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E-conservation magazine from June 2009 (10th issue) published an article regarding the endangered rural heritage from Romania encompassing the South and North areas of the Carpathian Mountains chain. In that paper Ovidiu Danes described the delicate situation of the wooden churches as being “Ignored by the village communities and deemed as minor patrimony by the governmental authorities, just a few wooden churches were preserved in their intact initial condition in terms of architecture, paintings, icon collections, furniture, ceremonial objects, etc. But they have actually vanished from our own awareness.” The project which was described at that time has already had two years of field and archive researches done by dedicated art historians Luiza Zamora and Ovidiu Danes and photographers who struggled to identify and record the wooden churches from the mentioned areas. During those years they were basically rediscovering many of those monuments, which were never systematically studied except during a partial inventory from 1960. Throughout those field researches a vast documentation has been gathered and used in a series of exhibitions and seminars willing to draw the attention of local communities and administrative officials in charge of the national heritage preservation to this grave issue in order to proceed with their emergency conservation. But the only result was a volunteering campaign organized by Dala Foundation and The Architects' Chamber of Romania (OAR) presided at that time by Serban Sturdza, with students from the Universities of Architecture from Timisoara and Bucharest. During the 2010 summer 30 churches were documented from the architectural point of view, being mapped with notes regarding the conservation evaluation. One of them without mural paintings, almost in ruin, was moved to a monastery ensemble. An itinerant exhibition was organized by Dala Foundation and OAR and seminars accompanied it. Again the responsible authorities were not too much moved or interested in this action, nor in its continuation. This introduction was necessary for the readers to better understand the context of an irreparable event that has occurred meanwhile – the partial collapse of Ursi Church from Romania, Valcea county, on June 13, 2010. One of the most valuable from this group of rural monuments, an example of fine craftsmanship of both the wooden architecture and mural decorations done in al fresco technique, which survived almost 300 years due to its high technical qualities and not the maintenance it deserved, became this summer almost a ruin. This is the reason for the publication of the present article, which is an updated version of the paper “Degradations and conservation strategies for an XVIII century wooden church from Oltenia County, Romania” by Gheorghe Niculescu1 , Oana Chachula1 and Anca Nicolaescu, presented at the 41st Annual Meeting of the International Research Group on Wood Protection (IRG), COST focus meeting, in May 2010 at Biarritz, France. The article was written after a research campaign, which took place in November 2009 involving an interdisciplinary team of conservators, physicists and biologists from different Romanians Institutes like the National Research Institute for Conservation and Restoration and the National Institute of Research and Development for Optoelectronics (INOE). The team made an effort to go in situ in November in order to set up as fast as possible an emergency strategy trying to rush all the procedures for an actual intervention which could have at least protected the church until the beginning of further complex conservation treatments. The research also encompassed, beside the conservation assessment of the wall paintings, the analysis of the component materials and a thorough biological attack assessment. All those efforts, done during an unwelcoming weather and without any financial support, were again, in vane. The bureaucratic difficulties, the lack of interest and therefore of founding, lead to postpones of the emergency intervention having as result the partially church collapse. The article was written after a research campaign, which took place in November 2009 involving an interdisciplinary team of conservators, physicists and biologists from different Romanians Institutes like the National Research Institute for Conservation and Restoration and the National Institute of Research and Development for Optoelectronics (INOE). The team made an effort to go in situ in November in order to set up as fast as possible an emergency strategy trying to rush all the procedures for an actual intervention which could have at least protected the church until the beginning of further complex conservation treatments. The research also encompassed, beside the conservation assessment of the wall paintings, the analysis of the component materials and a thorough biological attack assessment. All those efforts, done during an unwelcoming weather and without any financial support, were again, in vane. The bureaucratic difficulties, the lack of interest and therefore of founding, lead to postpones of the emergency intervention having as result the partially church collapse. Therefore we are dedicating a few pages in e-conservation magazine to this sad example of deserted rural heritage, which unfortunately, despite its value, has been left out of any conservation policy by the local or national authorities. Unfortunately this is not an isolated example, the destruction of the rural heritage occurring constantly and increasingly every year. From left to right:
Figure 1. General view of Ursi Church.
Figures 2 and 3. Pictures taken by the Arch. Stefan Balici after the collapse of church's ceiling, June 13, 2010.
Figure 4. Altar before the collapse of the ceiling. Photo by Ovidiu Danes.
Historical background The church from Ursi village, Popesti, Valcea district (figure 1), was built in the year 1775, following the model of timber houses. The church has a simple rectangular plane, with apses on three sides, and is divided into altar, narthex, exonarthex and open porch, in accordance with Eastern Christian tradition. The simple and low volume of the church was protected by the large eaves of the shingle covered roof. The construction system is a traditional one, the monument being erected on a wooden base by arranging oak logs joint together in spigot at the ends. The exonarthex and narthex interiors are semicircular vaulted, while the altar has a quarter of calotte vault. Mural painting The church has been adorned, inside and outside, with al fresco paintings of a rare artistic and iconographic value, finding here some rarely represented themes like Protecting Veil of the Mother of God (The Mother of God with Angels Wings), painted on the west gable of the exonarthex. This iconographic scene is found in the neighbouring area only at Govora Monastery, monument of traditional Brâncovenesc style. Following the specificity of XVIII century paintings, the painting of Ursi church has a deeply human character, with picturesque scenes included in the biblical ones (soldiers, peasants working the field, chancellors wearing epoch costumes). The inside of the vault level has been painted in a secco technique directly onto the wood, without any preparation layer, the fresco being only applied on the walls as far as the beam level. Taking into account the severe deterioration state of the whole monument, the preservation of fragments of original painting indicate a very good knowledge of the fresco technique by the artist. The high professional grade of the master painter is evident especially in adjusting the fresco technique to a wooden support. The arricio layer, meant for levelling the wall, was eliminated, and the intonaco layer is very thin, about 5mm, sometimes only 3 mm. The same support layer, made of lime and tows, is observed in the logs joints, which sometimes reaches 1 cm thickness. The thinly applied intonaco layer could result in a deficient pictorial layer (powdery, without coherence), but in this case, despite the precarious state of conservation of the mural ensemble, the still existing pictorial layer is in an unexpectedly good condition. The detachments of the colour layer, especially scales like ones, are visible mainly in the areas affected by deformations or/and displacements of the wooden support, so these are due to mechanical causes and not to a technical deficiency. Another very important technical detail, as in time it became a degradation factor, is the wooden beam incision in order to improve the pictorial layer adherence to the wooden support. By a thorough inspection of the pictorial surface it was noticed that these incisions (initially just cuttings of wood fibres) grew in volume, expanding under the action of humidity, penetrating in the support layer detachments. So, by successive volume variations, the free wood fibres built an internal pressure, eventually resulting in local detachments or even expelling of fresco fragments. From left to right:
Figure 5. Detail of a mural fragment inside of the log joints.
Figure 6 and 7. Example of flaking occurred in the areas of the wooden support affected by mechanical degradation.
Figure 8. Wooden beam incisions done on the whole surface to improve the adherence of the plaster to the wooden support.
Degradation causes
The main cause of deterioration of the church has been the improper maintenance in time. In 1850 great earthquake damage has been reported. The year 1913 marks the beginning of its gradual neglect, due to the building of a new masonry church. This is the moment of the wooden church abandon, which will be used only occasionally, as cemetery church for burials or offices for the dead. Repeated cycles of rainwater infiltrations, due to successive and unsolved deteriorations of the roof, led to cyclic deformations of the wooden support (expansion and contraction of the wood). The accumulation of infiltration humidity, combined, in the lower part, with capillarity one (the church lacks a drainage system and the vegetation grows in the vicinity of the walls), favoured and maintained the biological attack. The wooden structure has been attacked and deteriorated, losing its resistance and severely affecting both the church structure (see figure 9, the church volume is twisted, the west façade is tilted to the south and the east one to the north) and, inevitably, the painted decoration. The first detachments of the fresco layer presumably took place at the level of logs joints, gradually leading to a total loss of the paint on a 4 cm surface on the joints trajectory, expanding on larger areas in certain badly affected parts. This accumulation of humidity led to the biological attack. The bacteria and fungi developed on the pictorial layer, together with the other deterioration agents, played in time an important role in the destruction of the mural painting on a significant area. At this moment the attack is inactive, resulting just in some colour and structural changes on the painted surfaces. We took biological samples and identified species known as biodegradation agents of the fresco, as: Aspergillus flavus, Mucor sp., species of Penicillium and Alternaria alternata. Conservation state and strategy of preservation intervention The degradation causes had an interdependent evolution, starting with the lack of a minimal constant maintenance of the church, which resulted in immediate mechanical degradation – the roof gradually deteriorated making way to infiltrations in the upper part, combined, with capillarity in the lower part, also due to negligence and allowing vegetation and earth deposits to accumulate at the base level. Thus, physical and chemical degradations appeared in the wood structure as a consequence of humidity. Eventually, the rise of humidity level in the whole church and in their constitutive elements (wood) led to a biologic attack. The wood weakening, more and more severe structural deficiencies were the natural result of the conditions in which the monument existed for some decades. The painting degradation appeared gradually also, especially at the ground level. From simple fissures and cracks to lacunas and detachments, some of them very large and severe, in form of sloping roof or swelling, displacement or slipping of the support layer, maceration and fragmentation on large areas. Biological attack also affected the mural painting due to the high level of humidity maintained over long periods of time inside the church as a consequence of pluvial waters penetrating through the destroyed roof. The selection of the preservation intervention had to take into consideration this chain of events and their negative effects in order to be efficient in time. Until now a thorough research or specific interventions to remediate the existent deteriorations had not been carried out, with the exception of some local interventions on the roof level (the last replacement of the shingle was done in 1943), followed by the covering with tar paper (also deteriorated since). Some interventions were done by supporting the rafters’ ends with inclined poles in order to transmit the efforts from the roof directly to the ground, avoiding the stress on the walls, already badly damaged, which could led to the collapse of all building. From left to right:
Figure 9. Eastern facade tilted to north.
Figure 10. Damages caused by water infiltrations on the iconostasis.
Figure 11. Massive losses of the painted surface on the level of log joints.
Figure 12. Detail of the rotted wood. Figures 13-15. Damages of the murals at the support level caused by structural deficiencies of the architecture. Figure 16. Image with the church supported by inclined poles. Experimental Methods Physical analysis The pigments and support layer composition were determined by X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (XRF), on a portable apparatus Innov-X Alpha Series, with a wolfram anode X-rays tube, working at 40 kV and 100 mA. The detector is a Si-PIN detector, cooled by Peltier effect. Seven samples were taken from different locations (outside – northern wall N, eastern wall E, exonarthex V and exonarthex ceiling) aiming to cover all the pigments used in the wall painting execution.By X-ray fluorescence analysis the characteristic pigments for fresco (green earth, ochre) were determined, as well as some pigments from an earlier intervention (Titan white, chromium green) (figures 17 and 18). The blue hue was obtained by mixing carbon black with lime white, a technique usually used in fresco painting. Also, the migration of soluble salts as CaSO4.2H2O was revealed. Biological analysis The samples from the paint layer have been seeded in aseptic conditions on culture media: Sabouraud medium for moulds. The incubation has been performed for a time period of 7 to 14 days at 28˚C.The identification of fungus was performed by a stereomicroscope Nikon SMZ1000, a microscope Nikon Eclipse LV100 and reagents (cotton blue, ethanol, KOH). Wood decay fungi (Huckfeldt and Schimdt 2006) and microfungi (Tanase 2002) were identified. Concerning the wood biodegradation the situation is as it follows. The roof, as well as the other resistance structural elements (rafters, logs) are affected in a proportion of 80% by the attack of the Basidiomycete species like: Coniophora puteana, Fibroporia vaillantii, Hyphodontia breviseta and Serpula lacrymans. In some places the resistance logs are completely destroyed, even collapsed. The iconostasis and the altar doors, made of fir wood, are also affected by the xylophage attack, inactive at this moment. One can see big flight holes, 4 to 5 on square centimeter. At the same time the base and the floor are completely affected, with some parts even lacking (figure 19). Except for the oak structures, all the wood is attacked by xylophagous insects. From left to right: Figure 17. Vault decayed by the Macromycetes.
Figure 18. XRF spectrum of the green sample – Ursi church – outside, east wall.
Figures
20-23. Decay of the massive timber floor and different areas of the
paint layer affected by biological agents and Micromycetes identified in
laboratory out of the drawn samples.
Figure 19. XRF spectrum of the green sample – Ursi church – inside, pronartex west wall. Recommendation for an emergency intervention on the mural painting Architectural solutions for the stabilization of the severe structural damages should be chosen so as to avoid risky operations for the existing pictorial layer, such as detachment and remounting. Beside the usual operations in cases of prophylactic preservation of the pictorial layer, the plan for the architectural rehabilitation should give a special attention to the materials used in the consolidation of the support layer. This is necessary due to the fact that it is not advisable to use the same consolidation materials as those employed for a mural painting on masonry. The conservation state of the wooden support already damaged by biological attack is conditioning the selection or preparation of the materials in this situation. Thus, some criteria were established regarding the injection material for the situation of Ursi church, such as: - the use of a minimum amount of water; its uncontrolled use could lead to new deterioration of the wooden support or could worsen the existent problems; - the fluidity; a condition difficult to reconcile with the above mentioned one, but necessary, as the intonacco layer is very thin and , in most areas, could not allow the total penetration of a consolidation material with a too high content of aggregate; - quick setting, taking into account the poor mechanical resistance of the support layer damaged by the humidity. Ursi Church has survived as much as it possibly could. It has enjoyed when it was brought to the attention of art historians by a traveler photographer and heritage lover, who has captured its beautiful frescoes -- not only the interior, but also the exterior ones, which had survived not because they were well cared for by those whom it served for so long, but only because they were well done. Now it seems that only nature is still close to it and tries to recover it as long as no one else is interested in what it once represented. Grass is slowly covering its socle and birds store their winter supplies between its beams. A very sad image, but apparently, very much alive, awaiting for some solution. Acknowledgments Project participants involved in the saving of Ursi Church: • Luiza Zamora, Art Historian • Ovidiu Danes, Art Historian, president of Dala Foundation • Arh. Serban Sturdza, president of The Architects' Chamber of Romania at that time • Serban Bonciocat, Mihaele Dumitru Tranca and Sorin Onisor photographers • Caroline D’Assay, president ProPatrimonio, France • Oana Chachula, Biologist, and Gheorghe Niculescu, physicist, director of the National Research Insitute for Conservation and Restoration • Roxana Radvan National Institute of Research and Development for Optoelectronics (INOE) • Simona Patrascu, Mural Paintings Conservator • Prof. Gabriel Panasiu and volunteer students, 5th year, University of Architecture, Bucharest - Costin Octavian, Manafu Marius, Oprisan Silviu, and Smanatana Sergiu, among others. Notes 1 Researchers at the National Research Institute for Conservation and Restoration, Calea Victoriei 12, Bucharest, Romania
Anca Nicolaescu
Conservator-restorer
Contact: anca.nicolaescu@e-conservationline.com Anca Nicolaescu (BA, MA) is a conservator of wall paintings, having coordinated various on-site conservation projects from Romania. Her work experience also includes international participa-tion at conservation projects and seminars in UK, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Japan and India. She is one of the co-founders of Restauro Art Grup conser-vation company and of e-conservation magazine, where she presently works as an editor.
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