Exhibition about Art Conservation

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"Conquering time..." Art Conservation in the Russian Museum.

March 19, 1998 - September 9, 1998
The State Russian Museum, St.Petersburg, Russia

Old Russian painting conservation The exhibition was held as one of the jubilee arrangements timed to the centenary from the opening day of the Russian Emperor Alexander III' Museum. There were presented more than 350 interesting art objects that had passed conservation in 14 laboratories of the Russian Museum. In general there were shown works made by restorers for the last 20 years. At the same time the series of works executed by teachers and tutors of the present-day restorers was exhibited. Exhibits representing workshops were placed in different halls. Among the works that had passed complete conservation were some exhibits in the pre-conservation state. Thus a visitor was given a rare opportunity to see the typical state of a monument before its coming to the laboratory. All the exhibits were accompanied by detailed annotations that included the conservation process story and photos of the preconservation state. There was published a richly illustrated catalogue with minute descriptions of all exhibits and executed conservation works and numerous illustrations elucidating the course of works on every monument. A number of exhibits were shown in the place of their permanent location. Among them there was the masterpiece of Old Russian art the icon of the middle of the 14th century "Boris and Gleb" (Moscow. Wood, pavoloka, levkas, tempera. 143 x 94 x 3 cm. Inv.No 2117) Restorer S.I.Golubev, 1978-1986) and the monumental canvas by K.P.Briullov (1799-1852) "The Last day of Pompeii", 1833 (Oil on canvas. 456,5 x 651 cm. Inv.No 5084) Restorers Korniakova I.N., Minin A.V. , Soldatenkov E.S. , 1995).

Fabric conservation Among the most interesting exhibits showed in this exhibition there could be distinguished the following works (from the standpoint both of conservation complexity and of artistic values): Icon "Vladimir Mother of God". (End of the 14th - beginning of the 15th century. Moscow school. Wood, ?, tempera. 29 x 17,5 cm. Inv. No DRJ-275). Restored by S.I.Golubev. In the course of conservation there was removed regrounding, that lay on the author painting, complete clearing using microscalpel under the microscope was carried out and the layer of drying oil was made thinner.

Painting by A.N.Mordvinov (1800-1858) "View of the Grand Canal in Venice", 1850. (Oil on canvas. 125 x 213 cm. Inv. No J-3837) Restored by E.S.Soldatenkov, 1991-1992. The famous master A.Sidorov from the Hermitage had already restored the painting in 1887. He transferred author's paint film to canvas. For more than hundred years the glue that had been used in transferring has lost its adhesive qualities. The paint film began to flake in all places from the canvas. There was carried out urgent strengthening of the paint film. Then to the transferred canvas was lined a new canvas. Numerous retouchings were moved off. Darkened varnish was thinned and smoothed out layer after layer. Lost places of paint film were tinted.

Painting by N.K.Kalmakov (1873-1955) "Woman with snakes", 1909. (Wax paints on canvas. 215 x 106 cm. Inv. No J-10380). Restored by O.Y.Kljonova, 1996-1997. The technique of wax painting was rare for the Russian Museum collection required studying of the strengthening methods of the paint film. After test strengthening of exfoliated painting parts and results analyzing, total strengthening was carried out. Canvas ruptures were strengthened. Losses of paint film were closed up with ground and tented with wax tempera.

Gouache by F.M.Matveev (1758-1826) "Landscape with castle ruins and waterfall", 1805. (Gouache on paper. 60 x 105 cm. Inv. No R-57495). Restored by T.A.Tantlevskaya, 1986. The sheet was lined on compact acidless paper. Traction was glued up. This work is one of the hundreds that were restored by the talented master, who unfortunately died so young.

Painting by V.E.Borisov-Musatov (1870-1905) "The pool", 1902. (Tempera on canvas. 66,5 x 90,5 cm. Inv. No J-2038). Restored by A.I.Bogomolov, N.I.Rusakova, E.Y.Shukina, 1993. Paint film was strengthened with polymer emulsion. Then the painting was lined on a new canvas through two layers of mikalentnaya paper.

Embroidering of the 15th century "Pall. The Holy Lamb". (Silk fabric, silk, golden and silver threads. 42 x 41 cm. Inv. No -50). Restored by T.M.Burgazlieva, 1978. After removing grimes and wax spots. The pall was lined on silk gauze toned with natural dye. In places of the largest losses, the silk thread was supplemented with silk fabric and thread pieces.

Majolica by V.E.Borisov-Musatov (1870-1905) "Young girls caught by a storm", 1904. (P.K.Vakulin's ceramic factory, village of Kikerino, Petersburg province. Majolica, color glaze. 120 x 106 cm. Inv. No -1039). Restored by R.V.Starikova, N.Y.Kasatkina, 1996. 11 fragments were pasted together and 4 losses made good by filling in the painting according to the analogy of the author's sketch.
Wooden sculpture of the beginning of the 17th century "St.Nicholas of Mozhaisk". (Wood, carving, levkas, pavoloka, tempera, silver, color varnishes. 41,5 x 23 x 4,5 cm. Inv. No S-369). Restored by V.G.Lapina, 1980-1981. Difficult strengthening of levkas and paint film was carried out. Original painting was cleansed from the darkened drying oil and retouchings. Renovating priming which touched the original was removed up to the borders of the original painting.

And much, much more: