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81

consenution und restorution

Conservation and restoration have not so far been the subject of systematic historical study. This is no doubt due to their very nature - phenomena are studied historically only when their career is thought to have come to an end. As long as the same materials and processes were used for restoring an ob- ject as for making it, and as long as the restorer was, and described himself as, a painter/restorer, a decorator/restorer or something similar, there could be no call for speculation on a historical basis about the nature of the work involved. But there has been a change in recent years, speeded up and made irreversible by the great extent to which advanced scientific products and technology are making their way into the area tradi- tionally reserved for empirical techni- ques and the ordinary materials of craft- work.

The necessity to preserve traditional tools and equipment from total destruc- tion is warranted precisely by the withdrawal from use of these objects, so often specially made by the crafts- man himself, or at least altered and adapted by him. Their disappearance would mean that all memory of tra- ditional restoration procedures and oper- ations would be lost, or at least dimmed, unquestionably to the detriment of the works needing restoration in the future. How valuable it would have been for to- day’s restorers to possess even a summary knowledge of the techniques and materials used in the work of maintenance, conservation and restora- tion over the centuries.

A parallel development is that mu- seums themselves, having broadened the coverage of their collections beyond ‘art treasures’ alone, are slowly losing their character of repositories of original objects - for example, the Documentary Museum of Metaphysics in the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, which displays only reproductions. Hence the need for the museum we pro- pose. There is all the more reason why such a museum should be predominant- ly functional. Specific to this active ap- proach will be the didactic aspect. It

should have a dual function, exhibiting informative material of use both to the general public and to restorers, or at least those professionally interested in the historical problems that are con- nected with restoration. Non-specialist visitors will be able to discover how works of art were made over the cen- turies and how works which are the reflection of a given cultural ambience, or which express the experience of one and the same artist, bear the marks of the different techniques and materials used. They could also learn how all materials deteriorate with the passing of time, and how, precisely because of this inevitable process - as well as to repair accidental or deliberate damage - work has been done over the centuries, in most cases with a view to restoring the objects concerned to their original state. More specifically, they should learn how many such operations could perhaps have been avoided if there had been widespread awareness of the essential fragility of works of art.

As for the technicians directly or in- directly concerned with conservation and restoration, they could thus have access to most useful elements of comparison to set against their own knowledge of the nature and the properties of the materials and techniques used. In this connection it should be recalled that it is difficult to fmd people who have a historically sound knowledge of past technologies. This category of visitors would also be able to fmd useful data on the techniques and materials commonly used in traditional restoration, and also on those currently in use, where the two are not identical. At the same time an essential part of the museum’s work must be the collection, processing and circulation of data on the products and technologies which are today being developed in the field of conservation.

Lastly, conservators would be able to fmd concrete examples of restoration work to reflect upon - not in order to imitate, for it would be quite unsuitable and, above all, dangerous to do so, but so as to seek solutions to problems resulting from current needs.

Giuseppe Basile

Born at Castelvetrano, Sicily, in 1942. Degree in art history at University of Palermo, 1964. Attend- ed School for Higher Studies in h t History in Rome. Now belongs to the antiquities administra- tion and directs an autonomous section of the Istituto Centrale del Restauro. Pursues his keen personal interest in conservation; volume in press on the protection of artefacts in churches and other non-museum locations.

20 Grinding minerals in a bronze mortar to obtain pigments (from a fifteenth- century woodcut).

82 Giuseppe Basile

21 A kiln for the firing of glass as illustrated in Giorgi0 Agricola’s De re metdica (1556).

The scope landgoals of the proposed museum

If we now go on to give what will be no more than a rough sketch of the struc- ture of the proposed museum, the fust, and certainly the biggest, prob- lem to be tackled will be that of set- ting limits to the field to be covered.

The danger, indeed, is that the museum, if it is all-inclusive, will be come unrestricted in size and hence hardly usable at all. The criterion for selection can be either the artefact as the outcome of a given process of pro- duction or else the restoration work done on it.

If the former of these two criteria is adopted, it cannot of course be applied to the most current conception of ‘cultural property’. Although the latter is unquestionably positive from the

point of view of protection, it is actually misleading from our point of view, embracing as it does everything which is a direct or an indirect testimony of human activity. Nor can we limit our- selves either to the notion of the ‘artefact’, so as to limit drastically the field covered. Even given this limit, one can imagine how many types of objects that required conservation and restoration would still remain.

At the same time it does not look as though the traditional and now anachronistic notions of art as opposed to craft, of major and minor arts, of ‘industrial’ or ‘applied’ arts, of the artist’s intention, etc., could serve our purpose. Are we to assign importance to a painting even if it is absolutely in- signifcant, and to neglect a terracotta oil lamp? And are we to include archi- tectural works, which are likewise artefacts, even though they are ‘collec- tively’ produced?

Yet if we approach the problem not from the point of view of the artefacts but from that of conservation and restoration - the true purpose of the museum - the situation is no better, at least so long as the two terms are taken to be almost synonymous or as though the one were inclusive of the other. It is possible, though, to at- tempt to draw a very cautious distinc- tion between the two concepts. ‘Con- servation’ will be used to designate either those operations whose purpose is to make the environment of the ob- ject compatible with its conservation (‘indirect conservation’) or what we would call ‘direct Conservation’. i.e. the action performed on the materials of which the object is made.

‘Restoration’, on the other hand, will mean all the operations designed to preserve or restore the comprehensibility and formal unity of the work. It is clear, however, that, while conservation can very well exist by itself, restoration can- not exist independently of it. Conse- quently, any artefact (and in reality not artefacts alone) may undergo conserva- tion, but not all artefacts may be restored.

At this point, however, it becomes clear that the choice must be made on a practical basis. In other words, it must be decided whether restoration is to take precedence over conservation or vice versa.

In any event, even thed it will be more suitable - as is always the case - to adopt a criterion which, at least

for the determination of priorities, makes allowance for the implications of the two alternative possibilities. In other words, the choice could be restricted at the beginning to those categories of artefacts in which, in general terms, restoration has been found conceptually to have been more important than con- servation, in the light of historical ex- perience and especially that of the last two centuries.

This is obviously an absolutely em- pirical criterion, both because in practice it is difficult to determine where direct conservation stops and where restoration starts, and because of the inadequacy of the available information on the subject. Nevertheless it is the one criterion based on internal factors. 1

Four mniiz sections

The museum should display its material under four main subject headings, covering production techniques, conser- vation and restoration processes, the science of conservation, and documenta- tion. Each of these should be treated chronologically.

In the case of the first two subjects, in- formation from whatever source is rare, even totally lacking. In connection with the makers’ original techniques there is further to be considered the problem of the reliability of the sources, whether written or pictorial. Anyone farmliar with the subject knows that most of the latter are imprecise or give too little detail and that the former are difficult to interpret. All this is not merely a ques- tion of language, though in fact it is not always possible to determine whether a term or an expression adopted by an author belonging to a given cultural area relates to an object or an operation which may with certainty be identified with an apparent equivalent known from other sources. The uncertainty is greater still where the suggested equivalent belongs to a different period or is still in current use. A large portion of the specifically technical sources are collections of ‘recipes’ and professional ‘secrets’, , most of which are wholly

1. Naturally, at a later stage this criterion will need to be more precisely defined and standardized, with the inclusion of further parameters, such as the abandonment of certain production techniques at given stages in history, or their mechanization for use on an industrial scale. An additional. and fundamental, parameter could be found in the history of the subsequent work performed on the objects.

For a didactic museum of conservation andrestomtion 83

empirical and hence need to be tried out experimentally before they can be adopted.

As for conservation and restoration, we are familiar with the reluctance of restorers, in the past at least, to leave written records of their materials and methods, presumably in order to protect genuine or supposed trade ‘secrets’. However, no source must be neglected, since any indication, even the most minute, might turn out to be enlighten- ing if it happened, even fortuitously, to fit into a suitable background of reference material. Hence not only treatises, ‘recipe’ books, records from ar- chives (orders, contracts, etc.) or illustra- tions taking the form of prints, miniatures, paintings or sculptures, but also autobiographies, chronicles, and emblems and regulations of craft guilds - everything, in fact, that is directly or indirectly connected with the subject - must be put to good use.

All of this will certainly not sufice to provide an adequate picture of in- struments and tools. Still less will it pro- vide a picture of production processes and those used for conservation and restoration. It will therefore be necessary to resort to substitutes which, in a world that is becoming progressively more and more dominated by the mass media, must inevitably take the form of pic- tures, preferably showing movement.

In practice it will be possible - and certainly useful as well - to provide the museum with samples of the materials used, at least where they are difficult to come across in everyday experience, and

also of those used for conservation and restoration in the past. In both cases, however, care must be taken to see that the final outcome is not a sort of museum of commodities. It may similar- ly be found worth while to exhibited col- lections of working instruments and tools, especially those required for techniques that have now disappeared or have altered so much as to bear scarcely any resemblance to their original forms. It should also be possible to use reconstructions (though here again care must be taken not to produce a sort of museum of science and technology). Se- quences of pictures showing the characteristic phases of each process or method may also be employed.

There is no doubt that a series of prints or miniatures, however incom- plete, will be far more attractive than a complete set of photographic records; but it is equally certain that a series of actions combining to illustrate a produc- tion process will be perceived with in- comparably greater clarity, and hence be of greater didactic value, if it is recorded from life, if possible in a sequence of pictures showing actual movement.

The third subject - that of conserva- tion science - will likewise be treated chronologically. Roughly speaking, it will start with the scientific aids available for restoration (rather than for conserva- tion) and go on to present-day activity. This is not because scientific aids to restoration are no longer in use: on the contrary, they have become progressively so very widespread as to be now a matter of routine. from the earlier and more

. .

22 A special type of support for mural painting no longer in use. The idea was to reproduce the rigidity of the original wall by stretching the new canvas backing on a metal frame.

23 Technical progress brings rapid obsolescence. An X-ray machine devised in the late 1940s and a portable modern model for the examination of paintings.

84 Giuseppe Basile

traditional forms (X-ray, ultraviolet and infra-red photographs, etc.) to the more recent and sophisticated ones such as in- terferometry thermography or diffrac- tion-measurement analysis. But precisely because of the sometimes staggering increase in the rate of decay of works of art - and of the ever more pressing need to halt this - the efforts of the scientists have been essentially concen- trated on the environment and on the causes and processes of deterioration.

Here more than elsewhere it will cer- tainly be far more useful to have access to a generous amount of specifically didactic documentary material rather than, for example, to a copy of Roent- gen's X-ray machine.

This brings us, lastly, to documen- tation, which, even if so far relatively neglected in conservation and resto- ration activity, is so important an aspect that we are obliged to treat it separately. There will thus be illustrations showing tools and processes, from the traditional ones to the technologically most advanc- ed, and a data bank on the subjects in question. One of the important features of the latter must be a historical archive of restoration, containing all possible data on restoration work performed, at least where such data exist.

Naturally, here again it will be ab- solutely necessary to proceed by stages and to decide which geographical areas and periods are to be included, always remembering that the basic reference points will be the materials and the operations performed. A further and not unimportant, if indirect, source of data might also be provided by a body of in- formation on restorers, which might at least afford useful points of comparison.

A t y p a moauze Rather than attempt to sketch out the complete structure of the museum - which would be impossible here - it will be more useful to give a description of what might be the features of one typical module.2

Let us take fresco painting as our example. The materials used for such work, some of which are identical with those used elsewhere, would be found in the appropriate support section. For the most part they are so simple and in such common use that it would certainly be superfluous to display samples of lime, sand, powdered marble, pozzolana and all the other possible supports. It would be more interesting to exhibit samples

~ ~ ~ ~~ ~

of pigments, and more necessary and useful to show how these are obtained, or to provide particulars of the produc- tion processes - for lime, for example. It would be more useful still to provide information in a non-empirical form on the technical properties of these materials and their main kinds of ap- plications.

The module devoted to fresco paint- ing would thus begin with a straightfor- ward display of the materials and im- plements used. Most of the latter, too, are still in common use and in this in- stance there would be no need to show separate illustrations of them.

The display would go on to show how a fresco is prepared by displaying a recor- ding from life (a series of photographs, an audio-visual programme, a film or a video tape) of the main phases of the process, as reconstructed from the most authoritative sources (in this instance Cennino Cennini to Vasari). There would also be a comparison between this process and present-day experience in those regions where fresco painting still exists.

Next to be displayed would be the documentary material on the deteriora- tion phenomena typical of the fresco: damage of a mechanical nature, mostly accidental but in many cases due to in- adequate knowledge of the properties of the technique of work and of its degree of resistance; damage caused by moisture in its various forms; damage caused by destructive biological agents, and, lastly, damage resulting from mistaken or careless human interference. Since no sequence of gestures is in- volved, the illustrations can very well be photographs or slides.

These would be followed by par- ticulars of the scientific tests and research which may be carried out to study the technique by which they have been pro- duced, the specific composition and pro- perties of the materials use, the structure of their supports and their state of con- servation. Naturally, this information will be completed by the section on con- servation science.

The materials used for conservation and restoration work, whether tra- ditional or in more recent use, will have been displayed and illustrated in the materials section. In this instance too it will be well to provide actual samples only of the products not in common use and hence familiar, practically speaking, to specialists only. The same will apply to restoration equipment and tools,

most of which are still in common use. More functional illustrations must, in contrast, be provided for the conserva- tion and restoration processes, of which two can be distinguished: removal of the painting from the wall, consolidation of the plaster backing and of the painted 'fil", followed by its renewed adhesion to the plaster; alternatively, the removal of anything accidentally deposited or de- liberately superimposed on the painted surface, the filling of the gaps and the fmal protecting of the surface. A brief but essential 'appendix' will consist in particular of the maintenance work to be performed on a fresco.3

A few other general points may be ad- ded. A section should be set aside for the materials and techniques used by con- temporary artists. Sufficient space must be devoted to documentary material on the basic principles and measures re- quired to prevent harm being done to the health of the conservation and restoration technicians themselves and to ensure the healthiness of their working environment. It might also be useful to devote a section to copies and fakes, naturally seen from a technical poht of view. Lastly, should one not already exist (in case where, for example, the mu- seum is attached to a research institute), there should be a laboratory capable of testing the applicability of the informa- tion derived with respect to various technical processes, whether for the crea-

.

tion of original works or for restoration.

[ Translateedfrom Italian J

2. It will be well, nevertheless, to avoid boring repetition and impratical cross-references from one section to another by providing a few sections offering general background information, the contents of which will be determined, more or less directly, by the kind of object it has been decided to indude. There would be three basic sections: one would deal with the materials used, whether for making the object originally or for conservation and restoration; a second with the general causes of decay in artefacts and the main processes by which it occurs, and a third with conservation science and research equipment and methods.

is applicable to other siiilar works, especially murals in tempera or oils. In order to give as clear on illustration as possible, all the correlations and interconnections with which specialists are perfectly familiar have been left aside here.

3. Much of the information on fresco painting

85

24 METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, New York. Hatshepsut gallery with large sculptures placed virtually at floor level, restoration clearly marked or removed, heads on wall at height where viewed in ancient times.

The instaZZation of the Egyptzbn CoZZection Christine Lilyquist

Born in 1960 in California. B.A. in English Literature from Pomona College, 1962; M.A. (1965) and P1i.D. (1971) from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, in Art and Ar- chaeology of Ancient Egypt. Assistant Curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1970; ap- pointed Curator in 1974. Consulting Curator for the Treasures of TutanLm"n exhibition in the United States. Published dissertation: Ancietit Egyptihz M m r s (Münchner Ägyptologische Studien, No. 27).

The new Lila Acheson Wallace Galleries of Egyptian Art are perhaps the larg- est project ever undertaken by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Certainly they are the most ambitious installation of ancient Egyptian objects in the world. Every object is on display; each more or less reviewed for date, condition and presentation, and 6,500 square metres of gallery space is used as the foil for a chronological arrangement.

Theoretically, the project began in 1959 when the curator, William C. Hayes, reported to the trustees that the collection was essentially complete: now that the days of museum excavations and acquisitions were over, and the time of analysis and publication had arrived, some adjustment in display were re- quired, such as new lighting, and the rearrangement of large objects to give a

more unified concept. The galleries had generally been established chronologi- cally in a giant horseshoe-shaped path, which included special rooms for specific subjects - jewellery, daily life, funerary coffins, monumental sculpture and ar- chitecture. In the early days of the Department of Egyptian Art, rooms had occasionally been given over to recent finds from the Museum's Expedition, or material from private collections.

Unfortunately, Dr Hayes died in 1963. In 1964 his successor. Henry G. Fischer, began a new programme, somewhat more ambitious; he, however, resigned in 1970, and was succeeded by Nora Scott, who was in charge until her retirement in 1972. From 1972 to 1974 Hans Wolfgang Müller acted as consul- tative chairman to the department, spe- cifically working with me on installation,