History of Architectural Conservation

369 Pages·2002·16.14 MB·english

by  Jukka Jokilehto

A History of Architectural Conservation
Butterworth-Heinemann Series in Conservation and Museology
Series Editors: Arts and Archaeology
Andrew Oddy
British Museum, London
Architecture
Derek Linstrum
Formerly Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, University of York
US Executive Editor: Norbert S. Baer
New York University, Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts
Consultants: Sir Bernard Feilden
David Bomford
National Gallery, London
C.V. Horie
Manchester Museum, University of Manchester
Colin Pearson
Canberra College of Advanced Education
Sarah Staniforth
National Trust, London
Published titles: Artists’ Pigments c.1600–1835, 2nd Edition (Harley)
Care and Conservation of Geological Material (Howie)
Care and Conservation of Palaeontological Material (Collins)
Chemical Principles of Textile Conservation (Tímár-Balázsy, Eastop)
Conservation and Exhibitions (Stolow)
Conservation and Restoration of Ceramics (Buys, Oakley)
Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art and Antiquities (Kühn)
Conservation of Building and Decorative Stone, combined paperback
edition (Ashurst, Dimes)
Conservation of Glass (Newton, Davison)
Conservation of Historic Buildings (Feilden)
Conservation of Library and Archive Materials and the Graphic Arts
(Petherbridge)
Conservation of Manuscripts and Painting of South-east Asia (Agrawal)
Conservation of Marine Archaeological Objects (Pearson)
Conservation of Wall Paintings (Mora, Mora, Philippot)
Historic Floors: Their History and Conservation (Fawcett)
The Museum Environment, 2nd Edition (Thomson)
The Organic Chemistry of Museum Objects, 2nd Edition (Mills, White)
Radiography of Cultural Material (Lang, Middleton)
The Textile Conservator’s Manual, 2nd Edition (Landi)
Related titles: Digital Collections (Keene)
Laser Cleaning in Conservation (Cooper)
Lighting Historic Buildings (Phillips)
Manual of Curatorship, 2nd edition (Thompson)
Manual of Heritage Management (Harrison)
Materials for Conservation (Horie)
Metal Plating and Patination (Niece, Craddock)
Museum Documentation Systems (Light)
Touring Exhibitions (Sixsmith)
A History of Architectural
Conservation
Jukka Jokilehto
OXFORD AUCKLAND BOSTON JOHANNESBURG MELBOURNE NEW DELHI
Butterworth-Heinemann
Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP
225 Wildwood Avenue, Woburn, MA 01801-2041
A division of Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Ltd
A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group
First published 1999
Reprinted 2001, 2002
© Jukka Jokilehto 1999
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced in any material form (including photocopying
or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether
or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of
this publication) without the written permission of the
copyright holder except in accordance with the provisions
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under
the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing
Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, England W1P 9HE.
Applications for the copyright holder’s written permission
to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed
to the publishers
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 07506 5511 9
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Composition by Scribe Design, Gillingham, Kent
Printed and bound in Great Britain by LIBERfabrica
Contents
Foreword by Paul Philippot viii 4 Classical monuments 69
Series Editors’ Preface xi 4.1 The French Revolution 69
4.2 Restoration of classical
Acknowledgements xii
antiquities in Rome 75
4.3 Influence on the restoration of
1 From traditional to modern society 1
antiquities in France 87
1.1 Past approaches to historic 4.4 Anastylosis of classical
structures 1 monuments in Greece 89
1.2 Traditional society 6
1.3 Early concepts on history and 5 The age of Romanticism 101
heritage 8
5.1 Gothic revival and remodelling
1.4 Rediscovery of antiquity 13
of cathedrals in England 101
1.5 Modern historical consciousness 16
5.2 Antiquarian debate about
restoration principles 106
2 Rediscovery of antiquities 21
5.3 Gothic Revival restorations in
2.1 Collections and restoration of England 109
antiquities 22 5.4 Romanticism and mediaeval
2.2 Renaissance architectural treatises 26 revival in Germanic countries 112
2.3 Early practice and protection 5.5 State care of monuments in
in Rome 29 Prussia 114
2.4 Raphael and the protection of 5.6 Beginning of state administration
monuments 32 of historic monuments in France 127
2.5 Treatment of monuments after
the Sack of Rome 34 6 Stylistic restoration 137
2.6 Reformation and
6.1 Restoration principles and
Counter-Reformation 40
practice in France 137
2.7 Influences in Europe 41
6.2 The conception of ‘stylistic
restoration’ 149
3 The Age of Enlightenment 47
6.3 Conservation vs. restoration in
3.1 Impact of the Grand Tours 48 England 156
3.2 Early concepts in painting 6.4 Austrian protection and
restoration 53 restoration 163
3.3 Archaeological discoveries 6.5 Stylistic restoration in Italy 165
and restorations 56
3.4 Winckelmann and the
restoration of antiquities 59
vi Contents
7 Conservation 174 8.5 Cesare Brandi’s theory of
restoration 228
7.1 John Ruskin’s conservation
8.6 The impact of Brandi’s thinking 237
principles 174
7.2 Development of conservation
9 International influences and
policies in England 181
collaboration 245
7.3 William Morris and SPAB 184
7.4 Archaeological sites 187 9.1 Influences in other countries 245
7.5 The conservation movement in 9.2 International collaboration 281
Central Europe 191
7.6 The conservation movement 10 Definitions and trends 295
in Italy 198
10.1 Modern aspects of heritage
and conservation 295
8 Theories and concepts 213
10.2 Influences on treatments 301
8.1 Alois Riegl and the 10.3 Trends in practice 304
Denkmalkultus 215 10.4 Closing comments 315
8.2 Development of Austrian
policies 218 Selected bibliography 318
8.3 ‘Restauro scientifico’ 219
8.4 Italian post-war developments 223 Index 341
Foreword
by Paul Philippot
Director Emeritus of ICCROM,
Professor Emeritus of Université Libre of Brussels
For anyone who might still doubt the ex- perceived as nature, correlative object to the
istence of an overall European culture and its humanistic subject.1
coexistence in permanent dialogue with As this dialogue with history and nature
national cultures, the history of restoration, as makes its way into culture and is articulated
presented by architect Jukka Jokilehto, should in critical terms, it also progressively extends
be a convincing demonstration. to the north. Here it soon constitutes a dimen-
The modern concept of restoration, fruit of sion of national cultures which progressively
a long historical process, was shaped in the develop and gradually differentiate them-
eighteenth century with the development of selves. This occurs notably in relation to the
Western historical thought and as a result of conditions established by the situation of
tension between the rationalism of the different regional entities vis-à-vis the antique
Enlightenment and pre-Romantic and Roman- world since its largest extension in the fourth
tic sentiment. Later it was further defined in century. In this context and with this
the debates of the nineteenth and twentieth background, Christianity – another component
centuries. It is from the initial dualism, where at the level of the European scene – naturally
classical antiquity and the barbarian world of appears as a form of the antique world. Its
invasions confronted each other, that this reception in different epochs, the conditions
concept slowly emerged. This means, in fact, of its implantation in different regions, as well
that its genesis accompanies the evolution of as their total or partial inclusion, whether
the bonds between the two worlds which lasting or temporary, within the boundary
were destined to constitute the living tissue of (limes) of the Roman Empire, turn out to be
European reality in fieri, in making. decisive for the establishment of national
The first decisive step towards a specifically cultures. The issue here is similar to the vital
European form of relation to the past occurred role of the early years of infancy, but it is
in Italy, when Renaissance humanism recog- completely hidden and defies objectification:
nized in antiquity both a historic epoch of the it will always be difficult to clarify, for
past and an ideal model that could inspire example, how much the specific cultural
contemporary culture and open it to future natures of the Germans, the British or the
creative developments in all fields. A new Scandinavians have been affected by having
form of relation to the world was then born their regions inside or outside the imperial
uniting the objectifying distance and the boundaries. It is evident that such circum-
creative present. It found its spatial corres- stances have had a profound impact on some
pondence in the elaboration by architects, fundamental attitudes. Indeed, are not the
painters and sculptors of the unified perspec- forms of connection to or the distance from
tive construction of the visible world, now Rome reflected in the different kinds of
viii Foreword
relation to the past and to nature characteris- of culture, open itself progressively to diverse
tic of different national sensitivities, as is the sectors originally neglected by classical tradi-
thinking that results? tion: first to the Romanesque and Gothic
In this perspective, both supple and open, Middle Ages, perceived especially in the
which does not reflect an a priori ideology but national perspective, then, gradually, to the
is grounded in objective findings, European baroque world, and finally to the non-
culture appears as a vast field of action for European cultures. In the second half of the
diverse and intersecting currents – barbarian twentieth century, interest spreads rapidly to
substratum vs. antique world, Christianity vs. historical ensembles, to vernacular or popular
paganism, periphery vs. centre. Here emerge production, and eventually to territory where
the national cultures depending on their history and nature rejoin, the landscape ac-
position in the shared weave to the extent that quiring a historical dimension.
they define themselves through continuous This extension of the domain of restoration
dialogue and become increasingly aware of and conservation is accompanied by a
themselves, giving and receiving by turns. deepening of the critical concepts inherited
Also, the epochs of Europe are characterized from the classical tradition and the opening of
by successive historical trends: the dualism of a dialogue with other cultures. These trends
Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire of the constitute today the heart of current debate in
Germanic nation; the Greek world and the that historical thought, Western criticism and
Latin Roman–Gothic world; humanism, Ren- the concept of authenticity that it implies find
aissance and baroque matured in Italy; themselves confronted with various traditional
Protestantism and Counter-Reformation; the situations reminiscent of those in the Western
French rationalism of the Enlightenment and world before the Renaissance. But on the
Germanic Romanticism. Even the nineteenth- other hand, the various cultures of the non-
century nationalism finds its place in this European world find themselves invited to find
scheme as it reflects the historicist turning in their ways to cope with the requirements
on itself, which emerged from the European of safeguarding historic authenticity, which
Romanticism of the nineteenth century or appears to be essential to any modern con-
belatedly in the twentieth century. Moreover, ception of restoration.
one can see how this nineteenth-century Jukka Jokilehto is particularly well placed to
conception, being identity-related and closed, cope successfully with the complex task that
obscures comprehension of the continuous we have attempted to outline. A Finn, and thus
osmosis that preceded it throughout Europe, originally from the far-away periphery that was
and results easily in denying the existence of touched rather late by the Roman issue, he
a European culture, which it cannot conceive nevertheless soon found his way in Rome as
of except through its own involuted scheme. an assistant to Professor De Angelis d’Ossat for
This evolution is traced by Jukka Jokilehto the course of the Scuola di specializzazione per
in a clear manner through the progressive lo studio ed il restauro dei monumenti, which
emergence of the various components of the he had attended at the Faculty of Architecture
modern conception of restoration, which of Rome University. Subsequently, while
appears as a specifically European phenom- responsible for directing the International
enon. All the more so since the genesis of Course in Architectural Conservation at
these factors is carefully placed in the general ICCROM, he also obtained teaching and field
cultural context of the sensitivity and thinking experience, through expert missions in a great
that feeds them. The relation to the past is variety of regions and countries, as well as
always an integral dimension of the form of participating actively in the meetings of
being of the present, and restoration, dealing ICOMOS and UNESCO on this subject then in
materially with the object, always exteriorizes full expansion. The need to stand back and
this relationship in a manifest and indisputable reflect on this experience and the related
manner, even in its least conscious aspects. theoretical and practical problems led him, in
The nineteenth and twentieth centuries see 1986, at the Institute of Advanced Architectural
the European restoration panorama, like that Studies of the University of York, to present a
Foreword ix
doctoral dissertation under the tutorship of Notes
Professor Derek Linstrum and Sir Bernard
Feilden. The results of this research, revised 1 We refer to the excellent analysis by Giulio
and further developed, form the present book, Carlo Argan in The Architecture of Brunel-
fruit of some 25 years of experience and reflec- leschi and the Origins of Perspective Theory
tion nourished by a constant dialogue with the in the Fifteenth Century, Journal of the
great national traditions and the main trends of Warburg and Courtauld Institute, vol. IX,
this culture, which can rightly be called London 1946, 96–121, and more succinctly in
European, and has now become a challenge to Brunelleschi, Biblioteca Moderna Mondadori,
the different cultural regions of the world. CDXV, Milan, 1955.