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Among its main objectives, the seminar aimed to divulge and discuss theories, methodologies and treatments of conservation-restoration as well to discuss the role of the professional in the study and protection of Cultural Heritage. The seminar was open to the general public and to other professionals of the field. Attendance was free for members only. During this 2 days seminar 15 presentations were given, organised in 4 sessions with 8 different specialties. The moderators - Isabel Raposo de Magalhães, vice-director of the Institute of Museums and Conservation (IMC), Maria Vlachou, from ICOM-Portugal, and João Coroado, director of the Department of Art, Conservation and Restoration of the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar - conducted the sessions and moderated the final discussions on the presentations. This type of meeting is the perfect opportunity to share knowledge and experience that other way would not be possible. Conservator-restorers do not have very often such occasion to interact with other professionals and the seminar allowed them not only to follow what projects are being developed in Portugal but also offered participants a demonstration of new materials, new techniques and, even more important, new imaginative solutions to old problems.
In the same area, Vasco Antunes and Sónia Casquiço, both conservator-restorers in private practice, introduced their work project on the treatment of 16 albums from the Art Library of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. After the initial diagnostic procedure, the authors established a workflow that included the disassembly of the works, cleaning, consolidation, planification, digitalisation, protection and assembly. Some examples of the most significant phases were given. Personally, I found very interesting the conception and the construction of the custom-made archival cases that will allow the correct protection of the documents while in storage at the Library. An impressive intervention was the one presented by Catarina Alarcão, conservator-restorer at the National Museum Machado de Castro in Coimbra. The object of this intervention is the “Lord's Supper”, a set of 13 life size clay sculptures that were made by the sculptor Philippe Hodart in 1530-1534 for the Refectory of the Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra. During time, the sculptures suffered severe degradation due to the human factor, especially in the 19th century, resulting in their mutilation and the separation in pieces. In 1997, they were detached in hundreds of small and unordered fragments. The intervention of conservation-restoration started in 2002 and has been since then a continuous work for the team. Beyond the initial study, the work included the removal of wood supports, cement, gypsum and fibbers from the sculptures. On a personal note, I was impressed with the complex interior metal structure, almost like a true skeleton, made by the conservators in order to provide the necessary structural integrity to each of the sculptures. The work is still on progress.
Carlos Costa, conservator-restorer in private practice, introduced the audience to the intervention he performed on Mudéjar ceilings. The Mudéjar art is the art made by Muslims that stayed in the Iberian Peninsula after the Reconquista, flourished between the 12th and 16th centuries. Mudéjar art has little representation in Portugal, unlike Spain, justifying the importance of this intervention. This ceiling is constituted by a series of panels made in the late 15th century and was originally part of the Romanesque Old Cathedral of Coimbra (Sé Velha) but was removed in 1911. The panels are now part of the National Museum Machado de Castro where they were adapted to the new building. Inserted in a museum context, the author discussed his intervention approach as well as “ethical issues and modus operandi” due to the required adaptation.
One of my favourite presentations for its simplicity but high interest was given by Luís Figueira, conservator-restorer in private practice. The subject of his presentation was the construction of wooden stretchers for paintings, a subject not often discussed in conferences. In regular paintings, which are normally square or rectangular, the canvas tension is easily controlled by the stretcher. However, when the painting has an irregular shape, the tension is much more difficult to control through the stretcher. In this case, a custom-made dynamic frame has to be built to substitute the original, usually static. The presentation summarised the last 10 years of experience with a carpenter specialised in the construction of stretchers, giving plenty of examples of their careful preparation for paintings. These were just some examples from among many other interesting presentations given during this seminar. For those interested to read the papers, e-conservation magazine will publish the post-prints in a special section of the next editions. ▲TOP
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