Conservator-scientist (Romania)

Contact: bistudor@gmail.com

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

Born on November 14th, 1928 in Bucharest, Ioan Istudor graduated from the Faculty of Industrial Chemistry at the Polytechnic Institute in Bucharest in 1951, as student of professor C. D. Nenitescu. He has been continuously working in the conservation field since 1962 as scientist. From 1975 to 2002 he taught applied chemistry in the Conservation-Restoration, Museology and Monumental Art departments of the National Art University in Bucharest. Since 1996 he is working for the private conservation company Cerecs Art S.R.L., for which he provides consultancy and performs scientific research. During almost half-century of continuous research, he performed analyses for more than 300 sites, including the most representative Romanian monuments, and established the main research laboratories for conservation in Romania: in 1962 - the first national conservation laboratory of the Direction of Historic Monuments; in 1963 the laboratory of the National Art Museum of Romania and in 1983 the laboratory of the National Art University in Bucharest.From 1978 to 1990 he was a member of the National Committee for the Conservation of Mural Paintings in Romania.
He was certified as Expert by the Romanian Ministry of Culture in the research of the following conservation domains: architecture, stone, sculpture, wood, mural and panel painting.He was repetitively awarded (1987, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007) with several Excellency and Merit Diplomas for his entire professional activity and he was attributed the National Order, Knight Rank for his merits. Since 1990 he is a member in the committees for the Conservation of Artistic Components and Historic Monu- ments, Minister of Culture and an honorific member of the Association of Religious Painters from the Romanian Patriarchy. He is a prolific author, having published a large number of papers in various national and international reference publications since 1963. He was a consultant for the translation into Romanian of several reference books, such as the Romanian edition of “The Conservation of Mural Paintings” by Paolo and Laura Mora in 1986. In 2006 he published a treaty of his academic experience over the years in a book entitled “Noţiuni de Chimia Picturii” (Notions on the Chemistry of Paintings) (Romanian edition).He was also granted for the patent of his discoveries: “The procedure of obtaining a transparent calcium casein dispersion”,“Solutions for extracting and transferring mural paintings by strappo” and “A candle that doesn’t produce smoke for use in
churches”.

Papers:

Interview with Ioan Istudor
A Lifetime Dedicated to Conservation Science

[Interview in Issue 1, October 2007]

An Alteration Phenomenon of Cinnabar Red Pigment in the Mural Paintings from Sucevita
[Article in Issue 2, December 2007]

The Church of Voronet Monastery

Technical Considerations of the Mural Paintings 

[Article in Issue 7, October 2008]