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CASE STUDY 1811
The Church of "The Beheading of St. John the Baptist" from Arbore Previous Interventions from the Perspective of Derestoration by Anca Dina and Oliviu Boldura
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. 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 - 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 1. The church of "The Beheading of St. John the Baptist”, south facade; Image 2. South facade, detail from the scene “The Last Judgement”; Image 3. General view of the west facade; Image 4. West facade, portrait detail.
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.
Image 5. West facade, scene from the life of St. George representing the saint at the court of the Emperor Diocletian; Image 6. Nave, west wall, detail from “The Mocking of the Christ”; Image 7. Narthex, west wall, “The Fourth Synod”; Image 8. Narthex, west wall, portraits detail from “The Fourth Synod”.
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.
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 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 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.
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; Image 11. Nave, ex-voto, portrait of Luca Arbore, the founder of the church. Image in grazing light; Image 12. Narthex, funerary painting, detail of hammer marks; Image 13. Narthex, east wall, inferior scene, detail from the representation of Archangel Michael.
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 intervention were preserved as witnesses of the historic events since they show real artistic qualities and the original surfaces were irreversibly damaged.
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 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, roughcast aspect. The original method of transposing the drawing onto the wall was by incision while the intervention was 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.
Image 14. Nave, ex-voto, repainted scene; Image 15. Nave, ex-voto, two overlayed representations of Luca Arbore holding the shrine; Image 16 and 17. Nave, ex-voto, during the cleaning of the surface (left) and after the conservation treatment (right).
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 ttechnique, 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 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 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.
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; Image 20. The icon of the patron saint after the conservation treatment.
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 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 - redbrown (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.
Upper row: Narthex, east wall, central area of the Prophets scene. Image 21. “The Virgin and The Child” before theintervention; Image 22, 23, 24. Details during the surface cleaning, Visible repaintings on the hand and portrait of the Child Jesus; Image 25. Portrait detail during the removal of the repainting.
Lower row: Image 26. Stages during the removal of the repaintings: the three different layers of colour, two repaintings and the original. Image 27. General view after cleaning the most recent of the repaintings from the garment of the Virgin; Image 28. The original representation of the scene, after the removal of the repaintings and the aesthetic treatment of the lacunas; Image 29, 30. Details after the removal of the repaintings. Portraits of Virgin Mary and of Child Jesus.
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.
About the authors:
Anca Dină contact: anca@zappmobile.ro 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. Oliviu Boldura contact: oliviu_boldura@zappmobile.ro 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 nanotechnologies 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. 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.
All photos in this article are by Anca Dină, 2005 - 2007
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