Conservation of Easel Paintings

916 Pages·2012·14.663 MB·English

by  Joyce Hill Stoner, Rebecca Rushfield

CONSERVATION OF EASEL PAINTINGS
Conservation of Easel Paintings is the first comprehensive text on the history, philosophy, and methods of
treatment of easel paintings that combines theory with practice.
With contributions from an international group of experts and interviews with important artists, this
volume provides an all-encompassing guide to necessary background knowledge in technical art his-
tory, artists’ materials, scientific methods of examination and documentation, with sections that present
varying approaches and methods for treatment, including consolidation, lining, cleaning, retouching,
and varnishing. The book concludes with a section featuring issues of preventive conservation, storage,
shipping, exhibition, lighting, safety issues, and public outreach.
Conservation of Easel Paintings is a crucial resource in the training of conservation students and will
provide generations of practising paintings conservators and interested art historians, curators, directors,
collectors, dealers, artists, and students of art and art history with invaluable information and guidance.
Joyce Hill Stoner is the Edward F. and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor of Material Culture
at the University of Delaware. She has taught painting conservation for the Winterthur-UD graduate
programme since 1976 and also heads the doctoral programme in Preservation Studies. She has written
more than 80 publications and has won awards for scholarship and teaching from the AIC, CAA, and
Heritage Preservation.
Rebecca Rushfield, a graduate of the NYU Conservation Center, is a New York City-based conser-
vation consultant with a particular interest in the history and literature of the field. She is active in the
work of the American Institute for Conservation and the ICOM Committee for Conservation, and was
a recipient of the Rutherford J. Gettens Award for outstanding service to the AIC.
Routledge Series in Conservation and Museology
Series Editor:
Andrew Oddy
British Museum, London
Consultants:
Sir Bernard Feilden
Director Emeritus, ICCROM
Page Ayres Cowley
Conservation Architect, New York
David Bomford
Acting Director of the Getty Museum 2010–2012
John Fidler
English Heritage, London
C.V. Horie
Manchester Museum, University of Manchester
Sarah Staniforth
National Trust, London
Jeanne Marie Teutonico
The Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles
David Saunders
British Museum, London
Also in the series:
Architectural Tiles: Conservation and Restoration (Durbin)
Chemical Principles of Textile Conservation (Timár-Balázsy, Eastop)
Conservation and Restoration of Ceramics (Buys, Oakley)
Conservation of Building and Decorative Stone (Ashurst, Dime)
Conservation of Furniture (Rivers, Umney)
Conservation of Historic Buildings (Feilden)
Conservation of Leather and Related Materials (Kite, Thomson)
A History of Architectural Conservation (Jokilehto)
The History of Gauged Brickwork (Lynch)
Lacquer: Technology and Conservation (Webb)
The Museum Environment, 2nd edition (Thomson)
Radiography of Cultural Materials, 2nd edition (Lang, Middleton)
Tapestry Conservation: Principles and Practice (Lennard, Hayward)
The Textile Conservator’s Manual, 2nd edition (Landi)
Upholstery Conservation: Principles and Practice (Gill, Eastop)
Related titles:
Contemporary Theory of Conservation (Muñoz-Vinas)
Digital Collections (Keene)
Digital Heritage: Applying Digital Imaging to Cultural Heritage (MacDonald)
Fragments of the World: Uses of Museum Collections (Keene)
Historic Floors (Fawcett)
Managing Conservation in Museums (Keene)
Materials for Conservation (Horie)
The National Trust Manual of Housekeeping
Natural Materials: Sources, Properties and Uses (DeMouthe)
Organic Chemistry of Museum Objects (Mills, White)
Pigment Compendium: Dictionary (Eastaugh, Walsh, Siddall, Chaplin)
Pigment Compendium: Optical Microscopy (Eastaugh, Walsh, Siddall, Chaplin)
Pigment Compendium CD (Eastaugh, Walsh, Siddall, Chaplin)
Restoration of Motion Picture Film (Read, Meyer)
Risk Assessment for Object Conservation (Ashley-Smith)
Structural Aspects of Building Conservation (Beckham, Bowles)
THE CONSERVATION OF
EASEL PAINTINGS
Edited by
Joyce Hill Stoner and Rebecca Rushfield
First published 2012
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2012 Joyce Hill Stoner and Rebecca Rushfield for selection and editorial matter;
individual contributions, the contributors.
The right of Joyce Hill Stoner and Rebecca Rushfield to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978–0–7506–8199–5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978–0–08–094169–1 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon
CONTENTS
List of Figures xiii
List of Tables xxv
Contributors xxvii
Acknowledgements xxxv
Foreword xxxvii
David Bomford
PART I
TECHNICAL ART HISTORY, EXAMINATION, DOCUMENTATION,
AND SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS 1
CHAPTER 1 ART TECHNOLOGICAL SOURCE RESEARCH: DOCUMENTARY
SOURCES ON EUROPEAN PAINTING TO THE TWENTIETH
CENTURY, WITH APPENDICES I–VII 3
Jilleen Nadolny, Mark Clarke, Erma Hermens, Ann Massing,
and Leslie Carlyle
CHAPTER 2 EXPLORING THE GRAMMAR OF OIL PAINT THROUGH THE
USE OF HISTORICALLY ACCURATE RECONSTRUCTIONS 33
Leslie Carlyle
CHAPTER 3 COLLECTING AND ARCHIVING INFORMATION FROM
LIVING ARTISTS FOR THE CONSERVATION OF
CONTEMPORARY ART 39
Ysbrand Hummelen and Tatja Scholte, with an appendix of
additional archival sources
viii CONTENTS
A HISTORY OF WESTERN EASEL PAINTING MATERIALS FROM THE EARLY
RENAISSANCE THROUGH THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 49
CHAPTER 4 HISTORY AND USE OF PANELS OR OTHER RIGID SUPPORTS
FOR EASEL PAINTINGS 51
Edited by Jørgen Wadum and Noëlle Streeton
CHAPTER 5 HISTORY OF FABRIC SUPPORTS 116
Christina Young with a section on canvas stencils
by Alexander W. Katlan
CHAPTER 6 STRETCHERS, TENSIONING, AND ATTACHMENTS 148
Barbara A. Buckley
CHAPTER 7 GROUNDS, 1400–1900 161
Maartje Stols-Witlox
Including: TWENTIETH-CENTURY GROUNDS
Bronwyn Ormsby and Mark Gottsegen
CHAPTER 8 PIGMENTS IN WESTERN EASEL PAINTING 189
Nicholas Eastaugh, Jilleen Nadolny, and Sarah Lowengard
Including: BINDING MEDIA
Erma Hermens and Joyce Townsend
CHAPTER 9 AGEING AND DETERIORATION OF TRADITIONAL
OIL AND TEMPERA PAINTS 214
Annelies van Loon, Petria Noble, and Aviva Burnstock
CHAPTER 10 MODERN PAINTS 242
Tom Learner

CHAPTER 11 A BRIEF SURVEY OF HISTORICAL VARNISHES 252
Alan Phenix and Joyce Townsend
CHAPTER 12 VARNISHING OF ACRYLIC PAINTINGS BY ARTISTS 264
Mark Golden
TECHNIQUES OF EXAMINATION AND DOCUMENTATION USED
BY THE CONSERVATOR AND CONSERVATION SCIENTIST 269
CHAPTER 13 WRITTEN DOCUMENTATION FOR PAINTINGS
CONSERVATION 271
Clare Finn
CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER 14 IMAGE DOCUMENTATION FOR PAINTINGS
CONSERVATION 277
David Saunders
CHAPTER 15 NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF CONSERVATION
DOCUMENTATION: EXAMPLES FROM THE UK AND USA 281
Morwenna Blewett
CHAPTER 16 THE CLASSIFICATION OF CRAQUELURE PATTERNS 285
Spike Bucklow
CHAPTER 17 THE TECHNICAL EXAMINATION AND DOCUMENTATION
OF EASEL PAINTINGS 291
Rhona MacBeth
CHAPTER 18 OPTICAL MICROSCOPY 306
Nicholas Eastaugh and Valentine Walsh
CHAPTER 19 IDENTIFICATION OF TEXTILE FIBRES FOUND IN COMMON PAINTING
SUPPORTS 318
Debora D. Mayer
CHAPTER 20 CROSS-SECTION MICROSCOPY ANALYSIS AND
FLUORESCENT STAINING 326
Richard C. Wolbers, Susan L. Buck, and Peggy Olley
CHAPTER 21 A HISTORY OF EARLY SCIENTIFIC EXAMINATION AND
ANALYSIS OF PAINTING MATERIALS CA. 1780 TO THE
MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY 336
Jilleen Nadolny
CHAPTER 22 RESEARCH AND INSTRUMENTAL ANALYSIS IN THE
MATERIALS OF EASEL PAINTINGS 341
Joyce Townsend and Jaap Boon
PART II
METHODS AND APPROACHES FOR THE TREATMENT AND
CARE OF EASEL PAINTINGS 367
STRUCTURAL CONSERVATION OF EASEL PAINTINGS
CHAPTER 23 CONSOLIDATION OF FLAKING PAINT AND GROUND 369
Michael von der Goltz, Ina Birkenbeul, Isabel Horovitz,
Morwenna Blewett, and Irina Dolgikh
x CONTENTS
CHAPTER 24 TEAR MENDING AND OTHER STRUCTURAL TREATMENTS
OF CANVAS PAINTINGS, BEFORE OR INSTEAD
OF LINING 384
Winfried Heiber, Carolyn Tomkiewicz, Mikkel Scharff,
and Rustin Levenson
CHAPTER 25 LINING EASEL PAINTINGS 415
Stephen Hackney, Joan Reifsnyder, Mireille te Marvelde,
and Mikkel Scharff
CHAPTER 26 THE STRUCTURAL CONSERVATION OF PAINTINGS ON
WOODEN PANEL SUPPORTS 453
Paul Ackroyd
THE CLEANING OF EASEL PAINTINGS 479
CHAPTER 27 PICTURE CLEANING: POSITIVISM AND METAPHYSICS 481
David Bomford
CHAPTER 28 RESEARCH ON THE PETTENKOFER METHOD AND THE
HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDING OF PAINT FILM SWELLING
AND INTERACTION 492
Sibylle Schmitt
CHAPTER 29 CONSIDERATIONS ON REMOVING OR RETAINING
OVERPAINTED ADDITIONS AND ALTERATIONS 497
Michael von der Goltz and Joyce Hill Stoner
CHAPTER 30 AQUEOUS METHODS FOR THE CLEANING OF PAINTINGS 500
Richard Wolbers and Christopher Stavroudis
CHAPTER 31 REMOVAL OF VARNISH: ORGANIC SOLVENTS AS CLEANING
AGENTS 524
Alan Phenix and Richard Wolbers
CHAPTER 32 CASE STUDY IN THE USE OF LASERS TO REMOVE OVERPAINT
FROM AD REINHARDT’S BLACK PAINTING, 1960–66 555
Carol Stringari
CHAPTER 33 CLEANING CONCERNS FOR ACRYLIC EMULSION PAINTS 564
Tom Learner and Bronwyn Ormsby
COMPENSATION: FILLING, RETOUCHING/INPAINTING,
VARNISHING (OR NOT) 571