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Conservation-Restoration Workshop for the Artistic Components of Historic Monuments
Review by Anca Dina 20-21 March 2008, Bucharest, Romania Organiser: Romanian Ministry of Culture and Cults The "Conservation-Restoration Workshop for the Artistic Components of Historic Monuments", hosted by the Romanian Ministry of Culture and Cults, took place in the pleasant environment of the Ministry conference hall in 20 and 21 March 2008. In its second edition, the event gathered prominent personalities in the conservation-restoration field, being the most recent opportunity for the Romanian professionals to meet and present their work. All those interested in cultural heritage topics were present, such as conservators, art historians, chemists, physicians, curators, young professionals and students. This meeting aims, on one hand, to keep and strengthen the link between the specialist conservators and the younger professionals and, on the other hand, to bring into discussion and search solutions to the actual problems that concern the cultural heritage conservation. The event was opened by Mircea Angelescu, director of the General Direction of the National Cultural Heritage, and by Dan Nicolae, architect at the Direction of Historic Monuments and Archaeology, who sincerely welcomed such an initiative to discuss the problems that conservators face, hoping at least a part of them may find solution. It was shown that with time, the importance that the Ministry is giving to this cultural heritage sector, and implicitly the funds made available through the National Restoration Plan, helped to the promotion of several monuments with important artistic components, such as the Bukovinian mural painting ensembles and the Christian symbols and graffiti from Basarab. Unfortunately, the available funds are insufficient to face the wish for renewal and modernisation of many historic monuments, as well as their advanced state of decay. Therefore, it is essential to involve in these actions all parties, starting with the Ministry, the beneficiary and actual owners, the community, the municipal councils and the city halls. At the end of the opening, the invitation for the third workshop was launched. The workshop comprised 25 communications. In the first day, Ecaterina Cincheza–Buculei and Tereza Sinigalia, renowned art historians, were invited to moderate the sessions. In the second day, the discussion panels where conducted by the hosts, conservator-restorer Oana Gorea, the organiser of the event, and Dan Kisielevici, councillor from the Ministry of Culture and Cults. The audience was presented with several case studies of the undergoing or recently finished conservation projects. Several problems that the heritage faces have been underlined - decays due to incorrect previous interventions were shown; technological and stylistic studies were exposed and different types of material deterioration of works of art have been analysed. The presentations referred mainly to conservation works from Romania, although some aspects from France and Italy have also been stressed. The objects of study were mural paintings, conserved in situ or as detached fragments, wooden paintings or stone based materials. With regard to the given problems and the polemics developed by the present themes, different directions can be outlined. Starting with the restorer approach to the work of art, it is worth mentioning his primary observations, which concern the stylistic and technical analysis or the study of the existent decay mechanisms. Two of the papers dealt with this subject: "Decay of the mural painting from the Church Dormition of the Virgin, Humor Monastery, in Suceava", presented by the conservator Maria Dumbravicianu and completed by the research carried out by INOE (National Institute of Research and Development for Optoelectronics) on the 3D scanning of the monument, and "Technological and stylistic aspects of the paintings by Costin Petrescu in the Concert Hall of the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest", presented by the restorers Anca and Sergiu Petrescu. Well appreciated was the intervention of conservator Simona Patrascu for the exterior mural painting conservation from Coltea Church in Bucharest. Located in the centre of the capital, the church was subjected to extremely aggressive deterioration factors which drove in time to the decay and the disintegration of its mural paintings. In these circumstances, next to the problems raised by the paintings conservation, the aesthetical presentation was a big challenge for the restorers. An archaeological approach was chosen to the conservation of the support and lacunas, using coloured, texturised fillings, in order to valorise the 17th century painting fragments. There is, however, a discontentment regarding the dissonant aesthetic rapport between the conservator’s option for the presentation of the mural painting surface and the constructor’s solution for the final aspect of the towers. Yet, through such an aesthetical recovery, the church partially regained its original aspect. Another case worthy of interest due to the importance of the monument and for its unfortunate and sad finality is the restoration of the 16th century monument "Deer House", a case presented by the specialist conservator Dan Mohanu. The presentation, entitled "The Deer House from Sighisoara, from stratigraphic research to the complete reconstitution of the facades, a critical view", is focused on the research carried out by the restorers that brought to light plaster layers and historical limewashes, among which a Latin inscription and the unexpected representation of the two bodies of the deer united by the corner between the building’s facades. According to the author, the archaeological restitution of the facades aimed to preserve all the aged traces of this building. In the same spirit, that of authenticity, together with the fundamental principle of materials compatibility, the plaster and the limewash were to be applied and modelled according to the traditional technology. However, what resulted at the end of the collaboration between the beneficiary and the restorers is very far from the initial proposal. The ancient layers of plasters are no longer visible, the original image being replaced with that of a cold, famous house, empty of its history. From the actual deformed image, the only sign reminding that this is the "Deer House" is the deer representation on the corner of the facades.Moreover, this representation was also distorted by the abusive chromatic integration. Dan Codrescu, mural painting conservator, presented comparatively some few examples regarding the experience he accumulated on worksites in France and Italy. The final task of the restorer, in what concerns the work of art, and implicitly, the aesthetical approach must be permanently reported to the already stated principles. The problems risen by each work in particular, the diversity of the lacunas and the necessity of adaptation of the restoration principles at each particular case demonstrate that the conservator main task must be to respect the professional deontology. However, with all the intention to preserve the unaltered, authentic image, there are situations when the decision belongs only partially to the conservator, due to the pressure exerted by the beneficiary or sponsor. This aspect was pointed several times during the debates, as these situations are real and they threaten the heritage with the falsification of its identity. A complex intervention of mural painting conservation was recently finished by the conservator Elena Murariu. Here, specialists confronted problems due to the consistent accumulations and limewashes on the colour layer affected by salt crystallisations. Moreover, the presence of cement in the support, the plaster detachments, the difficulty raised by the colour reattachment and the aesthetical approach to the lacunas, prove once again the necessity of seeing the conservation intervention as a unitary action at all levels. Besides the conservation of the interior and exterior mural paintings, other works that requested the pluridisciplinary collaboration between specialists and a rigorous planning of the interventions were made. An important conservation project of a stone monument was presented by Benjamin Nagy concerning the intervention made on the exterior sculpted decoration of the Baroque portico of St. Peter Church in Cluj-Napoca. Here, environmental factors drove to the decay of the monument, mostly humidity and freezing-defreezing process. The monument presents, thus, multiple fissures and material detachments, the presence of vegetal colonial formations, incompatible additions with the nature of stone. Restorers’ intervention was focused on the preservation of the authenticity and integrity of the work, reducing firstly the risks involved by the intervention itself. As all the papers presented were equally interesting from different perspectives, it is impossible to discuss at large each one of them. However, we must highlight Claudiu Moldovan’s intervention at the Snagov Church Monastery in 2007 and that of Constantin Ritivoiu on the iconostasis from the St. Nicholas Church in Bucharest. Also, it should be reminded of the intervention made by the young conservator Maria Magdalena Drobota with Professor Oliviu Boldura, that was focused on the conservation of the fragments detached from the Princely church of Curtea de Arges. Interesting cases were also presented by Istvand Tuzes, about the recovery of the paintings from Apor manor from under the limewash layers and by Peter Pal and Lorand Kiss on the research for the identification of Transylvanian mural paintings. An appreciated research was that of the young professional Georgiana Zahariea together with Professor Oliviu Boldura. The research was focused on the properties of some materials used in the consolidation of mural paintings. The theoretical approach to some organic or mineral consolidant agents was based on laboratory tests and in situ situations. At "The beheading of St. John the Baptist" Church in Arbore, several emergency conservation campaigns took place over the years. The actual conservation project made possible to study in-depth all the aspects. Thus, it was observed that the product used 30 years ago for consolidation of the support - calcium caseinate - does not achieve its purpose due to the high contraction degree, with time, becoming a merely filling material with no adhesive properties. This product was largely employed by the conservators at that time, being the only consolidant agent that was available locally. However, at that time, calcium caseinate served to the imperious safeguarding of the monument.
Another research, this time focused on the identification of an artwork by the Romanian artist Petre Alexandrescu, was presented by the conservators Oana and Dumitru Gorea. The identification of the painting the "Descent from the Cross", from Antim Monastery in Bucharest, was only possible due to the restoration intervention which revealed the original image from under several overpaint layers. The work was completed by a resourceful research that established the origins of the painting, this being a replica after the famous work of Daniele da Volterra from the Trinita dei Monti church in Rome.
Another focus of the discussions was to point out faulty treatments applied in the conservation of some artworks. It was reminded about those interventions on wooden support that aim at the consolidation of the support and the treatment against insects infestation using wax or rosin. According to restorers Cornelia and Dinu Savescu, these methods induce different types of degradation at the support level which implicitly influence the painting layer, as in the case of the iconostasis from the Church of Stelea Targoviste Monastery. Gabriela Stefanita proved once more the great deal of damage that paintings suffer due to incorrect interventions, showing comparative archive images and photos of the present state of conservation from St. Spyridon Church in Subesti. Another aspect of this debate was the rather recent paintings, from the last century, which are not appreciated for their artistic value and thus, are threatened with the ablation or the repainting. As a conclusion to that already mentioned, it should be said that the initiative for this event, organised under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Cults, is laudable. This occasion gave specialists the opportunity of expressing their ideas in regard to the ideal and optimal conditions for a conservation process. At the same time, it was possible to learn from the particularities of each intervention and to follow the evolution of the works. Some very acute problems this unprivileged domain confronts with right now were brought into discussion. Those works that responded to the conservation principles were well appreciated, together with the observation spirit and the correct attitude of the restorer. Nevertheless, those attitudes of interpreting the professional exigencies were critically commented. It is striking, however, the absence from these debates of those persons with decisional role in heritage conservation, such as the beneficiaries, who could have learned some of the problems in this domain. This was one of the wishes of the Ministry of Culture and Cults, which tries to change the actual perception on the restoration interventions into an indispensable action which helps to the safeguarding of the memory of a nation.
Images from left to right: Conference poster; The event opening; Conservator Dan Codrescu presenting "An experience concerning the aesthetic approach – France and Italy"; Workshop audience.
Another aim of this event was to valorise the work of the young generation of conservators, that comes now with a large experience acquired during the university and completed by scholarships or courses in other countries. These people are often faced with complicated work situations, such as faulty execution technique, use of poor materials and incorrect monument keeping, yet their work is rarely made public. The Ministry tired this year to reward these extraordinary efforts, by according three prices for the worksites finished last year. Within the framework of the “Conference of the Specialists in the National Cultural Heritage Domain” from Sinaia, three important conservation works were rewarded: the restoration of the mural painting from the hospice of Bistrita Monastery in Valcea, the conservation of the mural paintings and decorations from the Fronius House in Sighisoara and the conservation works from the Concert Hall of the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest."
Review by Anca Dina, conservator-restorer, mural painting specialist. For collaboration, we thank Oana Gorea, conservator and initiator of the event from the Ministry of Culture and Cults of Romania. Text translated by e-conservationline.
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