re-installing the installation

In April 2007, 35 years after its creation,

all the elements that make up Quadros

Ferreira’s installation were brought to

FBAUP’s exhibition room where the new

exhibition of this work was prepared,

according to the original plans6. Although

the original documentation would consider

different possibilities of exhibiting this

work, decision was taken that - in a

similar way to the original presentation of

this installation - the columns would be

displayed linearly, in an enclosed room,

with minimum possible external light

(Image 13). The public was invited to

interact with the installation by using the

keyboard placed in front of the line of light

6 More information on recovering installations are available online at the website of the project Inside Installations: Preservation and Presentation of Installation Art, at http://www.inside-installations.org

Filipe Duarte

modules. Some of the pages of the

original documentation were presented

together with the installation during the

exhibition period in a contiguous room.

Acknowledgments

António Quadros Ferreira, Lúcia Almeida

Matos, Jill Sterrett, Ana Martins, Cláudia

Garradas, Patrícia Almeida, Cláudio

Ferreira, Associação Regional de Protecção

do Património Cultural e Natural (ARPPA),

Neolux.

Image 13. António Quadros Ferreira’s installation, Study of Light, Colour and Movement, 1972.Artwork reconstructed and re-installed in 2007, FBAUP.

http://www.inside-installations.org/

e_conservation 45

Call for Submissions

e_conservation magazine is open to the

submission of articles on a wide range of

relevant topics for the cultural heritage

sector.

Next deadlines for article submission are:

for Issue 3, February 2008 – submission

due 31 December 2007

for Issue 4, April 2008 – submission due

29 February 2008

Nevertheless, you can always submit your

manuscript when it is ready. Between the

receival of the manuscript until the final

publication may pass up to 3 months

according with:

- the number of the manuscripts on hold,

submitted earlier by other authors

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to each section

Please check our publication guidelines for

more information.

Read more...

Following his graduate studies in Art

History, Filipe Duarte completed the MA

Conservation of Fine Art -Easel Paintings

at Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK.

He carried out internships at the Modern

Art Museum of Barcelona (MACBA) and

the I&R conservation Centre in Madrid,

Spain. Filipe worked for two years in the

Netherlands with the Stichting Restauratie

Atelier Limburg (SRAL), where he had the

chance to be involved in a series of major

conservation projects (including projects

at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and the

Royal Palace at the Dam). Here he also

collaborated with the Instituut Collectie

Nederland (ICN) in a research project on

modern paints.. Since January 2007,

Filipe Duarte works as a conservator at

the Fine Art Museum of Porto University,

Portugal, where he is part of a pilot

project on contemporary art conservation,

focusing on the investigation and

treatment of artworks on different non-

traditional media from the 1960's and

70's. During this year he has also

collaborated with Serralves

Contemporary Art Museum, Porto.

Filipe DuartePorto, Portugal

contact: [email protected]


http://www.e-conservationline.com/content/view/28/34/

case

stu

dy

THE CHURCH OF"THE BEHEADING OF

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST"FROM ARBORE

e_conservation

PREVIOUS INTERVENTIONS FROM THE

PERSPECTIVE OF DERESTORATION

by Anca Dină and Oliviu Boldura

Image 1. The church of "The Beheading of St. John the Baptist”, south facade.

General Data

The painting from the church

“The Beheading of St. John the Baptist”

from Arbore, Romania, can be described

as vivid in chromatic harmonies, often

using the dialog between green and

pale-red and spontaneous by its

graceful and beautifully modulated

drawing. Dynamic in the interaction

between the characters’ gestures and

attitudes, the painting is minutely

elaborated in the smallest detail and

compositionally determined with blocks

of architecture carefully distributed.

These qualities, the stylistic and chromatic

particularities, made the church become

part of the UNESCO World Heritage.

Image 2. South facade, detail from the scene“The Last Judgement”.

47

Anca Dină and Oliviu Boldura

Image 3. General view of the west facade.

48 e_conservation

1 G. Balş, Bisericile lui Ştefan cel Mare, Buletinul Comisiei Monumentelor Istorice 1925, Ed. Cartea Românească S.A., Bucharest, 1926

Image 4. West facade, portrait detail.

49

Built in 15021 in a single work campaign,

the church was established by Luca

Arbore boyar, tutor and later counsellor of

prince Ştefăniţă. Modest in proportions,

the church is remarkable through its

simplicity and its impressing polychrome

decoration.

Both the interior and exterior walls were

decorated with frescoes in the first half of

the 16th century. The difficult historic

conditions in Romania at that time

culminated with the assassination of the

founder together with two of his sons.

The decrease of the economic resources

and the division of the estate and dominions

drove the church to abandonment.

The same factors - natural causes and

negligence - contributed to the partial

deterioration of the artistic components -

Image 5. West facade, scene from the life ofSt. George representing the saint at the court

of the Emperor Diocletian.

The Church from Arbore

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Image 6. Nave, west wall, detail from“The Mocking of the Christ”.

50

mural painting and iconostasis. Since the

church remained without a roof for more

than one century, the continuous humidity

infiltration led to the detachment and loss

of important surfaces from the superior

mural painting as well as to other

irreversible alterations of the pigments

from the adjacent areas.

However, this article will not focus on

the deterioration produced by natural

degradation factors, but on the human

factor, on those deliberate interventions

that led to the partial alteration of the

original aspect through repaintings.

Image 7. Narthex, west wall, “The Fourth Synod”.


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2 Dijon Conference, "Peintures Murales", Section Française de l'Institut International de Conservation (SFIIC), Dijon, 1993.

Image 8. Narthex, west wall, portraits detail from “The Fourth Synod”.

51

Previous interventions

Undertaking extensive conservation works

at the moment, the mural painting from

the church allows direct access to certain

details, otherwise impossible to observe.

Among the problems we confronted,

we will refer here just those previous

interventions which had the objective of

“refreshing” the original through

repainting.

At the church from Arbore, the repainting

interventions were identified on clear

delimited surfaces located especially on

the lower and accessible areas. It can be

observed that the authors of these

interventions made their choice according

to the iconographic importance of the

scenes or to their position within the

mural ensemble. Thus, the aesthetic

alterations by repainting can be seen at

the ex-voto in the central nave, at the

funerary scene from the narthex, at the

prophets’ scene, at the image of Virgin

Mary painted at the entrance of the nave

and at the icon of the patron saint, St.

John the Baptist, located at the main

entrance of the church.

On the overall, the alterations found at

the inferior level are mainly portrait

replacements.

Even if within the same mural ensemble,

the interventions belong to different time

periods and are executed in different

techniques. Thus, each case requires a

differential approach and the final decision

is imposed by all the contributing elements.

Within this context, we recall the problem

of derestoration, addressed in a well

defined thematic framework with the

occasion of the “Peintures murales”

conference in Dijon, 19932, where

specialists from complementary domains

had participated.

The decision of preserving or removing

the repaintings required a detailed

study of all the characteristics of the

original matter and the additions,

study made in collaboration with

art historians and chemists.


e_conservation

3 In the case of the church from Arbore, we were unable to find any documentation concerning the repainting interventions, understandable fact due to the age when the events took place.

4 Cesare Brandi, Teoria restaurarii, Ed. Meridiane, Bucharest 1995, pp. 61-80.

52

Starting with the identification of the

execution technique, the aim was to

establish when each intervention was

made and its author3, as far as possible.

Further, it was attempted to find out the

reason that could cause the need for the

new layer – if it was added due to the

poor conservation state of the original,

if it was done according to the time

fashion, if it was imposed by certain

historic events or from the simple desire

of the founder to remind certain facts,

as for example the act of the donation.

After acquiring this information,

our decision took into consideration the

state of conservation of the original and

of the overlayers, permanently according

with the historic and aesthetic instance

as they were stated by Cesare Brandi4.

After analysing all the involved components,

the identified interventions were classified

either as historic periods or as discordant

elements covering the original. Thus, the

critic commentary concerning their

preservation or removal was made in

accordance with the artistic aspect which

supposes the transmission of the image

together with the historic-documentary

Image 9. Narthex, north wall, detail from the scenes of Martyr Saints.

Image 10. Narthex, north wall, scenes of Martir Saints, detail of hammer marks.


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Image 11. Nave, ex-voto, portrait of Luca Arbore, the founder of the church. Image in grazing light.

53

message of the work of art, taking into

consideration the technical elements and

the evolution of the matter in time.

For a better understanding of the

repainting interventions from Arbore

church, we will divide them in two

categories. The first is the category of the

interventions that took place a short time

after the original painting was made. In

principal, these are additions in the same

technique (a fresco) of some surfaces

deteriorated by vandalism in the period of

political instability from that time. The

second category is the one of the

repaintings made a secco, some centuries

after the creation of the original painting.

These are mainly due to the style

influences of those times.

The observations we made before any

intervention were completed by the data

obtained after the removal of the dirt

deposits from the surface.

Until all the information was gathered and

a final decision was established, the

layers of repainting were conserved and

maintained on the surface.

The intervention results were partially

presented in scientific sessions organized

by the “George Oprescu” Art History

Institute and the Ministry of Culture and

Cults from Romania.

Repaintings "a fresco"

A first repainting was made in the central

nave west wall, on the ex-voto

representing the family of the founder.

Other alterations were identified at the

inferior scenes of saints and martyrs from

the main nave and the narthex of the

church.

These are due to vandalism actions5 and

had affected the majority of the

portraits and some important compositional

elements. Our supposition is confirmed by

the existence of numerous marks left by

sharp objects on this particular surface in

comparison with other scenes and well

preserved portraits which do not present

this kind of marks. Some of the lacunas

produced in this way were ulteriorly

filled and repainted. Others, smaller in

dimensions and situated in less important


5 During the politic instability of that time, the painting was vandalised by the invaders, these marks being produced by sharp objects like swords and spears.

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Image 13. Narthex, east wall, inferior scene, detail from the representation of Archangel Michael.

54

areas are still visible, remaining as they

were. It is also obvious that the vandalism

actions were performed preferentially

giving more importance to the portraits

and the hands of the saints, which were

decorated with religious symbols. On this

matter, we recall the representations of

Archangel Michael whose hand holds the

“Sword of Truth'' and St. Peter whose

hand holds “The Keys to the Kingdom of

Heaven”, both scenes situated on the east

side of the narthex. The same may be

observed on the ex-voto and the funerary

painting, at the hands pointing in the

direction of the church.

The repaintings were performed a fresco

in the areas where the painting presented

lacunas. These repairs belong to different

time periods and can be differentiated not

only stylistically but also because of the

technical skills of the author to apply the

mortar or paint layer. These interventions

were preserved as witnesses of the

historic events since they show real

artistic qualities and the original surfaces

were irreversibly damaged.

Image 12. Narthex, funerary painting, detail of hammer marks.

The ex-voto

This vandalised scene was "repaired" in

the same way as all the other scenes from

the inferior level. Still, there can be

observed certain marks caused by a sharp

object which remained unfilled.

Repaintings are localised at the portrait of

St. John the Baptist and at the portrait

and right hand of the founder, Luca Arbore,

but the major intervention is visible in the

central area of the scene and occupies

cca. 45% of the whole surface. It is well

delimited by the technological elements

parametrically identified and by the

junctions with the original.

The repainting evidently reduced the

dimensions of the central scene depicting

the Arbore family (Luca boyar and his wife

together with their five children - four

boys and a girl).

The scene shows the family offering the

church to the Divinity, represented by

Jesus Christ. This act is intermediate by


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55

St. John the Baptist, the protector of the

church. An angel is leading the laic

characters towards the throne where

Jesus is seated.

The reason for repainting this scene is not

yet completely known. A first supposition is

that the scene was vandalised due to the

politic instability in Moldavia at the

beginning of 16th century, thus the

repainting was necessary for completing

the lost areas. The second possibility is

that the family enlarged with time and the

younger members wished to be represented

together with the rest of the family6.

Beneath the image of Iuliana, the wife of

Luca Arbore, can be distinctly seen traces

from the first representation of her richer

veil and garment. An important

inadvertence in matching the details from

the central area is given by the doubled

presence of the shrine, the scaled

representation of the church. There can

be clearly differentiated two different

images of the church: the first (original),

with the dome and a divided roof for the

church and the altar; and the second

(repainting) without dome, a simple roof

covering the entire church7.

Technologically, both representations are

executed a fresco but differences can be

found between the composition of the

intonaco layers and the drawing and

painting techniques. The composition of

the added intervention layer is clearly

richer in vegetal material, respectively in

tow. By simple visual exam in grazing

light, the surface shows a matte, rough-

cast aspect. The original method of

transposing the drawing onto the wall was

by incision while the intervention was

6 This supposition comes from the reduced scale of the representation, which is evident as the original representation of the wife of Luca Arbore is still partial visible.

7 The first that mentioned and treated the subject of this double representation of the church in the ex-voto was Prof. Dan Mohanu – expert conservator, in a communication from 1974.

Image 14. Nave, ex-voto, repainted scene. Image 15. Nave, ex-voto, two overlayed representations of Luca Arbore holding the shrine.


e_conservation

56

performed by pouncing. This detail can be

observed where the colour layer is

missing, as a sequence of black points,

marks of the applied pigment through the

perforated paper. The sinopia contour

lines are carefully but spontaneously

executed while the pigments were applied

late, on a support already poor in water

content and unable to fix sufficiently the

particles in the plaster. From this reason,

the colour had poor adherence to the

surface and most part of it was lost

with time.

In the case of the ex-voto, the alternative

of removing this intervention was

excluded, since the repaintings are

themselves historic stages of the image

of today.

Repaintings "a secco"

A second category of interventions come

from the 19th century, when a general

change of taste and style was adopted.

These interventions do not respect neither

the Byzantine style, specific for the 16th

century, nor the original execution

technique, having been executed in tempera

or oil. In fact, this period is known for a

general decadence of the wall painting in

this side of the country (northern

Moldavia, also known as Bucovina).

The icon of the patron saint

This icon represents St. John the Baptist

and is located in the exterior, on the south

facade, in the lunette within the arch

above the entrance door. The traditional

Image 16 and 17. Nave, ex-voto, during the cleaning of the surface (left) and after the conservation treatment (right).


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Image 18. Exterior painting, south facade, the icon of the patron saint before the conservation intervention with visible repaintings on the surface.

Image 19. The icon of the patron saint during the conservation intervention – the removal of the repaintings.


e_conservation 57

58

representation of the Baptizer, with the

head on a plate, was replaced with a

chromatically ordinary representation,

without expression. Even if the author is

not known, the inscription shows that the

intervention was performed in 1845. The

repainting is made a secco, on a

2 millimetres thick gypsum plaster.

According with the historic instance, any

intervention is marking a stage in the

existence of a work of art, thus it can not

be removed. In this case the historic

instance comes secondary after the

aesthetic one, the 19th century

representation being clearly inferior to

the 16th century one. In addition, the

original painting and the repainting

needed urgent conservation treatment.

The plaster on which tempera was applied

partially lost the adherence to the original

painting causing visible lacunas on the

entire surface. Loss of adherence being an

evolutional process, to save the repainting

would imply the consolidation of the

plaster, which would have affected the

underlayer, thus the original painting.

At the same time, the lacunas of the

repainting allowed a clear estimation of

the conservation state of the original.

The grazing light examination confirmed

that the green pigment from the garment

lost its adherence to the support layer.

The detachment of the colour, the micro

cracks and the exfoliations proved once

more that the process was evolutional. Thus,

the original painting was under constant

deterioration by strappo due to contractions

of the superior intervention layer.

These elements showed that to keep the

repainting would have meant to lose the

original, which was an extremely important

aspect that determined our decision to

conserve the 16th century original by

removing the additions. Through

derestoration the authentic image was

Image 20, 21. The icon of the patron saint, details showing the loss of the adhesion of the two layers, the original and the ulterior intervention.


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59

revealed. Even if some elements were

partially deteriorated by repainting, the

uncovered image has a high artistic value.

The repainting was also inducing an

iconographic and artistic fake, since the

head on the plate was replaced with

a phylactery and the blessing gesture

with a denotement sign.

Narthex, east wall

In the narthex, the main repainted area is

the prophets’ scene from the east wall. In

the centre of the scene are represented

The Virgin and The Child (Hodighitria),

surrounded by angels and three prophets.

The problematic of the repaintings was

treated separately for the central part of

the scene and for the side parts since

their state of conservation differed in

great amount. Cleaning of the surface

from the adherent deposits was

performed for a better examination of the

repaintings. On both sides of the scene

discontinuous marks of oil repaintings

could be seen, giving a stained and

unclean aspect to the surface. The original

layer of colour seemed well preserved,

with few lacunas and exfoliations, in

comparison with the layer of repainting

which was cracked, detached and

exfoliated. Thus, it was decided to remove

the repainting, preserving only one

portrait (of the first prophet from the north

side) and some witnesses of small size.

The central sector reveals another

approach of the author of the repainting:

the oil layer was applied thicker and the

grazing light exam revealed this was in

fact the third layer of repainting. The

name of the painter, Ion Bodnărescu, was

visible on the blue background of the

Image 22. The icon of the patron saint after the conservation treatment.


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60

scene and the entire inscription was

revealed during the cleaning. Unfortunately,

this layer was affected by exfoliation due to

the thickness of the repainting but the year

of intervention was identified as 1887.

Finding this inscription between two similar

colour layers proves that the author

changed his intention while painting and

covered the text himself, letting visible only

his signature.

Critical comments concerning the decision

of removing or preserving the interventions

on this painting took under consideration

more factors. As mentioned before, there

were two repaintings overlaid on the

garment of the Virgin. The second layer of

intervention took over the subsidence and

abruptness of the plaster from the first

intervention layer. The loss of colour in

certain areas allowed to distinguish both

the colour from the first repainting - red-

brown (a secco) and the original - yellow.

Child Jesus’ portrait, hands and garment

were partially showing marks of

repainting. The original portrait of the

Virgin was visible through the small

lacunas of the intervention layer. Thus, it

could be observed that the original was

unaltered under the repaintings and its

aesthetic value, reported to the rest of the

original mural ensemble, was hard to

come up with. On the other hand, the

association between the colours from the

Child’s portrait – pale-red from the

repainting and green from the original –

was breaking the homogeneity, thus to

preserve these layers would have been

difficult. To selectively remove the

repainting, up to their extension degree on

the surface, would have determined an

optic discomfort as well as an ambiguous

image. The Virgin would have had a pale-

red coloured portrait while the Child, a

green one. More over, to preserve all the

repaintings from this area would have

meant to induce difficulties to the aesthetic

presentation of the entire surface. Lacunas

could not be attenuated by chromatic

integration as the original would have

been altered and small discontinuous

surfaces where the oil was present on the

surface would have given a stained aspect.

Image 23, 24. Narthex, east wall, Prophets scene, details during the cleaning (up) and the conservation state of the original and the repainting (down).


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61

Image 25, 26. Narthex, east wall, central area of the Prophets scene, “The Virgin and The Child” before the intervention (left) and during the surface cleaning (right).

Image 27, 28. Details from “The Virgin and The Child” during the surface cleaning. Visible repaintings on the hand (left) and portrait of the Child Jesus (right).


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Image 29.Portrait detail during the removal of the repainting.A

nca

Dină,

20

05

63

The reason for repainting this scene

could be assigned to the non-canonical

colour of the Virgin’s garment. This is why

the first repainting covered only the

surface of the garment. The alteration in

time of the red lead (minium) that was

used for the new garment, as well as the

partially loss of its plaster, determined a

second repainting, this time on all the

surface and in oil technique which was a

fashion at that time. The authors of these

interventions did not appreciate the

artistic quality of the 16th century

representation, the brightness of the

Virgin’s garment given by the simplicity

and the viridity of the colour and of the

Child’s garment given by the light

enrichment decorations with gold.

Image 30, 31. Narthex, east wall, stages during the removal of the repaintings: the three different layers of colour, two repaintings and the original (left) and general view after cleaning the most recent of the repaintings from the garment of the Virgin.

Image 32. The original representation of the scene, after the removal of the repaintings and the aesthetic treatment of the lacunas.


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64

Conclusions

Considering the problematic of the

repaintings from Arbore in retrospect, it

was possible to liberate the original

surfaces from the intervention layers, due

to the technique in which these were

performed. Thus, through the degradation

and the partial loss of the repainting,

we could analyse and correctly establish

the relation between the importance of

the original versus the addition and

backwards.

In the end, we must recognise that the

conservation of an iconographic ensemble

implies a responsible consciousness from

the restorer facing a historic document

with a unique character, with significant

details over which time left visible traces.

Our intervention is more valuable as

more information is preserved, being

useful in the research of art historians and

other specialists. On the other side, the

conservation-restoration of mural

paintings must bring in front of the

general public the authentic values of

the past.

Image 33, 34. Details from the scene “The Virgin and The Child” after the removal of the repaintings. Portraits of Virgin Mary (left) and of Child Jesus (right).


All photos by Anca Dină, 2005 - 2007

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65

Besides the present authors of this article,

the following conservator-restorers have

participated on the conservation works of the

mural painting in Arbore church: Magdalena

Drobotă, Dumitru Dumitrescu, Georgiana

Zahariea, Natalia Danilă-Sandu and Paula

Vartolomei.

Anca Dină is a conservator-restorer specialised

in mural paintings. She graduated in

Conservation from the Art University in

Bucharest where she also completed a

Master in Visual Arts, with specialisation in

Conservation. She works for the enterprise

CERECS ART S.R.L., having coordinated

several intervention areas from onsite

conservation projects as St. George Church

from the “Sf. Ioan cel Nou” Monastery in

Suceava (2003), “The Beheading of St. John

the Baptist” Church from Arbore

(2004–2006) and the Church of Suceviţa

Monastery (2007).

She has participated in several national

communication sessions within the national

Art History Institute “George Oprescu” in

(2005 and 2006) and within the Ministry of

Culture (2007), with results under

publication at the moment.

Anca Dină

contact:[email protected]

Oliviu Boldura

contact:[email protected]

Oliviu Boldura is professor at the

Conservation-Restoration Department from

the Art University in Bucharest and holds a

PhD in Aesthetics of Visual Arts. Since

35 years he has been continuously working

in the field of conservation-restoration of

mural paintings from important monuments

in northern Romania. These churches date

from the 15th and 16th centuries and are

recognised for their remarkable value, some

of them being part of the UNESCO World

Heritage: Voroneţ, Arbore, Moldoviţa,

Probota, Suceviţa,

"Sf. Gheorghe" from Suceava, Bălineşti.

The diversity of the information collected

during the conservation works is

disseminated by Oliviu Boldura in numerous

scientific sessions and publications. On the

on-site conservation projects that he

coordinates, he is the promoter of

experimental applications of laser and nano-

technologies in the mural painting

conservation and documentation. He is of the

opinion that the use of polymeric resins

should be limited in conservation treatments.

Oliviu Boldura is also member in the

speciality commissions from the Ministry of

Culture and Cults in Romania.


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org

an

isati

on

sChamber of Restorers in Slovakia

Text by

Mgr.art. Barbara Davidson.

Barbara Davidson is member of

the Board of Komora Reštaurátorov

(Chamber of Restorers), delegate

for E.C.C.O. and works as a

conservator-restorer of

easel paintings in the

City Gallery of Bratislava.

Professional restorers in Slovakia, who

want to work on listed heritage objects,

have to be a member of the Chamber of

Restorers (Komora reštaurátorov, further

only KR). The KR is a self-governing, non

political professional body and a law entity

which was established on the base of

Slovak law act 200, from the July 14,

1994 on the 1st September, 1994. If you

are interested in reading the law itself,

you can do so even in English on our web

site www.restauro.sk. Why such a body

was created and how it was possible we

have to look back on the development of

the situation in restoration in the

socialistic Slovak Republic, which used to

be a part of the Czechoslovak Socialistic

Republic. From 1973, in the times of so

called “normalization” after the invasion

Presentation

http://www.restauro.skcontact:

[email protected]

▪ Established in 1994▪ 28 specializations▪ 192 members

▪ 3 membership categories▪ Access to university graduates▪ Independent work reserved

to licensed restorers▪ Member of E.C.C.O.

e_conservation

http://www.restauro.sk/

mailto: [email protected]

Organisations

67

of the Warsaw Pact armies in August

1968, the execution of restoration activity

as a freelance profession in Slovakia was

stopped and forbidden by the Ministry of

Culture of SSR. The Ministry composed of

communists did not trust freelance artists

with their “suspicious” ways of thinking

and production, even working on objects

of cultural heritage. On top of that, from

the second half of the nineteen seventies

this situation worsened by the

traumatising fact of the invitation of a

certain part of Polish restorers from the

Polish state institution PKZ to work on

heritage objects in Slovakia. Slovak

restorers could only work as employees of

galleries and museums. Immovable

cultural heritage was for them not

accessible. By this decision the space for

work, professional development and

growth of Slovak restorers was lost for a

long period of time. After the political

change in autumn of 1989 the long-term

absence of a natural and fluent evolution

in the field of restoration worked as a

strong accelerator of the future

development. After years of the

profession's suppression the restorers

have been well aware of the need and

necessity to decide about and for

themselves without mediation of other

parties. This resulted in the only possible

solution - attempt for constitution of a

chamber based on law. As a source for

preparation of specialised bases for the

proposal of the law we cooperated with

our Czech colleagues and used data from

partner professional organisations abroad.

The proposal itself was formulated so that

it would reflect our own specific situation

and needs in restoration in Slovakia.

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Slovakia

68

Membership in KR

Who can become a member of KR? The

procedure is described in our basic

documents which you can look up on our

website mentioned above. But basically

the membership is open for university

graduates, physical persons with

specialization in restoration – in Slovakia

the only school providing university level

of education in restoration is the Academy

of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava

(AFAD). The membership does not

automatically entitle to work

independently and the issuing of a licence,

even in case of MA graduates is based on

a 3 years period of practical execution of

the profession under supervision of a

licensed restorer. The KR invites also

Bachelors to become members, to be able

to understand and learn better and get

into contact with practice in real

conditions. The state examination which is

provided from the Academy is sufficient

for a restorer to work independently on

private collections and collection objects

of galleries and museums, which are not

listed as national heritage. The aim for the

future though is to have all collections

which are currently treated under another

law special for museums and galleries to

be considered as listed. At the moment,

institutions dealing with restoration of art

objects can employ people with lower

education or non-members of KR, but in

case of restoration of a listed artwork,

they have to work under supervision of a

member of KR. It means, for these types

of institutions it is preferable to employ

restorers, members of KR. Currently KR

has about 200 members which can apply

for 28 specialisations and members in

categories cooperating member and

honourable member.

The Chamber works according to standard

democratic principles. Starting with self-

determination and asserting of restorers

in the cultural and social space the

Chamber has gradually become an

integral and accepted part of the

institutions in the area of heritage

protection in Slovakia. It registers its

members, protects and creates conditions

for their practise, professional growth and

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Organisations

69

development, watches over their

professional activity.

The Chamber of Restorers is the highest

professional guarantor of the quality of

restoration in Slovakia.

Conservation-Restoration education in Slovakia

The education into becoming a

conservator/restorer in Slovakia is

provided also on the level of a high school

graduation (pupils 14 – 18 years old, or

as lifelong learning) which specialises in

conservation/restoration of collection

objects of applied art from galleries,

museums and libraries. It is realised in a

four year study program finishing with a

practical and theoretical examination.

The pupils absolve artistic preparation

and restoration practice. The theoretical

part of the education is in the area of art-

history, iconography and restoration

technology. This type of education is

provided in two state high schools for

applied arts – in Bratislava since 1980 and

in Košice since 1981.

The university levels are the 4 year study

to become a BA and then you can apply

for MA studies, which takes another two

years. It means you will study for 6 years

in total. In the year 2000 the AFAD

(www.vsvu.sk ) opened the possibility of a

post-graduate study in restoration, which

is awarded with the Art D title. To be

accepted to the AFAD it is necessary to

pass the talent examination which is

determined according to your pre-choice

of specialisation (either restoration of

paintings or sculptures). The pass rate is

usually 10% of applicants. The existence

of schooling for restorers in state

accredited schools begun in Slovakia

already in the year 1949 when the

Academy of Fine Arts (Vysoká škola

výtvarných umení) was established. The

restoration department was started by a

personality from the Czech Republic –

Prof. Karel Veselý. At those times in

Czechoslovakia already existed by the

Academy of Fine Arts in Prague the School

of Restoration of Painted Artworks

established in 1945 by Prof. Bohuslav

Slánský. The Bratislava‘ AFAD offers these

specialisations in restoration: easel

paintings, panel paintings, wooden

(polychrome) sculpture, stone sculpture,

metal, paper, photography and textile.

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art

his

tory THE CRUCIFIXES OF

MĂRGINIME

by Ovidiu Daneş

The Crucifixes of Mărginime

“A window is more of a cross than a

crucifix proper which, logically speaking

should be a cross per se… and that is a

weird thing, at least at first glance.”

Horia Bernea

71

The Crucifixes of Mărginime – the

outskirts of Sibiu – are public architecture

elements that consecrate crossroads,

boundaries, road twists, springs and

homesteads in a way that qualifies them

as a narrative of the folk imagination.

Time and form are both located

somewhere between a craftwork related

poetic simplicity – so typical of the

monuments erected in the 18th century –

on the one hand, and the more recent

ready-made culture of double-glazed

windows on the other.

The 35 crucifixes that have been spotted

up to the present – all erected between

1784 and 1879 – are located between

Turnu (Porceşti), the south-eastern tip of

the region and the north-western one –

Jina. By their compact volume, their

squarish footprint, and their frugal outer

adornments the crucifixes leave a

significant mark on their surroundings,

being part and parcel of the overall image

of the Mărginime villages as they

participate in the rhythmical proportions

of both private estates and houses of

worship as well.

The role they played was initially a sacred

related one par excellence and due to

their ritualistic involvement, apotropaic

purpose, and funereal character they

consisted merely of a stone or wooden

cross placed in spots with a significant

symbolical charge. Their being

consecrated – which also brought

consecration to the site of their location –

allowed them to protect that place against

the mischievous presences that would

haunt the folk imaginary. Therefore a

subtle realm laid between what was at

hand, familiar, and proximitous on the one

hand and sheer otherness on the other.

Sites that were consecrated during

specific religious services on Ascension

(Ispas), Epiphany, Pentecost, temporarily

became public places that could

occasionally be perceived and used as

typical places for folk socials – customs

that have survived to this day in Sibiel

and Cacova (Fântânele).

The 1764 watershed when “the city

council of Sibiu decreed us bondsmen, […]

although we had always been yeomen,” is

shortly followed by the erection of the first

masoned crucifixes as the disputes

between the locals of Mărginime and the

bulkingmaestro (in Romanian bulgăr-

meşterul, a humorous alteration of the

German Burgermeister, Town Mayor) over

tax and land ownership related issues

went on until the 40s of the next century.

Erected during that period of time mostly

on the boundaries of the villages off the

Previous page image:The crucifix from Răşinari, 1795

Ovidiu Daneş

72

salient penchant for scenes taken from

the Passion cycle, for depictions of the

proto-martyrs or of the military saints,

sometimes duplicated as both interior and

exterior paintings could be seen as an

implement of pointing at certain social

realities.

The crucifix of Sibiel (house no.166, the

year 1803) displays an iconography quite

relevant in the aforementioned

perspective. On the outside, but still

within the precincts of the homestead,

there are scenes from the Passion cycle

representing a sequel to the two interior

iconographic registers: the Prayer in the

Garden of Gethsemane, the Last Supper,

the Judas Kiss, Jesus before Caiaphas,

Pilate’s Judgment, all of them arrayed in

city of Sibiu, the crucifixes marked those

borders as according to the unwritten law.

The people of Răşinari for a good instance

erected no less than three such

monuments within a tight area on the

eastern boundary of the village. There

was a time when the locals involved

crucifixes in their various political

machinations, but even then they did not

do away with their original symbolic

dimension. In certain cases a specific

message was made explicit by resorting

to a remarkably elaborate iconographic

program that was quite often borrowed

from the liturgical field and thus made

into a sure way of asserting identity. The

Images 1, 2: The crucifix from Sibiel, 1803Exterior view (left) and detail of mural painting (right).

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73

quite an unusual order; the Resurrection

of Lazarus, and once again Jesus before

Caiaphas and Pilate’s Judgment; the

Bearing of the Cross, the Humiliation and

Scourging. The Roman soldiers are clad in

the uniforms of the Orlat frontier guard

regiment whose troops were Romanians

converted to the Church United with

Rome (Greek-Catholic), in charge with

collecting taxes, among many other

duties. The depiction of certain military

saints – St. George, St. Demetrius, and

St. Theodore Tyron – on the interior posts

is itself integral part of a common rhetoric

of representing social realities in

monuments whose status was growing

more and more public. On the other hand,

the collective memory of those times was

still emotionally bonded to figures like the

priests Moise Măcinic of Sibiel, Ioan of

Galeş, Ioan of Sadu or shepherd Oprea

Miclăuş of Sălişte, a fact which will have to

be taken into account by the future

iconographic analyses. And similarly, the

conflicts between the municipality of Sibiu

and the villagers of Mărginime bursting

out right after 1750 could likewise turn

out to be the right key to the question

regarding the numerous masoned

crucifixes phenomenon in the outskirts of

the Sibiu of that historical period.

In the different social context of the early

1800s the private use crucifixes started to

appear in the locals’ homesteads,

displaying spectacular iconographic

discourses, some of them mere


Image 3 (up): The crucifix from Apodul de Jos,1812.

Image 4 (down): The crucifix from Arpaş,1813.

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abbreviations of the mural iconographic

programs in the churches near by, but at

the same time genuine proofs of

masterliness on the part of the painters

and of well-to-do-ness on the one of the

beneficiary. The crucifix of Răşinari (house

no.195, the year 1808) breaks away from

the common established patterns both in

terms of size and iconography. It is twice

as large as the average ones and one can

still make out the outlines of a

monumental depiction of St. Archangel

Michael as part of the exterior painting,

just under the prophet medallions. Inside,

the vault is decorated with Passion

scenes: the Prayer in the Garden of

Gethsemane, the Judas Kiss, Jesus before

Caiaphas, the Last Supper, and the

Carrying of the Cross, all of them

surrounded by the four Evangelists,

against a seraphim background. The

cycles of the miracles, the Virgin’s life,

and the pageant of Christian feasts

complete the arches, while the stone

cross painted on both sides advances a

prolepsis kind of dialogue – the

anamnesis triggered by the depiction of

the Crucifixion and the Epiphany. The

narrative zest of the painter lives on

ardently to reach the socle of the cross

where it brings forth two scenes that

correspond in due order to the main

images: Abraham’s Sacrifice and the Fall

from Eden, whereas on the sides there

are seraphim surrounded by prophets and

by pious saints.

Ovidiu Daneş

Images 5: The crucifix from Răşinari, 1808 Detail of mural painting.

Images 5: The crucifix from Răşinari, 1808 Exterior.

74 e_conservation

Another appearance, quite unique in the

architecture of Mărginime proposes a

different kind of visual discourse which

was very much simplified on the

architectural / iconographic / theological

level as well as in terms of its political and

social message, while managing at the

same time to be more suitable for the

place and the general village scenery. Its

imagery pertains to a poetics of

vagueness straightforwardly besieging the

physical palpability of the passer-by: an

atypical shape, a whitewashed thick-base/

t-wall with a hat-shaped awning and roof

and a niche whose painting represents the

orant Mother of God with the orant

Emanuel child on her lap-throne and an

inscription unfurling and girding the whole

lintel thus indicating the place to pray for

those crossing the region while in

transhumance. The Healing Spring and

the image in the recess are the ones that

have set since 1795 the place where the

crucifix should be erected.


Image 7 (right): The crucifix from Răşinari, 1795 Image 8 (left, up): The crucifix from Turnu, 1787Image 9 (left, down): The crucifix from Sibiel, 1814.

75e_conservation

In Săliştea Sibiului just in front of house

no. 37 (according to the present day

numbering) there is a crossroad crucifix

(undated yet) with a relevant iconographic

program with regards to the relationship

between such monuments and the pace

of life in the local communities. As

transfigured by the modern taste and

sensibility, the monument still preserves

its exterior paintings, right under the

cornice, along with the prophet

medallions, while on the inside it still

presents besides its refined decorations,

the four scenes in the unique register of

the tympana: the Annunciation, the Entry

of the Holy Theotokos into the Temple,

the Baptism of Christ, and Saints

Constantine and Helen. The latter

Emperor Saints are quite a puzzling

Ovidiu Daneş

Image 10: (right, up):The crucifix fromSibiel, 1812.

Image 11 (middle, up): The crucifix fromSălişte, 1817.

Image 12 (left, up):The crucifix fromSaliste, 1842.

Image 13 (down):The crucifix fromSibiel 1814.

76 e_conservation

appearance in the context of the whole

cycle but it makes sense in a wider

perspective as they were the patron and

patroness of the school (founded 1779) in

the proximity of this crucifix. May 21st

was in those times celebrated with special

pomp and ceremony as “the girls and the

younger housewives would wear the

embroidered bandannas they wore only

on the greatest feasts.” The day was

chosen as the last school day as well as

the landmark for the beginning of the

pastoral year. The iconographic framework

of the crucifix in the hearth of the village

of Rodu (1871) is a purely liturgical one,

with Jesus Emanuel in the keystone and a

quite unusual version of the Liturgy of the

Angels in the vault, as the Old of Days

replaces one of the images of Christ, while


Ovidiu Daneş

contact:

[email protected]

is a graduate of the Art University of

Bucharest, the Faculty of History and

Theory of Arts and holds a Master

degree at the Centre of Excellence in

Image Study - University of

Bucharest. He worked at the

Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu, UNESCO

Romania and his main research

activities are on old Romanian art.

From 2006 he is the president of

DALA Cultural Foundation.

on the pillars there are representations of

the Archangels, St. Nicholas and St.

Archdeacon Stephen.

No doubt the crucifixes in Mărginime – the

outskirts of Sibiu – represent a cultural

phenomenon whose implications and

ramifications are yet to be looked into.

Unfortunately the paintings they display

are currently undergoing dramatic

alterations as they are abandoned, stored

in museums, or repainted while the

crucifixes are intoning their last tale in the

same voice with the villages of Mărginime.

Text by Ovidiu Daneş

Photography byŞerban Bonciocat and Ovidiu Daneş

English translation by Chris Tănăsescu

Images 5, 6: The crucifix from Sălişte, 1827.

77e_conservation

docu

men

tati

on

Documentation and

Architecture Conservation:

La Villetta Cemeteryin Parma, Italy (part 2)

Formal References in Funerary

Architecture

The Urban Planning

of Parma Cemeterial System

The Master Plan for the

Safeguarding and Restoration

of La Villetta

The virtual museum - the memory

of the cemetery heritage

MARIA CARMEN NUZZO

SILVIA OMBELLINI

ELISA ADORNI

SIMONE RICCARDI

A project coordinated by Michela Rossi

Formal References in Funerary Architecture

Formal References in Funerary

Architecture

The Urban Planning

of Parma Cemeterial System

The Master Plan for the

Safeguarding and Restoration

of La Villetta

The virtual museum - the memory

of the cemetery heritage

MARIA CARMEN NUZZO

SILVIA OMBELLINI

ELISA ADORNI

SIMONE RICCARDI

FORMAL REFERENCES

IN FUNERARY

ARCHITECTURE

By Maria Carmen Nuzzo

Image 1: The cemetery of the ideal town of Chaux(N. Ledoux 1775 d.C.)

79

With the advent of the consumer society

and the standardisation of life, the city of

the living has created homogeneous

neighbourhoods of dormitories and

globalised malls and the city of the dead

has been filled with crowded burial

chambers in anonymous and “normalized”

structures.

The modern culture has created the “not

places”, which means spaces lacking

identity, non relational and with no

history. The loss of the sense of life

identity is expressed by the loss of the

sense of death, so that “the spaces to

spend one’s life and death” have lost their

“reason for existence”1.

The space for death, which the modern

world with its hedonistic and omnipotent

mentality wants to ward off and remove,

is the place where one can listen to the

story of life: in cemeteries, evil and virtue

crystallize for eternity. Giving importance

to the grave as a place of exchange

between the living and the dead, place

which encourages the correspondence of

dating meaning, as Foscolo2 reminds us,

means rediscovering the memory of those

who live in the silence of the boulevards,

the memory that appears like ruins in the

green lushness of grass3.

The city of the dead in Parma, founded

by Maria Luigia inside the suburban villa,

is organised in the same way as the city

of the living, according to the edict of

St. Cloud4.

The quality of the shapes and architecture

of the cemetery, which is expressed by

measurements and archival research to

define its monumental aspect, is important

in the development of the new funerary

typologies that accompanied the

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Maria Carmen Nuzzo

80

post-Enlightenment rebirth in the out-of-

town necropolis.

The layout of Parma cemetery refers to

the architectural aspects of the enclosure

and to the description of these places

given over to burial which is suggested by

Francesco Milizia5.

The architectural shapes of the arcades

joining on the axes of the portico follow the

typology of the columbarium found in early

Christian catacombs and burial chapels.

The significant elements of the cemetery

are: the geometric and symbolic centre

marked by the orthogonal axes; the

austerity and seriousness of the Doric

order; the crosses on top of the obelisks,

which dissolve the reminiscence of pagan

cultures in Christian symbolism; the fronts

and the different parts of the entrances,

representing the relation between the

burial places and the outside areas and

mainly, the outside enclosure. “Sacred

Enclosure” is a widespread expression that

implies as well anthropologic and symbolic

meanings: it is an arrangement that

indicates a separation and a segregation

but also follows acts of acknowledgement

and implies care, assures protection from

and towards the outside. It is an erected

border that characterises and gives

architectural complexity and sense to the

paths, to the subdivisions and to the logic

of the building.

The Villetta cemetery became a place visited

to recall memories. It is reachable by going

down a long boulevard with trees that from

1862 onwards has connected the cemetery

to the city of the living, as documents and

iconographic witnesses demonstrate.

The tombs and the burial chapels,

witnesses of a stylistic vocabulary

ranging from Neo-Medieval to Neo-

Byzantine and from Neo-Romanic to

Neo-Rococo, reflect an architecture

whose symbolic values and formal

elements derived from a burial culture

becoming the physical features of the

expression of the memory.

1 Marc Augè, 2005, Not places. Introduction to an anthropology of surmodernità, Eleuthera. 2 U. Foscolo, 1856, from poem “Sepolcri”3 L. Sciascia, 1952, The flower of poetry romanesca, Caltanisetta, (with a preface P.P. Pisolini)4 State Archive Parma, Governatorato di Parma, 1817, busta 543.5 F. Milizia, 1972, Principles of civil architecture, Finale 1781, rist. anstatica dell’ed. 1847, Milano, Mazzotta, pp. 331-333.

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The Urban Planning of Parma Cemeterial System

81

THE URBAN PLANNING

OF PARMA

CEMETERIAL SYSTEM

By Silvia Ombellini

Like Laudomia, every city has at its side

another city whose inhabitants are called

by the same name: it is the Laudomia of

the dead, the cemetary. (...) The more

the Laudomia of the living becomes

crowded and expanded, the more the

expanse of tombs increases beyond the

walls.

From Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

The cemetery is “another city”. Its

foundation and its increase are similar to

the urban one. The cemeterial system,

which in Parma was born in the last half of

19th century, presents various analogies

with the urban system. Cemeteries are

orientated according to the roman centuriation.

They are characterised by the presence of

the external wall, in analogy to the urban

wall, and by the symbolism of the centre.

Since the Second World War, the plot of the

cemetery has become untidy, chaotic and

anonymous, like that of the city. The city of

the dead has spread out, and its limit has

come nearer the living city.

Today the space of relation between the

two cities is strategic for their regenerations.

The cemetery planning, which is required

by Italian law, is strictly connected with

the urban planning.

In 2004 the Italian region Emilia-

Romagna, through a specific rule

(L.R. 19/04), has imposed to all the

municipalities the cemetery planning.

Parma is one of the first cities in Emilia-

Romagna that made a cemetery plan,

approved in 2007. This project is called

“PCm” (Cemeterial Planning). The main

objectives of this plan are: to protect the

historical architectures, to regulate the

growth of structures, to improve their

quality and to draw new spaces like

memorial gardens. The cemetery planning

started by the detailed research of these

places from their origins to the present

state, in order to focus themes, problems

and visions for the future.

In the past, cemeteries were important

public spaces for the city. The project

intended to recover this public function,

without alienating the cemetery use.

Cemeteries, which were born as meeting

places for the society of the 19th Century,

have been progressively ghettoized from

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the city and from the public living. Now it

is essential that cemeteries should

recover their original role of public spaces.

They are stone archives of the city, places

of silence and memory, strongly

connected with the landscape and the

urban space.

The first step of the PCm is the estimation

of demographic and mortality trend in

order to approximate the needs and to

program the increase of the new

cemeterial structures.

The knowledge of the economic,

demographic, social and urban changes

has been the point of departure of a

search of longer distance that has

produced the PCm.

To limit the growth of cemeteries is the

main choice of the project in order to

avoid the risk of abandonment of the

existent structures. Therefore the PCm

foresees new alternative uses for the

historical structures, optimization of use

of the existent structures, and exclusion

of incongruous parts, in order to recover

the original quality.

In the historical structures, the project

foresees the increase in value of the main

architectures, the recovery of original

values, material and forms, and the

support of their use.

The historical parts, in particular the

“Villetta Octagon”, have to accentuate the

role of the memory, and will be

designated to the graves of illustrious

citizens. This part will be a museum of the

town memory. The project foresees the

valorisation of open spaces, through the

design of internal gardens, the recovery

of trees and vegetation, the reorganization

of access and internal routes and the

insertion of monuments, fountains

and signs.

THE CITY IN THE CITYThe cemeterial system of Parma

Silvia Ombellini

The Master Plan of La Villetta

83

THE MASTER PLAN

FOR SAFEGUARDING

AND RESTORATION

OF LA VILLETTA

By Elisa Adorni

The Master Plan for the safeguarding and

the restoration (afterward called PPO) of

the Villetta’s monumental Octagon is part

of a larger intervention of the cemetery

planning system in Parma. The PPO is

the completion of the Cemetery Rules

recently adopted.

The development of a specific rule, with

the individualisation of the historical

centre of the urban cemetery, has allowed

the evaluation of the historical-architectural

heritage of the monumental cemetery.

Editing the Master Plan has probed the

analysis of the monumental part, which

needs safeguarding and exploitation.

Therefore, the preliminary remarks of the

Master Plan were to stimulate the

environmental qualification and the

architectural exploitation in order to

guarantee a continuity of use of the

historical structures.

The “safeguarding” does not mean

“musealisation” but control over the

quality of the interventions, maintaining

alive the monument in respect to the

regulations in use.

The Master Plan has tried to individualize

an alternative use of all the existing

structures, with the exception of perpetual

graves and valuable monuments.

Following the Cemetery Rules, the PPO

also tries to promote the planning and to

delineate specific planning lines. This

project concerns the restoration of

preserved monuments and also the planning

of collective spaces (garden and paths).

Studies about the Monumental Octagon

and about the type of restoration

interventions for the historical building

and the arcade were conducted.

To reconstruct the original unity will

require to foresee layer analysis

(stratigraphies) of the painted surfaces

of the arches and the galleries.

However, different problems arose:

coexistence of different juridical titles of

“ownership”, presence of low quality

interventions, construction of incongruous

elements, tendency to space saturation -

not always in accordance with the general

project of the cemetery, existence of over-

dimensioned private graves, difficulty

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Elisa Adorni

84

to adapt the historical constructions to the

rules, precarious state of care of some

historical architectures - with evident

structural disarrangements and superficial

degradation of the exterior layer.

The plan is also useful as control for new

future interventions. The PPO characterizes

the destinations, the categories, the

interventions and the intervention rules.

The intervention rules must consider the

variety of monumental elements and their

specific and original use.

Different ways of intervention can be

individualized: the greatest architectures

(sectors) and the interior of the chapels

and the arches (units) are all subjected to

safeguarding. The PPO allows to perform

interventions of restoration directly on the

single unit or partial consolidation of the

structures.

There are 5 categories of intervention, as

follows:

- Safeguarding: includes objects (chapels,

graves, arches) and artistic-architectural

records corresponding to a particular

historic memory for the city;

- Maintenance: includes objects (chapels,

graves, arches) of high architectural and

artistic quality;

- Exploitation: includes historical objects

that do not have particular artistic-

architectural merit and the non-historical

objects with incongruous punctual

elements, on which the transformation

(e.g. plastic fixture) is preferred;

- Remodelling: includes non-historical

objects of scarce quality with incongruous

elements, on which the transformation is

preferred (covering material);

- Morphological Reconfiguration: includes

Image 1: The Porch Arcades - the initial state of conservation

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85

incongruous objects which need

morphology, material and dimension

reconfiguration. This sort of intervention is

only for graves and aedicules.

For chapels, arcades and aedicules,

classified by categories of intervention,

there are specified ordinary maintenance

recommendations.

For the monumental sectors (galleries and

arcade) we have consulted the archive

documents to analyse the original project

indications (specifications of a building

contract) and to compile specific

interventions of restoration.

The PPO gives also general indications

about compatible materials to use in the

new chapels and graves and in every kind

of interventions in the monumental

Octagon, with the specific intention to

avoid the presence of incongruous

elements.

These documents are intended to be

consulted in the future, serving the next

restoration interventions. Finally, the

obtained files allowed us to compile a

catalogue of references, which were

integrated into a technical glossary that is

able to give more useful indications on the

constructive technologies and on the used

techniques and materials.

The Master Plan (PPO) is a complex of

forecast rules for future administration

and it aims to the safeguarding of the

historical monuments inside the Villetta

Cemetery. The PPO includes some

planning proposals to increase the value

of the Octagonal monument through new

and alternative uses of its structures.

Image 2: The Porch Arcades - the initial state of conservation

e_conservation

The Master Plan of La Villetta

Simone Riccardi

86

THE VIRTUAL MUSEUM,

THE MEMORY

OF THE

CEMETERY HERITAGE

By Simone Riccardi

The idea of a Virtual Museum comes from

the need to control and to distribute a

complex data system. The research about

the Villetta cemetery developed by the

University and Municipality of Parma - has

generated a great deal of historical, social,

artistic and iconographic information.

The main goal of the virtual museum is to

organize this information through routes

of knowledge and tools of research.

The virtual museum should not replace

the real space of the cemetery, instead, it

should invite to a personal visit inside

the Villetta.

At the entrance of the virtual museum,

the visitor can see all the possible “routes

of memory” so he can plan his virtual trip

inside the cemetery. The cemetery is the

memory of the city and hence the virtual

routes are named “routes of memory”.

Moreover, the visitor can switch to a real

trip inside the Villetta where he can find a

map with relevant points of visit, and

some useful information, like the schedule

of the cemetery, how to reach, etc.

The first route of memory that the visitor

can choose is the history of the cemetery

foundation. The visitor can browse by

video, text and images through the main

stage of the plan and the construction of

the cemetery, starting from the history of

the duchess Maria Luigia.

Another route of visit passes through the

stories of the main illustrious citizens’ life,

which are all “inhabitants” of the Villetta.

The museum route narrates the lives and

the works of musicians, writers, architects,

artists and politicians. Therefore, the

cemetery looks like a family photo book of

the city, made in stone.

The last route leads the guests inside the

artistic richness of the Villetta cemetery.

The visitor can see and learn more about

architectural works, as chapels, arches,

sculptures, mosaics, paintings and bas-

reliefs made by important local artists.

Each visitor can draw and print his personal

map, in which he can bookmark his own

route with his relevant points of interest.

The memory of the city past becomes

readable through a system of virtual

routes interlaced with each other.

The ways of the city past weave

themselves with the routes of the

present visitors, resulting in new maps

of favourite paths of memory.

e_conservation

Documentation and Architecture Conservation:La Villetta Cemetery in Parma, Italy

A project coordinated by MICHELA ROSSI

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, dell’Ambiente, del Territorio e

Architettura, Università degli Studi di Parma

web: www.unipr.it

email: [email protected]

MARIA CARMEN NUZZO,

PhD student in Civil Engineering at the University of Parma, she

graduated in Architecture in Milan. She is interested in the study of

funerary architecure and symbols and collaborates in teaching

Architectural Drawing.

SILVIA OMBELLINI,

PhD student in Forms and Structures of Architecture at the University of

Parma, she obtained her architect degree in Florence. She is interested

in architecture and urban design and collaborates with the City Planning

Office of Parma

ELISA ADORNI,

PhD student in Forms and Structures of Architecture at the University of

Parma, she graduated in Architecture. She is interested in architecture

conservation and structural rehabilitation of historic architecture.

SIMONE RICCARDI,

PhD student in Forms and Structures of Architecture at University of

Parma, he graduated in Architecture at the University of Florence. His

main interests are digital applications and urban planning.

La Villetta Cemetery

87e_conservation

bo

ok r

evie

wLOST CITY, RESUMED ARCHITECTURES

The cemetery Octagon of Villetta and otherfuneral architectures in Parma

By Michela Rossi

ETS Editions, Pisa, February 2007

89

Book Review

There are many ways to enter into a cemetery.

We could inquire it by reading stories of

ancient poets, looking at old paintings on

its surrounding walls, or searching for old

documents about its foundation. Alternatively,

we could walk all around the city, through

fields drawn by channels and trees, trying

to detect a network of buried structures.

There, a system of cemeteries seems to be

created for an unexpected escape. Probably

from life.

Then, there are several ways to bring a lost

architectural system back to its original

significance.

We could try to preserve these architectures

from the outside, by restoring them to their

ancient brightness and arresting their

evolution in a static time, or we could try to

transfer them outside, in the network of

cemeteries which represents a different city.

It’s the city of deaths: the place in which

our past is preserved from life.

This book is the result of a two years-

long research, conducted by University of

Parma, under the guide of Architect

Michela Rossi, together with the

Municipality of the city, in order to set up

a strategy of valorisation and

conservation of the nine cemeteries

which constitute the city of Parma

funeral system. By defining architectural

and political features of the principal

cemetery of the city, called “the Villetta”,

the study has investigated the landscape

by focusing on its link to the other signs

on the territory, represented by the

smaller funeral structures all around it,

ancient strongholds of a power which

doesn’t care the passing time.

The result it’s a strange mixed book,

created by different authors, each one

with a story to tell and with a personal

way to do it.

Starting from the history of a cemetery,

we could read about its foundation,

finding out the way of construction of the

city of deaths, looking at its political and

architectural grown, in order to resume a

lived memory, as if we could recognize

all the inhabitants of this lost city.

Religion and communities are

investigated in their relationship with

death, also focusing on the original urban

connection between the city and the

cemetery, through an analysis in which

the boundaries between architecture and

social features are not so defined.

Ancient maps show the boulevard

planned at the time of the cemetery Review by Federica Ottoni

Project: Cemeteries Planning of Parma

Planner: University of Parma, Department of

Civil engineering, Environment, Territory

and Architecture.

Place: Municipality of Parma

Period: 2005-2007

construction, which represents both a

physical and symbolic road from life to

death, and from present to past.

Sculptures and paintings, architectures

and plan, connections and cloisters,

become the elements of a great collective

wall painting, from which the characters

of our past continue to tell us their

stories, buried by soil and stones.

The original architectonic point of view

involves then other type of analysis,

extending itself on a urban scale. In this

way, the previous object of this study, the

main urban cemetery of the “Villetta”,

Book Review

becomes a pretext to research a correct

way of managing a real system of several

separated structures, which could recover

their connection in an architectural

general plan.

The past seems to be a good point from

which start an investigation on the future.

So a statistical analysis of social and

political data represents the natural

evolution of a study which involved

structures and functions, aesthetic and

social relationships; it seems to give

fundamental hints for the following

planning of the burial-places of a city.

As if the architecture could

be the common place on

which all the problems

involved in a urban and

social organization would be

solved, the last pages of this

dense and interesting trip are

reserved to the new projects.

Three different ways of

thinking death are showed in

three designs of new

architects, concluding a

research always suspended

between life and death.

To recover a lost city to

present.

Contact:

web: www.unipr.it

email: [email protected]

e_conservation90

http://www.unipr.it/

91

Book Review

LASERS IN THE CONSERVATION OF ARTWORKS

LACONA VI Proceedings

Vienna, Austria,

Sept. 21-25, 2005

(Series: Springer Proceedings in Physics Vol. 116)

by Johann Nimmrichter; Wolfgang Kautek;

Manfred Schreiner (Eds.)

2007, 647 p. 419 figures.

ISBN: 978-3-540-72129-1

Hardcover

Price: $260 / €210

LACONA VI was held in Vienna in

September 2005 but the proceedings

were only recently published by Springer.

LACONA is the conference of reference to

all those interested in laser applications

to Cultural Heritage, from scanning to

cleaning and analysis of works of art.

The proceedings of LACONA VI present

74 articles organized in 6 parts: metal,

stone, inorganic materials, organic

materials, analytical techniques,

scanning techniques and safety and

miscellaneous.

The book opens with an independent

article by John Asmus, the scientist that

discovered the cleaning application of

laser when using holographic technology

in Venice back in 1972, where he

describes in detail an unthinkable and

incredible series of events that started in

1942 and culminated with his discovery.

A must read.

Metal (part I) is an important material

but it is still far from being one of the

most studied. This section contains 5

articles about laser cleaning of corroded

steel, gildings, coins and the follow up of

the laser cleaning of Ghiberti's Porta del

Paradiso in Florence (page 29).

Besides being the first material where

laser cleaning was employed, stone

(part II) is the most studied material.

However, on the middle of so many case

studies and articles focused on the use of

e_conservation

Book Review

laser, it is interesting to read a reflection

about the demand of laser cleaning in

Austria. Pummer (page 143), based on

his 10 years and 40,000 man hours

experience, reveals that this technology

(Nd:YAG laser) “or equivalent” is

currently too often used in official service

agreements, mostly without awareness.

The author compared 2 usual techniques

– microblasting and Nd:YAG laser - and

concluded that, apart the high difference

of cost per hour between them, the

methods can not be referred to as

equivalent concerning the cleaning results.

Despite the fact that part III is dedicated

to inorganic materials, a very

comprehensive category, in this section

are included those materials which didn’t

fit the previous sections. Perhaps the

most uncommon material in this section

is the eggshell. Cornish et. al. (page

169), used a scanning electron

microscope (SEM) to assess Nd:YAG

laser cleaning on eggshell. Preliminary

results show that Nd:YAG has potential,

as no visible difference was identified by

SEM, but that other more sensitive

analytical techniques should be employed

in order to fully establish the usefulness

of this technology.

The second biggest section is the one

dedicated to organic materials (part IV).

Textiles, paper and resins use to belong

to this section, as well as Nd:YAG and

excimer laser. However, Er:YAG lasers

start to be often used and other

materials investigated, such as

polyurethane foam (page 295). On this

regard, Staal Dinesen and Westergaard

investigated the usefulness of using laser

cleaning instead of vacuum cleaning of

polyurethane foam (PU-foam), a normal

material used in Contemporary art. It

was proven that laser cleaning is more

effective than vacuum cleaning on dust

removal despite damaging some PU-

variants. However, laser cleaning on PU-F

was found recommended on the given

parameters.

Part V (analytical techniques) is devoted

to material characterisation. Many of the

materials characterised, either for their

study or identification, are pigments or

stone-based materials followed by paper,

ceramics and others. The analytical

techniques are mostly recurrent, such as

Raman spectroscopy, laser-induced

breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), laser-

induced plasma spectroscopy (LIF) and

laser-induced fluorescence (LIF).

Without disregarding the importance of

other materials in this section, I believe

that the characterisation study of

cinematographic film, by Oujja et. al.

(page 421), stands out by its unusual

subject. The study reflects the suitability

of LIBS to characterise silver-gelatine

photographic film, to identify different

gelatine types and to obtain information

on developers and hardeners used on

the film.

e_conservation92

93

The scanning techniques section (part VI)

proves itself to be a highly considered

field as it is the biggest section of the

book. Its 18 articles confirm the huge

range of this type of application to

Cultural Heritage: from examination of

paintings (page 487) and its cleaning

(page 473) to damage assessment (page

543) and diagnosis of historical

monuments (page 583). A good example

is given by Bajraszewski et. al. that used

optical coherence tomography (OCT) to

assess the environmental influence on

canvas paintings. Under laboratorial

controlled conditions, the sample was

submitted to humidity changes. OCT

analysis revealed a 170 µm translation of

the whole painting surface and quantified

the morphologic change of the sample

crack system, confirming the suitability

and sensibility of this technique.

Part VII (Safety and Miscellaneous) is the

last and the smallest part of the book,

with only 3 articles. Despite that laser

presents exceptional advantages on laser

cleaning, health safety assessment is a

current necessity. Ostrowski et. al. (page

624) verified, using a nanosecond laser

(15 ns), that at the highest laser fluence

78% of the particle matter is in the nano-

particle size range (30-100 nm).

Barcikowski et. al. (page 631),

collaborating with the previous author

within the same project, draws a similar

conclusion. However he compares

nanosecond (15 ns) with femtosecond

(120 fs) lasers. Among other conclusions,

it is stated that femtosecond lasers

produce finer particles. Health

recommendations are also suggested

such as the use of a built-in fume

extraction.

Concluding, I will be expecting the next

proceedings of the recently finished

LACONA VII which was held last

September in Madrid, Spain.

Reviewed by Rui Bordalo

Book Review

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No. 2, December 2007

ISSN: 1646-9283

Registration Number125248

Entidade Reguladorapara a Comunicação Social

Propertye-conservationline, Teodora Poiata

PeriodicityBimonthly

CoverPhoto by Anca Dina

Exterior Mural Painting, Arbore Church, Romania

Executive Editor, DirectorRui Miguel Azevedo Bordalo

EditorsTeodora Poiata, Anca Nicolaescu

CollaboratorAnca Dina

Graphic Design and PhotographyAnca Poiata, Radu Matase

ExecutionTeodora Poiata

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