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econservation

the online magazine No. 19, April 2011

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Contemporary Art Wall Clock by PaulaArt

Public awareness and the romantic view of restoration

Imagine that the next time when you open your morning newspaper you find a full page article about the heroic effort of an unemployed person, who after unsuccessfully struggling with the job market, thought it may be best to open a conservation studio. Does it sound familiar? On further reading, you see how he came to make the decision most likely because he always liked to work with his hands, used to fix things around the house and, of course he loves antiquities. At this mo ment, you probably jump into the quarterpage photo that comes with the text and start analyzing the image searching for details. Most likely, it will be a furniture restorer. Off he went to the nearest tool shop and set himself up in a studio or, why not, his garage. You will also probably read how, in a few months, he even developed his own secret formulas for paints and miraculous products to properly age materials. And as if this would not be enough, you will read all this through the eyes of the journalist who presents the story from the point of view of an heroic survivor of the unem ployment crisis who created his own job. A job that, in their words, is called conservationrestora tion. How many similar stories have you already seen in newspapers, magazines or on television? We conservators are aware that the reality of our job is nothing like that. But the general public is not, and unfortunately this is the most direct way that the public is given a notion of what conserva tion is. To make matters even worst, this is a selfsustainable mechanism. Most probably, these people featured so often in newspapers, embraced this idea from some past news and thats why they nurture this romantic and erroneous view of conservation. We do understand that conservation of antiquities is passionate. After all, at some point of our lives, we probably had that same romantic view about works of art and shared that attraction to know about the secrets behind the scenes, the alchemical products, the mysterious production of fakes, and so on. However, not taking action against misleading the public is working against us, and even more in moments of economic crisis such as this. Limited public awareness will result inev itably in the maintenance of this status quo or even in its degradation. In the wide spectrum, public awareness also raises attention in specific groups to the importance of conservation, most notably in political groups. This is vital because often the resources needed for conservation are in the hands of a few decisionmakers and the public pressure may help to release them. Thus, and because one can not depend on chance, it is good strategy to reinforce attention in this field. So far I have seen three types of attitudes towards these issues: first, there is the majority of the professionals who would rather ignore these issues or that leave them to the big institutions to take care of; then, there are those trying to maintain a high profile and raise awareness only among the political class, ignoring or abhorring the general public opinion; and last but not least, theres a few who are actually taking action on this matter. Although any kind of attitude is fundamental, when we depend on political will, it takes much longer to achieve any result and often the work of years may change in a week. Fortunately, there are already some initiatives leaded by professional associations that are taking matters into their hands, trying to change this although it is surprising how this effort is not shared by all. Otherwise, what type of professional recognition can we expect?

Rui Bordalo EditorinChief


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editorial

INDEX

NEWS & VIEWS

O, Ethnographic Conservation, be some other name!


By Daniel Cull

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REVIEWS The 20th Anniversary Meeting of E.C.C.O.


Review by Rui Bordalo

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Conservation and analysis techniques for the study and safeguard of metallic heritage
Review by Ana Bidarra

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Back to the Roots Workshop on the Preparation of Historical Lake Pigments


Review by Martina Griesser

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Educational Workshop: Discovering Restoration, Treasuring the Original


Review by Anca Din and Teodora Poiat

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The 15th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology


Review by Hakan niz and idem Klekiolu

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Conservation Matters in Wales


Review by Sarah Lawrence

EVENTS ARTICLES

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UPCOMING EVENTS May to June 2011 Old Interventions & New Possibilities Applications of digital technology in reconservation
By Eleni Kotoula

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Museums of Technology Bridges of cultural identity


By Johannis Tsoumas

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The Street in the Photography from the 19th and Early 20th Century as Mean of Art or Science
By Maria Bostenaru

CASE STUDY
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Scientific Study and Conservation of a Painted Enamel Qajar Pendant


By Wafaa Anwar Mohamed

news & view

O, ETHNOGRAPHIC CONSERVATION, BE SOME OTHER NAME!


By Daniel Cull "O, be some other name! What's in a name? that which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet." Juliet, in "Romeo and Juliet" (Act 2, Scene 2) [1]

Within the field known as ethno graphic conservation the word eth nographic has long been considered by many to be a millstone around our necks thwarting effective work and progressive development of the field. This idea was made explicitly clear in Tharron Bloomfields key note address to the 2008 ICOMCC Triennial Conference in New Delhi, in which he labelled this term "at best old fashioned and inadequate, and at worst offensive and racist". In his keynote address Bloomfield further called for "conservators who work with cultural material to find another, more appropriate name for the material they work with". The ICOMCC Working Group on Ethno graphic Collections have taken this critique on board and launched a name change committee which in turn recently published a discussion document intended to further these discussions [2]. The word ethnography comes from the Greek words ethnos, meaning folk or people, and grapho meaning to write, ethnography simply therefore means to write about people. In an academic sense ethnography is taken to mean both the method of study (the research method of cultural anthropology) and the written re

cord of that research. Traditionally ethnographers have been outsiders engaged in participant ob servation, it is from this tradition that ethno graphy has for many communities who were the focal point of such studies come to be seen as offensive and/or racist. Ethnographers seek to discover the emic (insiders) perspective rather than their own etic (outsiders) perspective, however scholars have come to realize that the researchers own cultural biases and ideologies have played a significant part in many of the ethnographies produced. In the most extreme cases we can see how racist ideologies such as social Darwinism, colonialism, and white suprem acy fed a cultural anthropology that believed in the destruction of indigenous peoples to make way for white, Christian, patriarchal, capitalist, heteronormative, eurocentric civilization, com menting on this time period it has been wryly noted that ethnology is thought of as archaeology by anticipation [3], all of which goes someway to suggest Tharron Bloomfield may be understating his case! Despite the inherent biases of those conducting ethnographic research, it could conversely be argued that the ethnographic method retains value for the conservation field. The field of an thropology has come a long way since the plun derous activities that created the collections in which we work, today there exists academic fields such as critical ethnography, feminist ethnography, and antiracist ethnography, which often have an autoethnographic focus in which the observer be comes participant, and the participant observer,
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Bronislaw Malinowski with natives on Trobriand Islands (ca 1918).

blurring or removing the distinction between emic and etic perspectives. These autoethnographic approaches have been considered the postmod ern successor of ethnography [4]. These develop ments have become important tools for subaltern groups to subvert the established power structures and to gain a voice; to, as it were, tell their own stories. These methodologies are being utilized within the conservation field in the form of com munity consultations, collaborative and partici patory conservation [5]. Which counter to Bloom fields argument would suggest that ethnography has much to teach the conservation field about counterhegemonic discourse and the potentials of first person narrative and collaborative working. The final decision on the name is perhaps insigni ficant compared to the opportunity afforded to discuss our own personal relationship with the terms we use to describe our field. Initially the thought of changing the name threw me into confusion, it seemed to me that like it or not the word ethnographic is the essential point of ref erence for those of us who practice this field of
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conservation. Moreover, I feel a great deal of af finity for the contemporary ethnographic method, and I feel the world collections in the working group title is as, if not more, offensive or racist associated as it is with the same colonial agendas and concepts of categorization and control. How ever, on further consideration, I came to realize that the name must change not because I feel it personally objectionable, but because many in our field, and many with whom we work, do. As such we need to find a method of self description that is tolerable, and preferably useful, to the most people possible, and continue our dialogue in as many forums as possible to ensure that we confront the real issues that brought these discus sions to the fore and not resort simply to finding a more pleasing sounding name. Notes: 1. W. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, URL 2. C. Dignard (Coord.), "A Discussion Paper on the Name of the ICOMCC Working Group on Ethno
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graphic Collections: Should the Name Change, and If So, to What?", ICOMCC, April 2011, URL 3. V. Debaene, Les deux livres lethnographe: leth nographie francaise au XXe sicle entre science et littrature, Universit de Paris IV Sorbonne, Paris, 2004, p. 148 4. M. Bloor and F. Wood, Keywords in Qualitative Methods: A Vocabulary of Research Concepts, Sage, London, 2006, p. 19 5. G. Wharton, "Dynamics of Participatory Con servation: The Kamehameha I Sculpture Project", Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 47 (3), 2008, pp. 159173

The News section is bringing uptodate information on cultural heritage topics such as onsite conservation projects reports, reviews of conferences, lectures or workshops and any other kind of appropriate announcements. If you are involved in interesting projects and you want to share your experience with everybody else, please send us your news or announcements. For more details, such as deadlines and publication guidelines, please visit www.econservationline.com

DANIEL CULL
Conservator The Musical Instrument Museum Daniel Cull is from the West Country of the British Isles. He trained at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, where he received a BSc in Archaeology, MA in Principles of conser vation, and an MSc in Conservation for Archae ology and Museums. He was later awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the National Museum of the American Indian/Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. He currently works as a conservator at the Musical Instrument Mu seum and as a collaborator with econservation magazine. Website: http://dancull.wordpress.com Contact: daniel.cull@themim.org

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THE 20th ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF E.C.C.O.


Review by Rui Bordalo Barcelona, Spain April 45, 2011 Organiser: E.C.C.O., The European Confederation of ConservatorRestorers' Organisations http://www.eccoeu.org/ E.C.C.O., the European Confederation of Conser vatorRestorers' Organisations, is commemorat ing its 20th anniversary. Since its foundation in 1991, E.C.C.O. has had a strong impact on European policies for the protection and preservation of cultural heritage, working to achieve legal recog nition of conservatorrestorers and promoting a high level of training in this discipline. The con federation is seen by other international partners as a role model to be followed. At the moment, it unites 22 associations from 20 European countries, representing more than 5000 professional con servatorrestorers. The commemoration of its 20th anniversary took place in Barcelona, Spain, in the last 4th and 5th of April, on the occasion of the Presidents Meet ing and General Assembly. The Presidents meet ing is a biannual meeting where all the Presidents of the member associations of E.C.C.O. get together and meet with the E.C.C.O. committee to discuss about aims and objectives to be achieved by the organisation. However, this time all the founding members were invited to attend the anniversary and to commemorate the founding of the organ isation. The meeting took place in the XVIII century Pati Manning building, just next to the Centre of Con
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A view from the conference hall.

temporary Culture of Barcelona. The impeccable local organisation was merit of Agns GallOrlik from Grup Tcnic, a Catalonian association of con servatorrestorers. As an aside note, it should be mentioned that Barcelona is part of the Environ ment Committee of Eurocities, which gathers a group of 34 cities that promote environmental awareness. This meant, for example, that every plastic item normally used in conferences was replaced by wood or paperbased alternatives, more environmentally friendly. It would be great if we would see this more often in conferences. The day started with a welcoming message from Mr. Joan Pluma, General Director of Cultural Her itage, representing the Catalan Ministry of Cul ture. Next, Monica MartelliCastaldi, President of E.C.C.O., welcomed the participants and presented
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A short meeting of the E.C.C.O. Committee members.

the founding members and the previous E.C.C.O. Presidents. Only a few could not be present and those who are no longer with us were fondly re called. After the opening, a session on the history of the confederation started with short presentations by Nathalie Ravanel, from the Associazione Res tauratori d'Italia (ARI) and former VicePresident of E.C.C.O., and Pierre Masson, from the Belgium Association Professionelle des Conservateurs Restaurateurs d'Oeuvres d'Art (APROABRK) and former President of E.C.C.O.. These short presen tations were followed by interventions by Carole Milner, from Association des Restaurateurs d'Art et d'Archquologie de Formation Universitaire (AARAFU) and former Deputy Secretary, Gerlinde Tautschnig, also from the Italian ARI and former President of E.C.C.O., and other founding members and former Presidents who recalled the early years of E.C.C.O. Stphane Pennec, founding member from France, presented ConservationRestora tion of Cultural Heritage: Dont worry, its get ting worse! which came as a refreshing frontal view about the regression that the field is having in some countries. Ylva Dahnsj, from the National Heritage (UK), closed the session speaking about The changed context for conservation and in formation about UK PACR accreditation system.
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After the coffeebreak, a session focused on the Competences of the profession took place. The first lecturer was Susan Corr, General Secretary of E.C.C.O. and delegate from the Institute for the Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works in Ireland (ICHAWI), who presented the most recent publication of E.C.C.O.: Competences for the Profession and Practice of ConservationRestor ation. This document was developed by E.C.C.O. in connection with the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) foreseen in the Recommenda tion of the European Parliament and of the Coun cil of April 23, 2008 on the establishment of the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning. This document defines the competences required to enter the profession of Conservator restorer. Next was Jeremy Hutchings, Deputy Sec retary of E.C.C.O. and delegate from the Nordic Association of Conservators Norwegian Branch (Nordisk Konservatorforbund, den Norske Seks jonen, NKFN) to present the implementation of these competences in the conservation programme at the University of Oslo. The structure of the course (postBologna process) of this university is quite original, allowing the students to choose different career paths, not strictly in conservation but also conservationrelated ones, according to the several competences they acquire. The follow ing presentation was done by Barbara Davidson, E.C.C.O. Committee member and delegate from the Chamber of Restorers in Slovakia (Komora Retaurtorov, KR). Slovakia is from the very few countries, if not the only one, that has a Cham ber of Restorers, recognized by the government, allowing a better regulation of the profession. In her presentation, Barbara gave an example of the EQF implementation at the national level and about the specific legislative framework of the country. Wolfgang Baatz, new President of the European Network for ConservationRestoration Education (ENCoRE), presented Conservation restoration education: EQF and the Universities,
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A view of the conference hall during the presentations.

focused on the perspective of the universities con cerning EQF and the lifelong learning issue. Closing the session, Grellan Rourke, President of ICHAWI, spoke on Competences and Accreditation where he made a summary of the experience on accredit ation in Ireland and what it has represented for the members of their association. After a short moment for questions from the public, Dr. Mikls Szentkirlyi and Dr. Istvn Bona, from the Association of the Hungarian Restorers (Magyar Restaurtorok Egyeslete, MRE) which is also com memorating now its 20th anniversary, presented the history of their association, and several legislative problems of laws on the protection of cultural prop erty in Hungary, in a presentation titled Changing Legislation about ConservationRestoration of Cul tural Property in Hungary. Then Toms Luptk, from the Slovakian Komora Retaurtorov (KR), spoke About the Law on Services on Internal Market and Application of Exclusivity. In Slovakia, conservation is a regulated profession and the implementation of European directives created several situations that, fortunately, the chamber was able to resolve.
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After a typical Mediterranean and ecofriendly lunch, the afternoon was dedicated to short pres entations by Professional Bodies and Institutions. The afternoon session was started by Vronique Milande, President of the Fdration Franaise des Conservateurs/Restaurateurs (FFCR), with FFCR is desperately looking for public. As our profession is sometimes distorted in the public view by the media, the speech focused on the public perception of conservatorrestorers and the experience FFCR has had to enlighten both the public and the media about the reality of our field. Once the meeting was taking place in Spain, next a series of associations, members and nonmem bers of E.C.C.O., were invited to address the audi ence. In Catalonia Today: 2 associations, One future, Agns GallOrtlic, from Grup Tcnic (GT), and Voravit Roonthiva, President of Associaci de ConservadorsRestauradors de Catalunya (ARCC), announced the merge of the two professional as sociations in Catalonia, Spain. The merge was welcomed but news on the problematic Spanish situation and about the recent dissolution of
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E.C.C.O.s former member ACRACV, a Valencia based association, saddened the audience. Then was the turn of Gema Campo, also from GT, to speak on the Motives for becoming E.C.C.O. member in the 90s and current relevance of E.C.C.O.. As a long existing association, GT was present in the moments when the creation of a confederation was discussed for the first time and later created. The past and present importance of E.C.C.O. was also discussed, for Europe but also for Spain and Catalonia, as well as the documentation that was delivered through the years by E.C.C.O., a true milestone for the definition of the profession. Afterwards, Carmen Perez Garcia, Managing Di rector of the Valencian Institute for Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage (IVCR), in troduced the audience to the history and struc ture of the institute. The next talk was made by Marco Moreno, from Asociacin de Alumnos y Ex alumnos de la Escuela Superior de Conservacin y Restauracin de Bienes Culturales de Bienes Cultu rales (AESCROM) in Madrid, who presented the association, but also the particularities of the training in conservation in Spain. Brigitte Esser, from Associazione Restauratori Conservatori Alto Adige (VRKSARCA), a regional association based in South Tyrol (Italy), spoke about the long history of the association and the specificity of that Italian region, and also how advantageous and important has been the mem bership of the association in E.C.C.O.. Jana ubic Prislan, from the Slovenian Society of Conservator Restorers (Drutvo restavratorjev Slovenije, DRS), which the next day was accepted as new member of E.C.C.O., was the next speaker. Founded in 1993, the association reborn in 1997 and has now 283 members. Although it may seem that some pres entations, year after year, are just the explanation on how the associations were formed and the par ticularities of their national ways, these are in fact the most interesting facts to divulge as one can
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Volker Schaible, President of the Association of Restorers (Verband der Restauratoren, VDR), speaking about the situation in Germany.

learn about the variety of the realities in this field. This is the case of DRS, a very active association, organizing on a permanent basis trips, confer ences, workshops and even a professional award. For sure, it is an example for other organizations to follow. Stefan Belishki, Committee member and delegate of the Association of Conservatorrestorers of Bulgaria (ARBBG), informed the audience about a turn of situation for the profession in Bulgaria, more particularly, about the legal changes that have occurred. In 2009, a new law on the protec tion of cultural heritage was enacted. However, the conservatorrestorer profession is not prop erly regulated by the law. There are texts that pretend to regulate the conservation practice but they are not in accordance with E.C.C.O.s guidelines and in fact might even allow unquali fied persons to practice. The lobbying of the as sociation has been very active proposing several changes but with few results. Nevertheless, they were able to, at least, reduce the risk of malprac tice. Another problem that was discussed was the lack of job opportunities that conservatorrestorers are confronted with in Bulgaria. After a well needed coffeebreak, it was the turn of Ingrid Louise Flatval, President of NKFN to speak about The Situation in Norway. The asso
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ciation has gone through several alterations due to the size of the country, the bad economy and internal reorganisation, among other factors. Sev eral ways of dealing with these problems and din amizing the associations were presented. Karen Borchersen, from the Nordic Association of Conser vators Danish Branch (Nordisk Konservatorfor bund, Den Danske Afdeling, NKFDK) spoke about the status and the future of the organisation. One of the main concerns was to rejuvenate the board, to bring new blood and new ideas, once their mem bers have been there for many years. The recent merge of Copenhagens School of Conservation with other schools and the problems that have risen was also discussed. Jaap van der Burg, VicePresident of E.C.C.O. and delegate of Restauratoren Nederland (RN), spoke on behalf of RNs President Clara von Waldthausen who could not attend the meeting. Jaap mentioned the fact that RN commemorates its 5th anniver
Group photo of the participants to the E.C.C.O. 20th anniversary.

sary and made a short summary of the history of the association, which resulted from the merge of other associations. Volker Schaible, President of the Association of Restorers (Verband der Restaur atoren, VDR) gave an amusing and lively present ation focused on The Situation in Germany, that is a federal country, which means that more dif ferent regional laws on cultural heritage apply. The talk focused on the history of VDR and how they are approaching such diversity of laws con cerning conservation and the protection of cul tural heritage. Finally, the last intervention was made by Karin von Lerber, from the Association Suisse de Con servation et Restauration (SKR/SCR), who talked about The Situation in Switzerland. Karin showed how challenging the management of conservation can be in a country with 4 schools teaching conser vation and 27 states (with 27 different legislations) and an association that gathers over 500 members.

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Afterwards, there was a roundtable discussion moderated by Grellan Rourke focused on Europe wide issues arising from the meeting and network ing between European professional bodies and related institutions. The second day was fully dedicated to the General Assembly during which several internal issues were discussed. Among these, can be highlighted the efforts that the working groups are making con cerning the European Recommendations in the Council of Europe, the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning (EQF) and the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). Two associations from Slovenia and Malta were welcomed as new members. Although these meet ings are generally not open to the public, there were several national and international observers invited in the occasion of the Presidents meeting and anniversary of E.C.C.O. The two days meeting, with its warm atmosphere, made the attendees happy to meet so many old friends and colleagues. At the end, the commem oration of the 20th anniversary of E.C.C.O. was a success, not only for the high quality participation and the vivid discussions but also for the positive feedback that the founding members gave on E.C.C.O. and how much it has accomplished in the last 20 years. Photos by: David AguilellaCueco

RUI BORDALO
Conservatorrestorer Rui Bordalo, PhD, is a board member of the Portu guese Association of ConservatorRestorers (ARP) and a Committee member of the European Confed eration of ConservatorRestorers' Organisations (E.C.C.O.) since 2005.
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CONSERVATION AND ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES FOR THE STUDY AND SAFEGUARD OF METALLIC HERITAGE
Conservao e Tcnicas de Anlise para o Estudo e Salvaguarda do Patrimnio Metlico
Review by Ana Bidarra March 2930, 2011 Lisbon, Portugal Hosted by: National Archaeological Museum and the Centre of Atomic Physics
General view of the conference at the National Archaeological Museum. Photo by Matthias Tissot.

The seminar Conservation and analysis techniques for the study and safeguard of metallic heritage was held at the National Archaeological Museum and at the Centre of Atomic Physics in 29th and 30th of March, respectively. It was a one and a half day meeting organized in the scope of the project AuCORRE The gold jewellery from the Atlantic Western Peninsula (Bronze and Iron Ages). Torcs, bracelets and earrings from the Portuguese ter ritory: manufacturing techniques, metal alloys composition and corrosion mechanisms (PTDC/ HISHIS/114698/2009). This project is funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Tech nology (FCT) with the participation of Archeofactu Archaeology and Art, the Institute of Museums and Conservation (IMC, Portugal), the Laboratoire du Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Muses de France UMR 171 CNRS (Centre for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France) and the Centre of Atomic Physics (Uni versity of Lisbon, Portugal). For a conference that intended to be informal and that wasnt much publicized, the two days had a participation of nearly 100 delegates; in the second
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day the amphitheatre of the Centre for Atomic Physics was full and had the presence of several students. The conferences were mainly held in Portuguese, but there were also Spanish, English and French presentations. The first day of the conference took place at the National Archaeological Museum (MNA) in Lisbon and was focused on the Metallurgy of the Bronze and Iron Ages. The opening session was made by members of the AuCORRE project and MNAs Dir ector. The afternoon was filled with six presenta tions that started with an historic background on the relation between metallurgy and society, its ruptures and permanencies in the Atlantic Penin sular facade, by Joo SennaMartinez from the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon (FLUL). Raquel Vilaa, from the Faculty of Letters of the University of Coimbra (FLUC), made a very interest ing presentation entitled Beyond the shine of the metal (productions and contexts): a contribu tion to the AuCORRE project, focusing on the need to inventory and compile information on Portu guese Ancient jewellery. A schematic approach explained the relation metal/object since its
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Opening session. From left to right: Dr. Antnio Candeias, from LJF/IMC, Dr. Lusa Carvalho, from the Centre of Atomic Physics, Dr. Luis Raposo, MNA's Director, and Dr. Filomena Guerra, from UMR171 CNRS. Photo by Matthias Tissot.

native condition to its finished form, going through aspects such has quality and control, cast, plastic deformation, finishing and decoration. After the coffee break, the two presentations given by Maria de Ftima Arajo and Antnio Monge Soa res, from the Technological and Nuclear Institute (ITN), were mainly focused on technological as pects of gold artifacts from the Iron and Bronze Ages and its laboratorial analysis using optical microscopy (OM), energy dispersive Xray fluores cence (EDXRF), scanning electron microscopy with Xray microanalysis (SEMEDS) and micro Particle induced Xray Emission (microPIXE). These tech niques provided information regarding not only physical and technological aspects, but also chemi cal features such as the presence of major ele ments (silver and copper) in the gold. Davide Delfino, from the Center of Geosciences of the University of Coimbra, presented a compara tive study between the recycling of metals in the
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Atlantic Peninsular Facade and the Alpine area during the Bronze Age and the causes that could lead to recycling such as flaws, wearing or dam ages. Despite the developed work consider that the recycling of metals begin later in the Peninsular Facade, some of the delegates disagreed with that conclusion pointing to a parallel occurrence. The first day ended with Aaron Lackinger, from the Faculty of History of the University of Vigo (Spain), and the Urdieira disc. This bronze disc or but ton, along with a set of two gold bracelets, com poses the Treasure of Urdieira, found in 1921 near Parada da Serra in Galicia (Spain). The second day was focused on the conservation and analysis of gold objects and other metals and the opening session was made by members of the AuCORRE project. The morning session started with Alicia Perea, from the Institute of History of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), with a comprehensive presentation that brought several
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Archaeometry at ITN using Ion Beams and Xray Diffraction Analysis, by Lus Cerqueira Alves.

Considerations on the study of metallic artifacts the experience of the Laboratory Jos de Figueiredo, by Antnio Candeias.

examples of gold archaeometry in Spain from the past years, along with recent works and projects, namely the study of the Quimbaya Treasure from Colombia. Maria Filomena Guerra, from UMR171 CNRS, pre sented Analytical research on Egyptian gold work at the National Museums of Scotland. One of the main ideas conveyed was the lack of an accurate analytical research regarding gold jewellery from Ancient Egypt, particularly the one that is held in Egypt, which makes very difficult or even impos sible to relate or date certain objects, namely the ones that came from ancient commercial trading. The presentation Archaeometry at ITN using ion beams and Xray diffraction analysis by Lus Cerqueira Alves, compared several analytical tech niques such as PIXE, Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) and Xray diffraction (XRD). The main advantage of the RBS technique is the fact that an elemental depth profile distribution (us ing a nuclear microprobe) is possible, while PIXE provides no depth information on elemental analy sis. Rui Lopes, from the Faculty of Fine Arts from the University of Lisbon (FBAUL), spoke about the casting techniques of ritual bronzes in Shang and Zhou Dynasties (China) and Antnio Candeias, from the Laboratory Jos de Figueiredo of IMC
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(LJFIMC), presented an overall perspective of the work developed by IMC in the study and conserva tion of Portuguese metallic heritage. The morn ing session ended with Maria Jos Oliveira, from LJFIMC, and Teresa Maranhas, from the National Palace of Ajuda (IMC), who presented the research work that has been undertaken at IMC on the jewel lery from Queen Maria Pia (18471911) produced by the Romebased Castellani workshop. After lunch, the first two presentations were on case studies related to preventive conservation and maintenance of collections. The first one, entitled Atmospheric corrosion monitoring to evaluate showcases and presented by Michel Dubus from UMR171 CNRS, referred several examples of metal lic artifacts wrongly exposed and its degradation. The lecturer also focused on the changes that can occur when moving an object, particularly for temporary exhibitions. Matthias Tissot, from MNA and Archeofactu, focused on the more specific case of the Ancient jewellery collection from the Na tional Archaeological Museum in Lisbon (Portugal) and some preliminary data on preventive conserva tion parameters in the Treasure Room. The following two presentations were on Portu guese altarpieces. The first one, presented by Agns Le Gac from the New University of Lisbon,
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focused on the gilding techniques and the chal lenges for determining the gold origin, in the spe cific case of the 16th century main altarpiece of the Old Cathedral of Coimbra (Portugal). Based in documentary and analytical data the results pointed to the use of two different techniques: waterbased burnished gilding on bole and oil based matte gilding on mordant. The gold leaf is under one micron and the gold used in 1502, 1583 and 1685 is up to 23 carat, while the gold applied in 1900 is 20 carat. The second lecture, given by Ana Bidarra from the Department of Geosciences of the University of Aveiro, presented an approach to the definition of an accurate methodology to gold leaf analysis. The results were based on the study of the gold used in baroque altarpieces through different analytical methods such as OM, SEMEDS and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICPMS), in order to determine tech nological and elemental features, that allow the typification of the gold and to establish proven ance relations. The limitations of the different techniques were also focused as well as the use of other proceedings such as Xray Fluorescence (XRF) using Synchrotron radiation. Paula Menino Homem, from the Department of Heritage Sciences and Techniques of the University of Porto, presented a work on the nature, altera tion and conservation of the silver altarpiece loc ated in the Chapel of the Holly Sacrament at the Porto Cathedral, focusing also on some specific alteration of the metal and its analysis by XRF and SEMEDS. After the coffeebreak, the last session comprised four presentations. The first one was given by Alice Alves, from FBAUL, and the conservation and res toration interventions that the Belm Monstrance had during 1833 and 1928. The Belm Montrance was ordered by King Manuel I (Portugal) to the master goldsmith Gil Vicente in 1503 and used the
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gold brought by Vasco da Gama on his return from the second expedition to India. During its history the Monstrance suffered several changes, the first one during the reign of Filipe I (15801598), when its cylindrical glass was replaced by a circular frame easier to open, keeping this architecture for over 300 years. In 1929, Jos de Figueiredo, the direc tor of the National Museum of Ancient Art (Lis bon) decided to return the Monstrance to its original form. Eduarda Vieira, from the School of Arts of the Catholic University of Porto, brought a prelimin ary approach to the study of a monumental brass from the grave of Joo Correia, located in the Main Church of Penafiel (Portugal). This brass, from the beginning of the 16th century, is engraved with Joo Correia effigy and is thought to be imported from Flanders. Since it was made during his life time no burial date was engraved. This is an art form that is not very common in Portugal and that is disappearing fast due to theft. The collaboration between a conservatorrestorer and an epigraphist Sara Fragoso, from FCTUNL and Jos dEncarnao, from the University of Coimbra studied the forgery of Roman inscriptions in the specific case of a copper tessera, applying both art history and analytical approaches. The forgery of Roman inscriptions has a long history; in the Renaissance period was mainly directed to assign a remote origin to a city or to provide it with famous characters. More recently the motive is mainly economical and is located in the scope of antiquities trade. This tessera, due to its specific typological and textual characteristics raised sev eral doubts; however, the researchers concluded that despite these perplexities, the tessera and its inscriptions are thought to be original. The seminar ended with Ana Serafim, from FCT UNL, and a case study on the bronze sculpture
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The restoration of the Belm Monstrance. History of an intervention from the first half of the 20th century (1833 1928), by Alice Nogueira Alves.

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depicting Jean dAire by Auguste Rodin located on the gardens of the Gulbenkian Museum (Lisbon). The study is focused on the degradation processes that are currently occurring in the sculpture, in or der to define an accurate conservation and res toration methodology. During the one and a half day seminar it was pos sible to realise the diversity of metallic cultural heritage and the different forms to approach it. The relation between art history, conservation, restoration and science was always present and the need of cooperation between the different spe cialists and institutions was once again focused.

Art Conservation Research


conservationresearch.blogspot.com

ANA BIDARRA Conservatorrestorer Contact: bidarra.ana@gmail.com Ana Bidarra has a Degree in ConservationResto ration and a Master Degree in GeoSciences on white structured pigments for restoration. Cur rently she is a PhD candidate researching the compositional and technological aspects of gold leaf from Portuguese baroque altarpieces. She works as conservatorrestorer in private practice since 1999.
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BACK TO THE ROOTS WORKSHOP ON THE PREPARATION OF HISTORICAL LAKE PIGMENTS


Review by Martina Griesser

Munich, Germany March 2325, 2011 Organised by: Doerner Institute


Dyed wool (madder, Rubia tinctoria L.) and silk (kermes, Kermes vermilio Planchon). The silk is cut into fine pieces (clippings).

Within the European CHARISMA project (Cultural Heritage Advanced Research Infrastructures: Synergy for a Multidisciplinary Approach to Con servation/Restoration) the Doerner Institute in Munich, Germany, organised the Back to the Roots workshop on the preparation of historical lake pigments from 23rd to 25th March 2011. The local organisers Heike Stege and Mark Richter acted as coordinators of the workshop together with Jo Kirby Atkinson, The National Gallery, Lon don, and Jana Sanyova, IRPA, Brussels. Altogether 10 participants from 6 European countries and one Iranian colleague attended the workshop. It was divided in lectures given by the coordinators and practical sessions to test different lake pre paration recipes in the laboratories of the Doerner Institute. On Wednesday morning, following the welcome speeches by the local organisers, Jo Kirby gave her first lecture entitled Dyes, Dyeing and Lake Pigments Historical Background. She presen ted a comprehensive overview of the natural dyes used in Europe for dying textiles as well as for the preparation of lake pigments, mainly focusing on the red and yellow dyestuffs. The two hours talk
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not only contained information on the different plant materials and animals used as sources for the dyes and their molecular structure, but also on the various methods of preparing the coloured pigments, for which mainly hydrated alumina substrates, but sometimes also other aluminium and calcium containing substrates were used. By describing how historical recipes had been trans ferred to laboratory versions for the participants to experiment with, her presentation also offered a first introduction to the practical part. Following lunch, one half of the attendees pre pared yellow lake pigments and the other half red lake pigments using the soaked in raw materials already prepared by the organisers. Different kinds of weld and buckthorn berry yellow lakes as well as madder lakes including one recipe for treating wild madder were produced in this way. After the lake pigments were precipitated, they were left to settle overnight. Where necessary raw materials for the production of lake pigments on day two were already soaked in water or water based solutions. The morning of the second day was again filled with lectures. At first Jana Sanyova gave a presentation
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Welcoming address of the coordinators Dr. Heike Stege and Mark Richter.

on Organic pigments analyses starting by giving an overview on the history of analysis and intro ducing different possible methods for analysis from microscopy to Raman spectroscopy. In the main part of her talk she concentrated on the analysis of red and yellow dyestuffs using HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) and showed a number of case studies of the success ful analysis of lake pigments. Especially interest ing was to get firsthand knowledge from this experienced researcher about the possibilities and limits concerning the analysis of organic dyes in different sample materials. Her presentation was followed by a short lecture by Jo Kirby called A brief survey of colour change in lake pigments. This was an introduction into the field of bleach ing, as all the natural dyestuffs are changing colour by interactions with their environment, especially with light. Besides examples of typical colour changes in art objects and the theory and equip ment for measuring these changes, Jo showed a number of graphs concerning the bleaching of yellow and red lake pigments in dependence of the dyestuff, the substrate, and the binding me dium used for preparing the actual paint. In the
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Pigment yield of yellow lake (weld) after filtration and washing.

Pigment yield of yellow lake (unripe buckthorn berries, Rhamnus cathartica L.) after filtration and washing.

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afternoon the participants were filtering and washing their first lake pigments and preparing their second lake pigments again following the revised recipes. On day 2 different cochineal, kermes, lac dye and brazilwood red lakes and dyers broom and young fustic yellow lakes were precipitated and left to settle overnight. On Friday the filtering and washing of the second lake pigments was finished. All the pigments prepared still needed to dry out, so pigments produced during an earlier workshop were used to prepare paints using two different binding media. A selection of eight pigments were ground in lin seed oil as well as egg yolk and then applied on prepared test panels (wood primed with chalk) for each of the participants. Besides getting an idea on the varying behaviour of the different lake pigments during grinding in oil and egg, one also got an impression of the different appearance of the lakes in the two binding media. In the fu ture also the observation of the different colour

Lake pigment of Young fustic (Cotinus coggygria SCOP.) after precipitation.

Paint trials: applying paints consisting of lake pigments in egg tempera and linseed oil.

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Paint trials: grinding of prepared lake pigments with egg tempera binder.

changes with time will be interesting. On Friday evening the workshop closed with a joint discus sion on the lake pigments prepared and a fare well drink. For me the participation in this workshop was a unique and very valuable experience to better understand the vast variety of lake pigments one can produce from more or less the same plant or animal raw material as well as of the many influ ences on the result, e.g. by temperature, time of heating, method of precipitation and so on. As all the coordinators were present during the whole workshop and available for answering questions anytime, an active exchange of experiences was possible. The participants also were supplied with full documentation of the presentations, a list of participants, a bibliography, and besides the laboratory version recipes the corresponding original historical recipes for producing lake pig ments. The numbers of participants was well considered and the organisation near to perfect
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(not only because all the coffee breaks and lunches were included). I would like to thank all the col leagues at the Doerner Institute involved in organ ising the activity for this excellent workshop and hope that they will be able to offer it once again soon. Participation for anyone interested in his toric lake pigments is highly recommended!

MARTINA GRIESSER Conservationscientist Contact: martina.griesser@khm.at Martina Griesser studied analytical chemistry at the Vienna University of Technology and finished her PhD on the analytical characterisation of CVD diamond layers in 1995. Since 1996 she built up the Conservation Science Department at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Today she is the head of this department and since 1999 also a lecturer at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Institute for Conservation and Restoration.
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EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOP: DISCOVERING RESTORATION, TREASURING THE ORIGINAL


Review by Anca Din and Teodora Poiat March 5, 12, 19 and 26, 2011 Bucharest, Romania Organiser: Art Conservation Support (ACS) http://acs.org.ro/

"Discovering Restoration, Treasuring the Original" is an awareness campaign launched by the Roma nian association Art Conservation Support (ACS) to promote conservation to the general public and to contribute to a better preservation of the cultural heritage. The workshop was organized with the support of the National History Museum (MNIR), the National University of Arts (UNA) and the conservation companies Cerecs Art and Danart. The workshop gave participants the opportunity to go behind the scenes of conservation restora tion, a field still little known to the general public. The main questions that were raised were: what is conservationrestoration?, what means to pre serve the cultural heritage?, how to avoid its de struction?, what happens behind the scaffolding?, and how should we look at an icon or a mural paint ing? For the large public, introducing general notions of conservation was a great way to under stand the degradation process of an art object, what care of collections entails and how improper interventions can be avoided. This was also a good occasion for secondary school students to get an insight into the conservation training course at the National University of Arts in Bucharest and consider the possibility to undertake a degree in this field.
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First meeting of the series, at the UNA Gallery. An introduction into the basics of paintings conservation.

ACS is a young nonprofit association founded in 2009 at the initiative of four people working in the field of conservationrestoration of cultural heritage: Prof. Dr. Oliviu Boldura and conservat orrestorers Anca Din, Magdalena Drobot and Teodora Poiat. This workshop was the first of a series which is part of an awareness campaign to draw attention of the general public to conserva tion issues. The course took place during the four consecutive Saturdays of March, in several loca tions in order to offer participates a variety of examples and as diverse information as possible. A new edition will take place later this year and will follow the same schedule. The first two meetings were held at the UNA Gal lery. To introduce the participants into the con servation world, more precisely, to get them ac quainted with the basics of paintings conserva tion, examples of well established monuments from several areas of the country were shown
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Panel and canvas paintings were shown to the participants to exemplify degradations and the conservation treatment.

first. From the altar to the narthex, up to the towers and around the church, to the exterior mural deco ration, participants were walked through inter esting topics such as what is a wall painting, what kind of "problems" it can have and how they are normally "treated". Demonstrations were made on specially prepared replicas and the public was invited to experiment simple operations performed with reversible materials. The second meeting was dedicated to artistic com ponents and movable assets. Examples such as icons on panel and canvas paintings were shown to the participants in order to illustrate how the original matter evolves from the moment it is created until it reaches the bench of restoration. The direct contact with real works of art was a great way to analyze closely each of the raised matters.

In the third Saturday, the meeting was hosted by the National Museum of History where, courtesy of the head of the research department, Mr. Ghe orghe Niculescu and his team. Here the import ance and complexity of the scientific research and the role that it plays in conservation was explained. An introduction into analytical techniques was given, followed by practical demonstrations. The meeting ended with a lecture on how to take care of the objects with historic and aesthetic value that are in our private collections. General infor mation on best preservation practices was given. The fourth and last meeting was held in the warm ambient of the Stavropoleos Monastery. This 18th century monument, located right in the heart of Bucharest, has managed to remain a peaceful place in spite of the heavy traffic and high buildings

MNIR's laboratories and the Lapidarium Hall. Understanding the role of science in conservation.

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THE 15th SYMPOSIUM ON MEDITERRANEAN ARCHAEOLOGY


Review by Hakan niz and idem Klekiolu Catania, Sicily March 35, 2011 Organised by: Catania University, Sicily and the General Association of Mediterranean Archaeology (GAMA)

In the last meeting of the series, Prof. Dan Mohanu was invited to present the conservation project of the mural paintings from Stavropoleos Monastery.

surrounding it. The evolution in time of this monu ment and its conservation was presented by the special guest Prof. Dan Mohanu, coordinator of the conservation project for the mural paintings of this monument. The extremely useful explana tions given in situ were then followed by a visit to the monastery library and its collection of valu able historic objects. The feedback received at the end of the course was very encouraging. From the questionnaire filled by the participants regarding their experience we learned that the general public appreciates the opportunity to learn more about our field, especially to get a sneak peek into real conserva tion laboratory and have contact with authentic works of art undergoing restoration. Those interested in more than just these few words about the project "Discovering Restoration, Treas uring the Original" are invited to join us in the next session, which will take place again later this year.
About the authors: Anca Din and Teodora Poiat are conservatorrestorers and two of the founders of Art Conservation Support (ACS), a Romanian non profit association dedicated to raise awareness about conservation of cultural heritage.
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The fifteenth annual Symposium on Mediterran ean Archaeology (SOMA) held in Catania was or ganized by the 566 years old University of Catania and supported by the General Association of Medi terranean Archaeology (GAMA). SOMA, among other conferences and symposiums on archaeology, represented a step forward by its two fundamental aspects: first of all, it covers a wide geography and time span; then, it is also an

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opportunity for the participants to get acquainted with regions, material cultures, and archaeological debates unrelated to their area and period of spe cialization. The scope of a conference on archae ology is mostly limited with a given period, region or branch of investigation narrows the spectrum of the participants. SOMA, in this respect, gathers all the researchers specialized on the Mediterranean region and offers to the archaeologists who can barely cope with following the extensive literature on their area of specialization, the opportunity to have a relatively complete picture on this wide geography that has been the core of great civili sations and intensive interactions throughout the human history. Secondly, SOMA promotes the policy of encour aging young researchers to present their papers and posters in a friendly atmosphere to an inter national audience. This year, as in the previous ones, several MA and PhD students not only gained

their first experience of giving a presentation in an international symposium but also received feedback from prominent specialists in order to improve the quality of their thesis. This year, the symposium reached the maximum number of participants and presentations. In two days, 165 papers in English, divided in four sessions according to the period and the field of investig ation, were presented concurrently in four differ ent halls of the Monastery of San Nicol lArena that hosts the Faculty of Humanities of the Uni versity of Catania. The orientation skills of the participants was tested in the labyrinthlike corridors of this 500 years old astonishing late baroque monument that is one of the biggest Be nedictine Monasteries in Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first session of the symposium was reserved to Classical Archaeology. While the presentations of

Group photo of the participants.

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the first day were predominantly about Anatolian sites, those of the second day comprised mostly the sites in Italy and North Africa, as well as the interactions and similar traits in the Mediterranean region. On the first day of the session A, the west ern archaeologists had the opportunity to get a general idea about the surveys and excavations carried out in Asia Minor comprising the Greek, Hellenistic and Roman periods. The paper of Ahmet Yaras on the famous health center of Allianoi, that unfortunately has been submerged underwater because of a dam construction after being subject to serious debates in Turkey, was definitely the highlight of the first day classical archaeology session. In the same session, at the second day, the paper of Veronica Iacomi and Emanuele Cas agrande on the distribution pattern of Rhodian amphorae in the late Hellenistic Period revealed clearly the intensity and complexity of interre gional trade over a wide geography reaching the Red sea and Bactria, in a period of multi centred political atmosphere, through the chronological seriation of Rhodian stamps and the historical and stratigraphic analysis of some sites. The preclassical archaeology was the theme of the second session. This time, the first day the Sicili an sites constituted the majority of the treated areas; in the second day different geographic re gions were encompassed, including Asia Minor, Crete, Italy, Cyprus and so on. The paper of Biazzo Lorenzo on textiles in early Bronze Age Sicily was important for reminding us that there are still so many untouched or slightly investigated topics in archaeology: one of them is the textile production, particularly in the preclassical period, which is an ironic situation considering that the artefacts related to the textile production are the common findings of any excavation. This topic, which has only begun to be investigated after 90s thanks to the pioneering works of the Centre for Textile Re search in Copenhagen, has a lot to promise taking
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Poster from a photographic exhibition on Archaeology in Turkey.

into consideration the scarcity of published ma terial on this issue. The third session was focused on History, Epi graphy, Numismatics and Medieval Archaeology and introduced nice examples of cooperation of archaeology with the methodology of philology and history. Although the proportion of the papers with topics on Late Roman Empire Period in Asia Minor and Late Antique period in Sicily was signi ficantly high, three successive presentations about the Vandals who dominated the Mediterranean as a serious threat against the Roman Empire between mid 5th and mid 6th centuries, were highly instruct ive since they revealed the complex economic and commercial system adopted by the Vandals whom we are used to consider just as a community of skilled warriors. The forth and last session was devoted to two different topics, namely Archaeology and Sci
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ences on the first day and Underwater and naval archaeology, historiography, museography on the second. The application of GIS, spectroscopic techniques, virtual reconstruction, 3D photo modelling, facial reconstruction and the emphasis given on creating databases changed dramatically in the last 30 years the definition and methodo logy of archaeology, introducing computer science into archaeological research and creating digit alized information. The project of Trapeza presen ted by Alessandra Cilio mentioning the database created for the domestic pottery in Sicily from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period is a good example to denote the contribution of forming such data bases to interpret the corpus of ceramics that are difficult to deal with through traditional methods. Aysun Altunz Yonuk put emphasis on the cooper ation of forensic anthropology, the art of sculpture and archaeology, in order to reconstruct the face of unearthed skulls. Massimiliano Limoncelli and Guiseppe Scardozzi presented a good example of modern methodology in dealing with architectural remains in which they showed that even the scanty remains can provide enough data necessary for the virtual reconstruction of the past through the use of modern prospection methods. The first topic of the next day was underwater ar chaeology. Hakan niz presented at first the pre liminary results of the ongoing survey at the coast line of Antalya region in Turkey, a country that is surrounded by seas crucial for the transportation of humans and ideas over thousands of years and where underwater investigations are ironically scarce. Following this, Mr. niz mentioned about one of the great archaeological discoveries in Tur key in the last decades: the ancient city of Batho nea excavated by Sengul Aydngun and its harbour investigated by Hakan niz at Kucukcekmece Lake in Istanbul. The paper of Vesna Zmaic, from the International Center for Underwater Archaeology in Zadar, was impressive in terms of richness of
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wrecks in Eastern Adriatic and inspiring regarding the intensiveness of underwater investigations in Croatia. The attempt of Eduard Ble Gimeno to visualise a portion of the Second Punic War that we know in detail through the work of Polybius by the investigation of archaeological evidences in the northeast coastline of Iberian Peninsula might be a good model for the future attempts to test the written historical sources through archaeological investigations. The high amount of papers impeded attending all of the presentations. The ones mentioned above are just selected examples among many other pres entations that are without any doubt the result of rigorous work, wherefore the publication of the symposium proceedings should definitely find its place in the personal libraries. The symposium was not limited to paper present ations. A poster session was held in the Monastery comprising archaeological, archaeometric, ethno archaeological and architectural investigations done primarily in Sicily and in the rest of Italy but also in Spain and other areas within the Mediter ranean region. On the last day, the participants attended a poster and photography exhibition entitled Archaeology in Turkey at Paoli Orsi Regional Archaeological Museum, following a nice trip to Syracuse and the island of Ortigia where they witnessed a small yet impressive portion of the archaeological remains in Sicily. The exhibition, organised by Catania Uni versity and Eastern Mediterranean University and supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey and the General Association of Mediter ranean Archaeology, was held between the 5th and 21st of March, 2011. The posters included mostly the Classical and Medieval sites of Anatolia and gave a basic idea to the participants about some of the current archaeological investigations in Turkey.
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During the poster session.

Such an intensive program is realized through the strenuous efforts of the organizing and scientific committees of the symposium, as well as the stu dents of Catania University who worked voluntarily at the registration and information desk. The or ganizing committee was headed by Assoc. Prof. Pietro Militello (Catania University) and Dr. Hakan niz (Eastern Mediterranean University and GAMA) and composed of Ceyda ztosun (GAMA and East ern Mediterranean University), Dr. Davide Tanasi, Dr. Francesca Buscemi, idem Klekiolu (Boga zici University) and Ali Klncbay (Eastern Mediter ranean University). The scientific committee was composed of: from the Catania University, Assoc. Prof. Pietro Maria Militello, Assoc. Prof. E. Felici, Assoc. Prof. M. Frasca and Assoc. Prof. P. Mazzoleni; from the Seluk University, Prof. Ahmet Adil Trpan, Assoc. Prof. Asuman Baldran and Assist. Prof. Er tekin Doksanalt (GAMA); and Dr. Ehud Galili (Is rael Antiquity Authority), Assoc. Prof. Carole Gillis (University of Lund), and Dr. Evanghelos Kyriakidis (University of Kent).
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SOMA, hosted in previous years by several univer sities from different countries including Kiev Uni versity in Ukraine, Eastern Mediterranean Univer sity in North Cyprus, Selcuk University, Istanbul Technical University and Bakent University in Tur key, Trinity College, Institute of Archaeology Uni versity College of London, Universities of Glasgow, Liverpool, Sheffield, Birmingham, and Edinburgh in UK, will be held for the sixteenth time on March 13, 2012 in Italy, host kindly provided by the Uni versity of Florence. Following this organization, the 17th SOMA will be organized by the Russian Under water Cultural Heritage Centre in April 2013. Both organizations will be gladly supported by GAMA.

HAKAN NIZ
Eastern Mediterranean University Contact: Hakan.oniz@emu.edu.tr

IDEM KLEKIOLU
Bogazici University Contact: cigdemkulekcioglu@gmail.com
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CONSERVATION MATTERS IN WALES


Review by Sarah Lawrence December 15, 2010 Aberdare, Wales Organised by: National Museum Wales, The Federation of Museums and Art Galleries of Wales and Cardiff University

Roman bone dice before damage.

The annual Christmas Conservation Matters in Wales Conference was held at Cynon Valley Mu seum and Gallery Aberdare South Wales, on 15th December 2010. The conference was organized by National Museum Wales, The Federation of Mu seums and Art Galleries of Wales and Cardiff Uni versity. This years conference was titled Conser vation: Added Value and consisted of seven pres entations from a range of professionals working across Wales and England. The first of the presentations was from Emily OReil ly, Senior Paper Conservator at National Museum Wales, entitled Place & Chips: reconstructing a sketchbook but how do we display it?. Emily spoke about the challenges surrounding the dis play of a sketchbook by Francis Place drawn in 1678. Emily explained that some of the drawings were made from two or more separate sketches joined together and then attached to a secondary support of late 18th early 19th century woven pa per. The sketches were removed from the second ary mounts, this revealed that some of the pages with sketches on either side were actually a con tinuation of the first page and so formed a double page spread. The sketches did not need extensive treatment and were not washed.
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It was decided not to display the sketches in a traditional gallery setting, as this would have had limited the number of sketches that could be viewed. The decision was made to scan and digit ally stitch the sketches back together, so that the two sides could be shown as a whole and reveal the panorama views drawn in 1678. Although the conservation methods used on these sketches are well established, scanning and digitally stitching the sketches back together made a huge differ ence to their display. These sketches can be viewed at URL. Well worth a look! Next up was David Pearson from Cardiff University. David recently graduated from Cardiff University with a BSc in the Conservation of Archaeological and Museum Objects. He is now a conservator work ing at Cardiff University. Davids Presentation was titled A Very Odd Dice: Reconstructing a Roman Bone Dice. David was given a Bone dice from New port Museum as a project in his second year at Cardiff. The dice had been on display at Newport museum when someone had taken the dice and decided to see how it would role. Needless to say the dice was not in a good condition when it came to David. In order to establish the level of damage David drew a map of the dice highlighting dam
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Roman bone dice after rolling incident.

aged and missing areas. He decided consolidation, adhesion and gap filling would be required to pre pare the dice for going back on display. The dice was injected twice with Butvar B98 5% Ethanol to consolidate the bone. The adhesive used was Lascaux 498HV and David then used Butvar B98 again along with micro balloons at a ratio of 1:3 for the gap fill and in painted the gap fills using acrylic paints. The end result was impressive! This dice defiantly benefited from conservation and has had value added to it especially from the publics perspective. The next talk was given by Juliet Clay and was ti tled The dilemmas of a Book Conservator. Juliet is a self employed book conservator. Her talk ex amined what dilemmas a book conservator can come up against and how she overcame them. Juliet takes the natural approach to conservation, this means no solvents. Instead of synthetic adhesives she tends to opt for natural adhesives, animal glues, egg white and milk. Because of this approach, Juliet does not need so much of the large or expensive equipment an objects conservator may otherwise need, such as a fume cupboard, etc. Juliet works closely with her clients to achieve the best option for them and the objects. Courtney Buxey Brown gave the next talk. This was on the wonderfully named CSI: Sittingbourne
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Roman bone dice during and after intervention.

The Value of Volunteers, CSI standing for Con servation Science Investigation. Courtney presen ted the CSI: Sittingbourne Project. In May 2008, archaeologists in Sittingbourne discovered 229 graves and around 2500 objects. This discovery was of great significance to the local community but presented a massive conservation challenge. In order to meet that challenge local volunteers were utilized to help with the conservation work. CSI: Sittingbourne was set up with help from loc al professionals, local historians and the wider community. The volunteers were trained by conservators and observed closely to make sure they had sufficient skills to work on the objects. The project was a mas sive success and could not have achieved all it did,
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without the help of the volunteers and the wider community. If you wish to learn more about this project please visit http://anglosaxoncsi.word press.com/. After lunch, the conference settled back down to listen to Peter J. Davids talk titled Conservators, artists damage and value. Peter is an accredited ceramics conservator based in the South Wales area and works on a large variety of ceramics. His talk focused on how conservation can add value. He has recently worked on contemporary ceramics, illustrating the issues with these, for instance many modern potters dont glaze the ceramics and may use materials such as car paint, which cause prob lems like yellowing and can limit the treatment options available to the conservator. He went on to pose the question how do we define value? Is it historical personal, rarity or are these all inter linked? He also asked how does conservation add value? It can have intangible results with some people saying it looked like it did before, although the structure is now sound. Peter also discussed how much information can be found whilst con serving an object and how this may add value to the object. Peters talks are always very interesting and ask important questions, opening up discussion and debate, an important part of the conservation process. Next up was Sarah Paul, who is currently working as Collections Adviser on Museums Archives and Libraries Wales (CyMAL), with a talk called Sig nificance Model for Assessing Collections. Sarah spoke about Cymals plan to develop a significance model for use on museums collections. Cymal plan to develop the tools to help museums to assess, and understand the significance of their collections. They are aiming to undertake a pilot project in one museum. Key values of this model would be historic, artistic or aesthetic, scientific or research potential, and social or spiritual sig
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nificance. This model could be applied to single objects and to entire collections so it can be ad apted to fit any size of collection. Sarah explained that the model is aimed to aid curators and col lections managers in assessing the importance and relevance of their collection, and would also help with the disposal of objects as well as acces sioning. The last speaker of the day was David Leigh, con servation consultant. Davids talk was Another step towards professionalism? Conservation standards. He spoke on the importance of de veloping standards in conservation. This topic is most important in the development conservation as a profession. David explained what is meant by the term standard, how they are relevant in many other professions and how they are vital for the conservation community. However, he also explained that standards are not meant to control or suffocate conservators. Instead, they are intended to be tools to help and guide, often being supported by industry and reflecting cur rent issues and practice. The Conservation Matters in Waless Conferences are always fascinating and well worth the 20 (10 usually for students). This conference was no exception. The next Conservation Matters in Wales will be held on the 16th June 2011 in Na tional Museum Cardiff Cathays Park.

SARAH LAWRENCE
Conservatorrestorer Contact: sarahlawrence6@hotmail.co.uk Sarah Lawrence graduated from Cardiff Univer sity with a BSc in the Conservation of Archaeolo gical and Museum Objects. She is currently work ing as Historic Interiors Conservator for National Museum Wales St. Fagans.
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The events in this section are linked to the original homepage of the organisers or to the calendar of events at http://www.conservationevents.com. Click on "Read more..." to find out details about each event.

From Can to Canvas


Early uses of house paints by Picasso and his contemporaries in the first half of the 20th century
Date: May 2527 Place: Marseille and Antibes, France This threeday symposium will be the first to deeply Read more...

Aligning National Approaches to Digital Preservation May 2011


Date: May 2325 Place: Tallinn, Estonia This conference intends to provide a participa tory forum for information exchange and fo cused work on these topics for the purpose of building international collaborations to sup port the preservation of our collective digital memory. The outcome will be a strategic align ment of national approaches to enable new forms of international cooperation and an edited volume that documents an action plan for building collaboration among interested digital preservation initiatives. Read more...

delve into the making of early house paints (and other nonartists' paints) and the meanings associated with their use by artists before 1950. Studies of Ripolin brand house paint, said to have been used extensively by Pablo Picasso (18811973) and his contemporaries will receive special attention.

ReThinking Technology in Museums 2011


Date: May 2527 Place: Marseille and Antibes, France In recent years, the increased presence of mobile smart appliances and the growth of social media have impacted on the strategies deployed by museums and exhibition sites to invite, engage and connect with visitors and stake holders. This conference will reflect on how museums/ galleries and visitors have been affected from an experi ential point of view. Read more...

4th

symposium on Preserving Archaeological Remains in situ (PARIS4)


Date: May 2326 Place: Copenhagen, Denmark After fifteen years of research and practical application the time is ripe to evaluate the efficacy of in situ preservation as a means of managing the cultural resource. The key aim of the conference is to present and discuss the latest knowledge, focusing on long term studies of degradation and monitoring of archaeolo gical sites preserved in situ in urban, rural and marine environments. Read more...

AIC 39th Annual Meeting: Ethos Logos Pathos


Ethical Principles and Critical Thinking in Conservation
Date: May 31 June 3 Place: Philadelphia, PA, USA The goal of this year's meeting is to examine how ethics, logic, and perception guide conservation decisions. As sumptions long held in the practice of conservation are being challenged by the modern world. Environmental sustainability, economic drivers, art as entertainment, the use of cultural heritage, and public access concerns changing the practice of conservation. Read more...

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May 2011

EVENTS

University training of restoration within the European educational context June 2011
Date: June 12 Place: Litomysl, Czech Republic The Colloquium will be organized in connection with the comparative project of study methods used in conservation / restoration and syllabus of study at prestigious educa tional institutions in Europe. Topics will include trends in contemporary university education in the context of res toration approaches in heritage preservation, alternative forms of education for conservators/restorers, etc. Read more...

Conservation Matters in Wales Use and Misuse of Objects


Date: June 16 Place: Cardiff, UK This one day conference will consist of six presentations, among which: "Working Machinery, Care and Maintenance" by Paul Meredith (National Museum Wales); "Tabernacl Chapel ceiling Pontypridd: Users and abusers, past present and future" by Katie Hebborn (Cardiff University); "Bringing National Trust Properties to Life" by Clare Stoughton Harris (The National Trust). Read more...

Heritage 11
The Second International Fair of conservation, restoration, restoration of castles and historical buildings Date: June 13 Place: Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia The aim of the fair is to draw attention to local and public cultural heritage in Serbia and the necessity of raising awareness of the need for its protection in order to preserve it for future generations, as well as how to prepare for the use of funds of the European Union for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. Read more...

Prehistory at the cross roads of science and conservation


Date: June 18 July 2 Read more [pdf]... Place: Quinson (Alpes de HauteProvence), France Prehistoric sites represent assets facing serious challenges in terms of research, interpretation and conservation, and a UNESCO World Heritage Thematic Programme on Prehistory was recently launched to address them in terms of good practices. The Intensive Program aims at developing a dialogue between scientists, teachingstaff, heritage professionals and students who will undertake a career in such specialized fields.

3D: digitise, deliver, discover


Date: June 6 Place: Manchester, UK Unlike most events of this kind which tend to be highly specialised, 3D will be wideranging and aimed at a broader target audience, to include academics and students, technical experts and digital novices with an interest in digitisation. Over the course of the day, through a series of case studies and panel discussions, we will explain, develop and harness the needs of the initiator, maker and user of digital content by exploring various themes. Read more...

ICE Forum (London 2011) International Curation Education Forum


Date: June 29 Place: London, UK The aim of this event is to provide an international meeting place for educators, trainers, students and practitioners of digital curation to: discuss, evaluate, swap knowledge, and potentially improve practice around an effective curricula and course design; the production of advice and guidance materials, and the creation and use of textbooks and scholarly material. Read more...

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June 2011

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article

OLD INTERVENTIONS & NEW POSSIBILITIES

Applications of digital technology in reconservation


By Eleni Kotoula
This article examines reconservation of archaeological objects and presents the main problematic aspects involved in such complex projects. Their analysis manifests the technological needs and raises ethical issues. A methodological direction is proposed, based on digital technology, which provides solutions to retreatment problems and alternatives to traditional techniques. It does not intent to set principles, but to approach hightech reconservation from a different perspective, following contemporary conservation theory in order to determine the changes introduced to conservation from the application of digital technologies.

APPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN RECONSERVATION

Introduction The felicitous remark that a conservation interven tion is an open window to the artefacts past and one of the most influential parameters for its fu ture, underlines the necessity to fully understand every operation as an episode of unique signifi cance during its lifetime [1]. The increasing in terest for earlier conservation treatments and derestoration dilemma are thus justified [2]. Conservation in cooperation with conservation science is obliged to meet the needs of successful retreatment. Conservation theorists have discussed the multilevel relation of science and technology with conservation. Physical sciences developed techniques for diagnostic examination, archaeo metry and characterisation of materials and the application of scientific methodology in conserva tion enforced objectivity. Nevertheless, the rela tively unbalanced contribution of science in resolv ing dramatic conservation problems or, in other words, the tendency to keep away from the dan gerous domain of practical conservation was cri ticised in conservation literature, as well as the damage caused by the unjustified sense of superi ority of technology and, as a result, the modern isation of materials and processes without accurate scientific justification [3]. Practical techniques that meet the needs of complex treatment dilem mas and bridge the gap between pure scientific knowledge and useful solutions should be deve loped, achieving hightech conservation with high efficiency [4]. Research in the field of digital tech nology is directed towards this approach. For ex ample, at a European level the 3DCOFORM project develops 3D documentation and other applications in cultural heritage professionals work [5]. Virtual and physical replication Examining other methods of interpretation outside the object offers an opportunity to conservators
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to understand the object better and to incorporate a better interpretation of it into the treatment, considering that success in decision making de pends on the conservators ability to distinguish the ideal state [1]. Digital technology offers the tools for the evaluation of such an interpretation. Virtual and/or physical reconstruction comes in accordance even with the strictest material fetish ists concepts [6]. There is no doubt that replica tion, either physical or virtual, acts as a preventive conservation measure and contributes significantly in education and dissemination. Fragile, special and rare artefacts sometimes are not allowed to travel for security and safety reasons, contrary to physical replicas and virtual artefacts. Worth men tioning is that the visual or written records are responsible for the preservation of a vast amount of knowledge from previous generations. Thanks to replicas of artefacts, information related to cultural heritage has been saved after natural disasters or wars. The best approach in cases of impossible preservation, such as uncontrollable environmental conditions and extremely bad con servation state, is to record, copy and store se curely the replica or to replace the original with the replica [7]. Digitisation and virtual reconstruction/restoration of artefacts for conservation purposes is proposed in various cases such as extreme dimensions and weight, as well as in case of extremely fragile and unstable artefacts [8]. Advanced computational techniques offer tools for virtual recreation by means of highfidelity ultrarealistic modelling of artefacts. The almost limitless possibility for representation of the ideal state or a series of preceding or future states, gains value in case of impracti cable or ethically forbidden operations, by providing an alternative solution to treatment dilemmas. Also, virtual artefacts can improve decision making and enrich or justify treatment proposals. Virtual reconstruction can restore the
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ELENI KOTOULA

aesthetic value of archaeological objects and si multaneously enhance investigation and enable better preservation. Digitisation and virtual re construction of the current and the following state fulfils documentation requirements and provides better alternatives to traditional techniques. In cases of physical reconstructions, the threedimen sional model can map the correct position of each fragment, instead of labelling. Conservation hy pothesis can be tested virtually, avoiding the hand ling required for traditional approaches. Other promising options to be considered are the pho tographybased digital imaging techniques, such as Reflection Transformation Imaging (RTI), be cause they improve the accuracy of digital repres entation and aid conservation [9]. PTM proved to be a valuable tool and found numerous applica tions in conservation recording and comparison, analysis, representation and dissemination, in a variety of material types [10]. Rapid prototyping has found numerous applica tions in the cultural heritage sector [11]. It provides solutions for documentation, and the condition monitoring, structural gap filling storage and dis play are superior to traditional moulding and cast ing replication techniques because they do not require contact with the original material. Previous research gave encouraging results for gapfilling applications [12] while the experimentation for colour enhancement [13] and control of the age ing properties of rapid prototyping materials [14] continues. Documentation can be transferred to a new level of excellence by means of digital technology. Tra ditional recording or information preservation stra tegies, namely drawing and photography, fail to depict the amount of detail needed for conserva tion purposes. Drawings and photographs are two dimensional representations of threedimensional objects, but digitisation and 3D modelling over
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come this deficiency. Moreover, drawings depend on the designers judgement. Consequently, the level of objectivity of such records is questionable. Nonphotorealistic rendering (NPR) presents a more accurate record because it is influenced by known computational limitations and not by un predictable human perception. Reconservation problems & Hightech Conservation solutions Excessive cleaning Cleaning strategies have changed during the last decades [15]. In the vast majority of previous conservation, cleaning altered the appearance of artefacts significantly by means of subtraction of encrustations, corrosion layers, dust and other particles depositions. For some material types, such as bronze, excessive cleaning proved to be responsible for severe damage [16]. Simultane ously, deep cleaning destroyed data of great im portance, such as residues of food in vessels, sensi tive organic remains, engravings and inscriptions, etc. For example, the archaeological evidence is lost forever when pottery undergoes chemical cleaning by means of strong acids solutions. Now adays, semi, fully or nonmineralised organic matter as well as impressions on metals are sub jected to thorough examination. However, Caple reasonably states that previous generations un derestimated this phenomenon and would have proceeded to deep cleaning because for them ar chaeological evidence consisted of different ele ments [17]. A problem strongly related to the change in conservation practice is the presence of fragments that belong to the same artefacts in different conservation states [18]. The identi fication of fragments is a longlasting problem in conservation. Sometimes it is impossible to determine the correct positioning of each frag ment or, even worse, to group some fragments
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APPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN RECONSERVATION

as parts of the same object. As a result, some frag ments were deeply cleaned while others were left in museum storerooms. Conservators face a prac tical and ethical dilemma: aesthetics and/versus authenticity and/versus preservation. Virtual reconstruction offers almost limitless pos sibilities for representation of preceding states, which is useful in overcleaned artefacts and in deconservation dilemmas. The treatment of re cently discovered fragments, which belong to deeply cleaned artefacts, can be focused on their longterm preservation, while the original appear ance of the artefact can be appreciated in its di gital version with respect to the authenticity. Minimalist and antiminimalist opinions [19] co exist, in accordance with ethics and contemporary conservation theory, because this approach en courages preservation of the original material and presentation of its authentic appearance without neglecting the history of the objects, expressed via its previous restoration. Extensive restorations: gapfilling and retouching Gapfilling and retouching are among the most common examples of extensive restorations, caus ing aesthetic, structural and ethical problems. In general, the aesthetics of restorations remain a matter of subjective judgement and debate. Usu ally the aesthetic result of an old restoration is not satisfactory, not only due to the change in taste but also to the presence of deficiencies, either manufacture mistakes or deterioration effects. Structural problems mainly derive from bad co hesion between the original and the filling ma terial, mainly caused by dimensional changes of the filler, accompanied by cracks on the restored gap. Consequently, there is a high possibility of fracture and loss of original material. At the same time, derestoration is a risky operation due to
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the application of physical forces and the use of solvents. Moreover, even after removal of the pre vious restoration, the artefact will have to face another cycle of operations for gapfilling purposes, once again under physical and chemical pressure. Traditional methods based on moulding and cast ing techniques, require contact with the original material endangering its safety. As a result, they are not applicable in most fragile artefacts. Fur thermore, extensive restoration raises ethical is sues. Sometimes the filling hides original material, which is not acceptable according to conservation ethics. Another interesting case is the discovery of fragments that belong to already filled areas of artefacts [20]. The risk of the removal of the restoration and the potential benefit of retreat ment should be taken under consideration without underestimating the significance of the previous restoration for the objects biography, even if it is not appropriate by contemporary museum standards. In artefacts with extensive gap filling and retouch ing, virtual reconstruction restores the historical truth. Advanced techniques, such as CAT (Com puterized Axial Tomography) scanning, can be used to reveal details of the original object, hid den under the restoration, and as a result to rep resent a state closer to the pretreatment one. Computeraided fragment matching is useful for decision making in case of deconservation oper ations, where manual match testing is impossible. In a recent article, matching of fragments based on colour, shape and surface normal characteristics leads to better results for deteriorated artefacts than other computational approaches [21]. The virtual artefact overcomes aesthetic problems of previous repairs, without exposing the original artefact to risks of removal of old conservation materials. In general, the debate about the aes thetics of restorations and the deconservation dilemma can be reexamined virtually, enabling
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more objective decision making. If the structural stability of the object is in danger, 3D modelling and rapid prototyping can lead to the manufac turing of a gapfilling, without contact with the object, reducing rerestoration risks. Inappropriate materials and treatment methodology Collections condition surveys reveal failure of a long list of conservation materials and techniques widely used in the past as well as modern ones. Joining problems, one of the most typical opera tion applied in a large variety of material, demon strates perfectly the negative effects of recon struction failure. Even modern products deteri oration, such as acrylic and vinyl adhesives, leads to discoloration (yellowing), white blooming, changes in volatility, solubility, tensile strength and pH, decay and distress [22]. Finally, the ob ject collapses, usually accompanied by loss of ori ginal material and alteration of the fragments outline. The fracturing separates minor or small parts of the fragment, adhered to the damaged adhesive. This action signals an irreversible alter ation, once it is impossible to remove adhesives totally [23]. Whether this alteration threatens the retreatability of the object depends on the extent of lost material, considering that joining minor pieces is impracticable. Virtual reconstruction of artefacts and advanced preservation of archae ological evidence can limit the use of chemicals, such as adhesives, and, as a result, the amount of reconstruction failure. Fracture depends also on the insufficient support provided to the material through direct and in direct operations. Due to the lack of preventive conservation measures (indirect actions) artefacts excavated and conserved in the past followed a considerably rapid aging. Mishandling and inap propriate storage and display are factors of long
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term deterioration, responsible for the vast ma jority of damages after excavation. Apart from the control of environmental conditions, appro priate packaging is necessary in order to prevent further deterioration. Artefacts found complete and in good conservation state can suffer irre versible damage due to bad environmental con ditions and packaging materials. Inadequate cush ioning introduces physical forces and can damage objects. Fragments stored without special care are usually found disintegrated after some years. Fresh breaks appear and the outline of the fragments changes due to loss of material. Virtual reconstruc tion can limit the amount of handling and pace the rate of deterioration. Rapid prototyping can provide a packaging solution and consequently can enhance preventive conservation measures. Restoration such as gabfilling falls in the category of direct operations, which influence reconstruc tion failure. The expansion of the ideas of minimum intervention in the previous decades found fanatic supporters and influenced everyday conservation practice dramatically. Gapfilling operations are blamed as unnecessary interventions, which threat en the authenticity. But the replacement of lost material is crucial because it restores the objects aesthetic integrity in addition to its structural strength [24]. The significance of the later was ignored and limited structural support was provided to incomplete artefacts or joined fragments res ulting in fracturing, usually followed by further damage. The successful implementation of adapt able gapfillings, without affecting the material integrity, will provide improved structural support to fragile artefacts and, as a result, will limit sig nificantly the amount of fracturing. Discussion The contemporary ideas of minimal loss of poten tial meanings [25] or postminimal intervention
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APPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN RECONSERVATION

[26] are embodied in the proposed retreatment approach. The potential negative consequences of conservation treatment, related both to the material and to the nonmaterial aspect of arte facts, are minimized. The interaction of the con servator with the original physical artefact is lim ited, reducing risks and potential damage. Worth mentioning is that the humanobject interaction follows decreasing rates in the last decades [27] and was considered a characteristic feature of the future conservator [3]. Virtual models of artefacts enable better preservation and improve the re treatability of original artefacts considerably. The remedial operations on the authentic materials are limited once revelation activities are mainly executed virtually. The value of the object, its intellectual meaning, is more protected and has higher chances of correct interpretation because the examination of the physical signs is enhanced thanks to advances in digital tools. Thus, the origi nal material is preserved in the most objective way without being affected by subjective judgement. Although the virtual artefact can be analysed and interesting conclusions be reached, it fails to pre serve the physical evidence of past civilisations [17]. Nevertheless, it also contributes in present and future reinvestigation indirectly. The original artefact is neither contaminated by chemicals nor further deteriorated, so it is transferred in an advanced reexaminable state for future sci entists. The potential benefit for material culture specialists to study the virtual model offers the opportunity for improved research, both qualit atively and quantitatively. The debate over the virtual versus the real expe rience [28] is not synonymous to the debate over the virtual versus the real artefact. The statement that, by means of informational preservation, the original object can become more dispensable for some people [4] does not necessarily mean that
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the original will be transformed to a less favour able state. The virtual and the real are created to fulfil different goals in different historical times and under different circumstances, so their co existence is necessary. Conclusion Digital technologies have vast potential in con servation examination, analysis, interpretation, treatment, documentation, presentation and dis semination. Their application in reconservation projects can be considered among the most in teresting. The alternative methodology towards retreatment presented in this article is strongly influenced by recent developments in computer science, but does not distance itself from conser vation ethics. Not only it overcomes conservation problems by providing alternative solutions, but also addresses issues of interdisciplinary research. This cooperative approach guides conservators to problem solving and computer scientists to the enhancement of digital technologies.

Acknowledgments I am grateful to Dr. D. Ignatiadou, A. Kapizioni, S. Athanasiadou and V. Michalopoulou of the Ar chaeological Museum of Thessaloniki and to Dr. G. Earl of the Archaeological Computing Research Group of the University of Southampton.

References [1] B. Appelbaum, Conservation Treatment Metho dology, ButterworthHeinemann, Amsterdam/ Boston, 2007 [2] E. Pye, Archaeological Conservation: Scientific Practice or Social Process", in Conservation Prin
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ciples, Dilemmas and Uncomfortable Truths, ButterworthHeinemann, Oxford, 2009, pp. 129138 [3] A. Melucco Vaccaro, P. Coremans, G. Torraca, and G. Urbani, The Role of Science and Techno logy, in Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, 1996, pp. 424450 [4] S. MuozVias, Contemporary Theory of Conservation, ButterworthHeinemann, Oxford, 2005 [5] D. Arnold, 3DCOFORM: Tools and Expertise for 3D Collection Formation, in EVA 2009, 2009, pp. 9499, available at URL [pdf] [6] J. Ree, AutoIcons, in Conservation Princi ples, Dilemmas and Uncomfortable Truths, But terworthHeinemann, Oxford, 2009, pp. 15 [7] C. Caple, Conservation Skills Judgement, Method and Decision Making, Routledge, Lon don, 2000 [8] A. Geary and E. Howe, Threedimensional documentation and virtual restoration of the Lichfield Angel, Journal for the Institute of Conservation 32 (2) 2009, pp. 165179, doi: 10.1080/19455220903059875 [9] M. Mudge, C. Schroer, G. Earl, K. Martinez, H. Pagi, C. TolerFranklin, S. Rusinkiewicz, G. Alma, M. Wachowiak, M. Ashley, N. Matthews, T. Noble and M. Dellepiane, Principles and Practices of Robust, Photographybased Digital Imaging Techniques for Museums, The 11th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage VAST, The Louvre, Paris, 2010, available at URL
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[10] G. Earl, K. Martinez, T. Malzbender, Archae ological applications of polynomial texture map ping: analysis, conservation and representation, Journal of Archaeological Science 2010, 37, 8, pp. 20402050, doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.03.009, available at URL [11] J. A. Logan, R. L.Barclay, P. Bloskie, C. Newton, and L. Selwyn, Saving the Ferryland Cross: 3D Scanning, Replication, and Anoxic Storage, in E. Williams and C. Peachey (ed.), The Conser vation of Archaeological Materials: Current Trends and Future Directions, BAR International Series 2116, Archaeopresss, Oxford, 2010, pp. 127134 [12] M. Fantini, F. Crescenzio, F. Persiani, S. Benazzi, and G. Gruppioni, 3D restituition, restoration and prototyping of a medieval damaged skull, Rapid Prototyping Journal 14(5), 2008, pp. 318 324 [13] R. Scopigno, R. Pintus, E. Gobbetti, and P. Cignoni, Color Enhancement for Rapid Proto typing, The 9th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Herit age, Eurographics, 2008, pp. 916, available at URL [pdf] [14] C. Trger, A.T. Bens, G. Bermes, R. Klemmer, Ricarda, J.Lenz, and S. Irsen, Ageing of acrylate based resins for stereolithography: thermal and humidity ageing behaviour studies, Rapid Proto typing 14(5), 2008, pp. 305317 [15] A. Oddy, The Philosophy of Restoration: New for Old, Conserving Textiles: Studies in the Honour of Agnes TimarBalazsy, ICCROM, 2009, pp. 117123 [16] J. Basset and W.T. Chase, Considerations in the Cleaning of Ancient Chinese Bronze Vessels,
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Ancient & Historic Metals: Conservation and Scientific Research, The J. Paul Getty Trust, 1994, pp. 6374 [17] C. Caple, The Aims of Conservation, in Conservation Principles, Dilemmas and Uncom fortable Truths, ButterworthHeinemann, Oxford, 2009, pp. 2531 [18] D. Ignatiadou, personal communication, 2010 [19] E. Wetering, The surface of objects and mu seum style, Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, 1981) [20] D. Ignatiadou, Two cast glass vessels from Derveni, Sti mnimi Manoli Adronikou Etaireia Makedonikon Spoudon, 1997, pp. 105114 [21] C. TolerFranklin, S. Rusinkiewicz, T. Funk houser, T. Weyrich and B. Brown, MultiFeature Matching of Fresco Fragments, ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proc. SIGGRAPH Asia), 2010, avail able at URL [pdf] [22] C. V.Horie, Materials for conservation: or ganic consolidants, adhesives, and coatings, Butterworths, London, 1987 [23] S.P. Koob, "Poly (vinyl acetate) and acrylic adhesives: a research update", in Holding it all together ancient and modern approaches to join ing, repair and consolidation, Archetype, London, 2009, pp. 113119 [24] S. Buys and V. Oakley, The Conservation and Restoration of Ceramics, ButterworthHeinemann, Oxford, 1993 [25] S. MuozVias, Minimal Intervention Re

visited, in Conservation principles, dilemmas and uncomfortable truths, ButterworthHeine mann, Oxford, 2009, pp. 4759 [26] C. Villers, Post minimal intervention, The Conservator 28(1), 2004, pp. 310 [27] J. AshleySmith, The Basis of Conservation Ethics, in Conservation principles, dilemmas and uncomfortable truths, ButterworthHeinemann, Oxford, 2009, pp. 623 [28] M. Cassar, Value of preventive conservation, Centre for Sustainable Heritage, 2006

ELENI KOTOULA
Conservatorrestorer Contact: e.t.kotoula@hotmail.com

Eleni Kotoula earned her BSc in Conservation from the Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Greece in 2007, her MSc in Archaeological Computing (Virtual Pasts) from the University of Southampton, UK in 2009. Her master thesis was focused on virtual reconstruction and ageing ana lysis of a glass, an enamelled metal and a painted ceramic from the collection of the Archaeological Museum of Southampton. She has worked as mu seum conservator (painted surfaces, wood, bone, textile, metal, glass, stone, ceramic), in monu mentsarchaeological sites (wall painting, mor tar, stone) and participated in research projects. Her PhD examines the application of advanced computational techniques for conservation docu mentation, analysis, examination and presenta tion of artefacts derived from the Derveni cemetery, located in the Archaeological Museum of Thessa loniki, Greece.

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MUSEUMS OF TECHNOLOGY Bridges of cultural identity

By Johannis Tsoumas

MUSEUMS OF TECHNOLOGY

This article focuses in the meaning of Museums of Technology, not only as repositories of historic traces of technology, but also in their importance as cultural evidence of a nation. Having focused on the necessity of Museums of Technology as crucial means of culture and civilization up to the point that they may consist in a landmark for the cultural identity of a people, this article tries to discuss the understanding of the importance of the museum exhibits. However, in the final conclusions it is shown that except from their local or even national value, these Museums can reveal, through their treasures, the importance of culture universality which nowadays is meant to constitute the basic bridge of civilization between all the nations and the peoples of the world.

Introduction The importance of technology in the historical development of the human race may prove to be catalytic, as it seems to be the cornerstone of our cultural architecture. The interest of this research is focused on the cultural value of technology museums worldwide: it does not have an unequi vocal part nor is it limited by museology hermetic clichs, as is often the case with museums of different subjects of interest. Instead, it aims to reveal its international dimensions by literally breaking its national character. Attention will be drawn to several elements which will be observed through short, but pertinent references to selected exhibit categories and a number of views will be expressed in order to help the reader realize the universal importance of these cultural establishments that form the basis of in stitutions, ideologies and experiences for the whole humanity.

production of material life, we realize that this seems to determine the general nature of the political, social and spiritual context in which the human species moves and develops. Thus, we can suggest the Asiatic, the ancient, the feudal and the modern production as the main eras of progress of the cultural formation of a society [1]. All this when seen through the prism of social anthropo logy can readily refer to the value of technology as a backbone for reading, analyzing and under standing the culture of a society. What is the role of technology in the effort to de code this culturallyformed social identity? What are the historical criteria, evidence and physical or ideological values which can help us reveal this identity? Here the Museum of Technology is presented as an important reference point in this quest as it is considered an undeniable source of information, tools, images, objects and activities that opposes the status quo of other types of museums around the world established since the 18th century [2]. The above axiom could be established by focusing our interest in each of the above areas separately, but this would be the beginning of a deep and extensive research on building up a Museum of Technology, which is beyond the objective of this article. Instead, we will focus our attention on
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Technology and Culture In History, the three major phases of human evol ution, nomadic, agricultural and industrial ages, determine the conditions of reflection which arises when we approach the cultural, spiritual and social identity of a nation. Looking at the
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JOHANNIS TSOUMAS

only one, however basic, scientific field to under stand some of the parameters, overt or otherwise, that determine the establishment of this very important institution. This field is the objects on display.

Key areas of exhibits This customarily conducted scientific process of selecting objects in a museum broadly follows the hereunder order: after collecting objects for dis play among prospective objects, they are at first evaluated while their registration and document ation comes next. Their categorization and group ing is the last, although important, stage of the selection process and are always in relation not only to species, but also to the number of avail able items; namely, two items that are usually formed depending on the region, culture, history, public awareness and many more features [3]. However, what are the main areas or categories of exhibits in a Museum of Technology under which an object may be regarded as an agent of social and technological culture? In order to illustrate this, some few examples are mentioned. One crucial area that includes objects representing the technological, social and cultural identity of a nation is the area of rural culture that can be divided into two major areas: a) the traditional technology which includes all the manual objects from a design and functional point of view made for producing processes based on the timeless values of the vernacular tradition (figure 1) and b) the modern technology, which includes objects, services and/or systems that are indicative ele ments of the contemporary development of technical knowhow [4]. The energy sector is another important area for obtaining information on the enrichment of sci
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Figure 1. Various objects for rural activities from the early 20th century. Technological Museum of Drama, Greece.

Figure 2. A collection of interwar machinery used in energy production. Technological Museum of Drama, Greece.

entific research and of correlation points of tech nology with the cultural identity of a nation. Not only do the systems, items or use from the past constitute still references to the cultural identity of a nation, but they also reveal their crosscultural importance, making it one of the major areas of world heritage (figure 2). It is also worth noting the transport sector, which stretches from the use of animals to the coaches (figure 3) and from the flying machine of Leonardo da Vinci to the achievements of the Right brothers. The value of the railway era, which allowed the transport of raw materials, products and human populations based on steam power since the 1830s, is another important milestone [5].
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Figure 3. Old but well maintained handpainted horse carriage from the early 20th century, southern Italy. Figure 4. Home and work objects showing the traditional way of life of the late 19th century, Greece.

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Figure 5 (above). Book engraving depicting the Taylors steam pump, England, 1840. Figure 6 (right). TV set reflecting the social, technological and aesthetical values of the late 1940s America.

Elements of folklore and popular tradition, his torically documented through the state of the art, but also from other scientific approaches, such as ethnographic and anthropological ones, arise from items on the domestic culture, also comprising the case of cottage industry. Utensils, equipment, appliances, tools and energy, among many other elements, add up to the irrefutable evidence of an encrypted microcosm, which can be easily decoded in the show cases of a Museum of Technology (figure 4). Information, knowledge and briefing are values that came to be the driving force of empowerment, stimulation, fixation or control of the masses and have their roots in the emergence of typo graphy in the 15th century. Thus, documentation which comprise from books to leaflets but also in
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any other form or media, becomes another ambigu ous area that can reveal the cultural identity of a nation [6] (figure 5). The communications sector is one of the most important sectors that illustrate the evolution of humanity as its history begins with the signs of human life. Since the symbols of cave paintings, but also since the primitive calendar until its contemporary form, modern communications are considered as primary factors that influence the most important and fundamental facts of human history. In fact, in most museums of Technology this area covers the greatest proportion of the historical evolution of telecommunications, es pecially after 1830 when the first fixed semaphore systems started to emerge during the Industrial Revolution in Europe. Telegraph, telephone, radio,
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Figure 7. Photograph depicting people working (sponge collection before given to industry), Greece, 1950.

television and later computer networks and the Internet are among the major stations, from both a historical and technological aspect, in local, national or international course of the concept of culture, being at the same time multi dimensional sources of information for develop ment [7] (figure 6). An equally important assumption is the photo graphic material that may complement worthy information supplied by the original objects, and enables us to know the broader context within which the historical technological progress has evolved. Of course, we refer to places that hosted occasional industrial or small industrial units be longing to the field of industrial architecture and objects which are inaccessible. Of vital importance, from a folk or anthropological perspective, is the photographic material that documented the per sonnel, either skilled or unskilled, as well as of their lifestyle in general (figure 7).
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The internationalization of a Museum of Technology By analyzing the question of the evolution of technology through a wide range of exhibits of a museum of this type, we find specific types of utilitarian objects whose existence is found in many different, cultures in the course of centuries: the tools such as scissors and knifes and the ac cessories such as the coulter and straps. We may also notice that their functionality, despite several changes they have been subjected to from the beginning of their emergence, remains unaltered, certifying the classic sense of the vernacular tra dition. This concept leads us to accept the temporal dynamics of operational tools and accessories to a large extent on the culture upon which not only the current industrial principles relied, but most important, the evolution of mankind. Thus, it is not hard to find strong correlations between the History of Technology and Anthropology. Also, from
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the perspective of the concept of nation and cul tural identity, we find that the tools and accessor ies have always been a common base of functional and cultural value to all nations and in all eras of world history [8]. Although the idea of organizing museum came late in the 18th century and burgeoned during the 19th century, the era of nationalist ideal, nowadays a Museum of Technology is the culmin ation of the cultural history upholding with its exhibits an absolute opposition towards any form of nationalism. The objects of such museum col lections proclaim in an irrefutable way the concept of universality of technology, promoting the idea of unity between peoples, and the assumption of common human needs across the whole history. Today, globalization has dramatically formed the pace of change of our world to such an extent that it has most closely unbreakably linked the local, national element with the global element. For this reason, we can say that a Museum of Technology can help shape a sense of cultural identity that is no longer defined by national borders. Over that, however, one may counterargue the Marxist theory in which technology has always been synonymous with cultural imperialism [9]. Many of the exhibits of a Technology Museum are historical evidence of the validity that the states or nations that pioneered science and technology have had. Apart from their economic supremacy (interpreted in terms of production / business and commerce), their militaristic omnipotence (derived from the advanced technology and knowhow), it also enabled them to assert their authority, con trol, claim and / or subordinate the less powerful cultures. Among the prime examples is the case in England which, after the technological and sci entific flourishing during the Industrial Revolu tion, conquered the world [10].

Through the exhibits and depending on the era cultural, social and political context of the place where they were found we discover that techno logy has been the springboard of recommendations of new ways of life as it introduced evolution models that were immediately accepted, mainly by the upper social strata who had easier access to tech nological innovations. Through processing and, in many cases, craft items such as the sewing machine and the first radios, or services such as the telephone and the telegraph, the technological innovations are a challenge for a separate road to the "fair living", which spread to all social areas of the world during the 20th century. Therefore, the 20th century and particularly its second half was the scope of the spirit of global technological development in almost the entire social hierarchy of developed and developing na tions of the world. Plastic items, television, mass transport, telecommunications and the Internet are just some of the effects of technological and cultural pursuits, which not only did replace the traditional patterns of life, but also bridged in some way, the social classes gaps, at least in terms of consumption, such as mass and cheap ways of entertainment, communication and in formation. A museum exhibit with technological value provides not only information relating to the purely tech nical origin of the collection but it also constitutes an unmistakable mirror that reflects, through an interdisciplinary approach factors that complement its historic value. The science of Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Anthropology, Sociology, Ethno logy and the History of Business, Industrial Archi tecture and Design are just some of the disciplines of analysis and extrapolation of the History of

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Technology, which ultimately may not be seen as autonomous from its primary fields, as these are often important areas of research [11]. Finally, the issue of greatest importance on envir onment is an important incentive for many eco logicallyinformed and/or sensitized visitors, but mainly scientists and researchers who consider these exhibits as an ideal source of information and knowledge for the discovery of responsibility that lies with technology in the worlds desperate attempt to find solutions. This is another example of the contribution of a Museum of Technology in decoding the cultural identity of a state, a nation or ultimately the entire world map, as it undoubtedly bridges the actual incompatibility of the historical reality with the already common, international values and new perspectives. Conclusions In conclusion, we can highlight the multidimen sional importance of Technology Museums as agents of a major international heritage which is the birthplace and evolution of human intelligence and creativity. From an ideological point of view, these museums seem to undermine any national ist belief that has almost always been a barrier to any attempt to fruitful dialogue, objective scientific research or cultural research. At the same time, they promote the democratic concept of equality, fairness and social equation between peoples, especially when talking about the societies of the Western world, namely where the history of technology has gone through much of the progress so far. In addition, a cultural value is not a simple field or a historical retrospective nor is it one more occasion for the study of the past among academic circles or actual researchers. Instead, it is an important tool intended to help us to re search, to study and to address several key con temporary issues of global concern.
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References [1] E. Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, Blackwell Publishing, New York, 2006, pp. 5254 [2] J. A. Armstrong, Nations before Nationalism, Chapell Hill, N.C., 1982, pp. 292 [3] ICOM CIMUSET International Bulletin / Interna tional Committee of Museums of Science and Tech nology 1, Narodni Technicke Muzeum, Praha, 1975 [4] A. Dimarogkonas, , ( 1890) (The History of Technology, the Industrial Revolution (until 1890)), Macedonian Publications, Athens, 2003, volume II, pp. 7879 [5] J. Heskett, Industrial Design, Thames and Hudson, London, 1980, p. 128 [6] J. Tsoumas,

(17601914) (The History of the Decorative Arts and Architecture in Europe and America (17601914)), ION Publications, Athens, 2005, p. 187 [7] C. Chatenet, Les Tlgraphes chapp, L Ecole Centrale de Lyon, Lyon, 2003, p. 89 (also avail able at http://chappe.eclyon.fr/) [8] E. Paraskevopoulos,
, :

(SocietyEducationEnvironment, EcologySociety Education: reality and perspectives in Greece), Livanis Publications SR, Athens, 1996, p. 39 [9] T. Putnam, Household Choices, Futures Public ations, London, 1990, p. 70
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[10] R. Layton, The anthropology of art, F. Terza kis (ed.), 21st Century Publications, Athens, 2003, pp. 6667 [11] P. Woodhead, Museum Studies. A Guide to Library Resources, Leicester University, Leicester, 1978, p. 48

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS


econservation magazine is open to submission of articles on a wide range of relevant topics for the cultural heritage sector. Next deadlines for article submission are: for Issue 20, June 2011 submissions due 15th May 2011 for Issue 21, September 2011 submissions due 15th July 2011 Nevertheless, you can always submit your manuscript when it is ready. Between the receival of the manuscript until the final publication may pass up to 3 months according with: the number of the manuscripts on hold, submitted earlier by other authors the release date of the upcoming issue the preallocated space in the magazine to each section Please check our publication guidelines for more information.

JOHANNIS TSOUMAS Art and Design Historian Contact: iannis33@hotmail.com Johannis Tsoumas was born in Piraeus, Greece in 1963. His strong interest in Art led him to study abroad, namely HND and B.A. Hons in 3D Design and a M.A. in the History of Design at the Middle sex University, London. Later he pursued a PhD in the field of The Decorative Arts and Architec ture in the U.S.A. and Europe of the 19th century at the Aristoteleion University, Greece. He has published two books The History of the Dec orative Arts and Design and The emergence of plastics culture in Greece 19501970 and the third, "The role of women in the Greek magazines advertisements in the 60's", is on the way. He is currently working as an Art and Design Historian at the Hellenic Open University and at the Tech nical and Educational Institute of Athens.
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THE STREET IN THE PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY AS MEAN OF ART OR SCIENCE

By Maria Bostenaru

MARIA BOSTENARU

Art makes accessible to us worlds that we cannot understand through science. We focus on the street landscape in photography from the 19th20th century, applying concepts from the philosophy of photography. The concepts applied in this analysis are from Arnheim, Baudelaire, Bazin, Krakauer, Warburton, and Snyder & Walsh Allen. Various aspects of realism in photography at its beginnings are discussed. Examples are given on how archive photography, on the example of the TzigaraSamurcas collection and notable photographers such as Sommer and Genthe, is used for documentary reasons. For example, in restoration interventions or after events such as earthquakes to evoke the original image of the streetscape or to document the damages. The future of documentary photography with todays digital possibilities is also discussed. Considerations on photography as souvenir and about microlandscape photographs, such as family photographs that become documents, are also discussed. Street photography is a kind of photography of chance meeting of people crowds and vehicles. Photography is a door of access to memory. Introduction The understanding of the world which can be achieved through science is exceeded by that which can be done by means of art. In this paper we will focus on the landscape photography in the archive of the Romanian art historian Tzigara Samurcas and his 100 years old collection. The landscape of the street was chosen as it repres ents a combination between the life frame, the container offered by architectural elements, and the life way, the event which takes place in this public space, without loosing sight of the inter dependence between the two. For this reason, apart of the documentary value of the photo graphy regarding the physical frame and its com positional elements, an artistic value is needed to allow psychological access to the evoked world. The film critic Andr Bazin once wrote that if the history of the plastic arts is less a matter of their aesthetic than of their psychology then it will be seen to be essentially the story of resemblance, or, if you will, of realism [1]. Along this, an essay of Siegfried Krakauer about photographic real ism and avantgarde was republished, who was concerned in his early times with architecture and urbanism, and devoted himself to philosophy, sociology and film [1] in the Weimar time.
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Krakauer [2] calls photography "mirror with a memory" in the context of the photographic realism of the 19th century, which coincided with the positivism in the same century in France, fa vouring science in front of the metaphysic spec ulation, in full time of industrialization. This photographic realism current persists till today [2]. According to the same author, the photo graphy at its beginning was born under "a lucky star" through its capacity to serve both arts and science [2]. The wish to know and the search for the beautiful are interpenetrating when we regard a photograph [3]. Since the time of Daguerre, pho tographs are considered authentic documents [3]. In the realist manifesto from 1856 it is stated that "the artist's attitude toward reality should be so impersonal that he might reproduce the same subject ten times without any of his copies show ing the slightest difference" [3]. Krakauer makes reference in this context to the perception of the photographer by Proust ("The Guermantes Way"): "each face that we love [is] a mirror of the past" but we see it in the same place in our soul, through involuntary memories that superpose themselves [3]. The emotional detach is one of the virtues of the photographer in Prousts vision, seen as in the 19th century, "keeping a mirror in front of the nature" [2]. It is the "illusion by a mechanical
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reproduction in the making of which man plays no part", a psychological explanation through which the solution of realism was found in the process and not in the result [1]. In the reproduction of the subject the man is ab sent, with effect on the psychology of the image and its credibility; the documentary value, which seems bigger than in case of a drawing, is given by the process through which the image is born, it "is the model" [1]. Bazin proposes the study of the rivalry between drawing and photography in the magazines from 18901910 to see that the "feel ing for the photographic document developed only gradually" [1]. Snyder and Allen are against the idea according to which painting and photo graphy ask for different methods of interpretation because they are differently generated [4]. In order to discuss the idea they started with a historic view since 1889 when Emerson classified photographs in scientific ones, which offer inform ation, and artistic ones, which offer aesthetic pleasure [4]. Snyder and Allen mention that Stanley Canvell argued in the 1970s about the value without subjectivity of photography [4], statement that is connected by the authors them selves to the affirmations of Bazin [1], through automatism. Warburton [5], quoting Bazin [1], notes that the philosophy of photography at the end of the 20th century is based on the French theory of the realist film. The authenticity of photography is also underlined by Arnheim [6], connected to the "documentary" value in relationship with which we pose ourselves questions if the photography is "authentic", "cor rect" or "true" [6]. However, Snyder and Allen [4] state that Arnheim [6] does not do anything but to take over ideas about which Krakauer and Bazin wrote [1, 2], republished in 1980 by Trach tenberg. Refering to the value of a photograph
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as a "document", as opposite from that of "art", Snyder and Allen stated that "the documentary value of a photograph is not determined solely by Arnheim's questions of authenticity, correct ness, and truth. We can also ask what it means, who made it, for whom was it made, and why it was made in the way it was made", which are common questions for any document, including artistic documents and not only for photographic docu ments [4]. Krakauer [2] gives some examples of the applica tion of photography realism in science, which stands out even though the aspect of exactness is in the record of the detail and not that of the memory. Snyder and Allen [4] give examples of the application of photography in science in which the artistic aspect is lacking and where there is the need for an adequate education to understand the codi fication belonging to this, affirming that there are manuals, but also options included in some pho tographic cameras for photography methods ad equate for different fields, including architecture [4]. Especially in the case of historic photography, such as that of the 19th century photography or the one of the interwar time one, the memory aspect is useful for the researcher of today. Photographs of the interwar Bucharest such as those of Nicolae Ion escu [7] became the object of albums and postcards that serve the nostalgia of that time of the history of Romania, but are also an important research ele ment of the interwar architecture, of the way how these buildings characteristic for the image of the Bucharest centre appeared at the moment of their construction, the closest to the vision of the archi tect. Thus, the photograph of the Balcescu Boul evard on which the Carlton block of flats can be seen presents the stylistic unity of the boulevard before this was affected by earthquakes [7]. The Carlton block of flats collapsed in the 1940 earthquake and many others collapsed totally or
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Figure 1. Walter Gropius's MucheSchlemmer House, built in Dessau in 1927, was refurbished and reopened in 2002.

partially in the 1977 earthquake. Some buildings from those partially collapsed, such as the "Simu" block of flats, were rebuilt as they were while in others, such as the "Wilson" or the "Turist" (formerly "Palladio") block of flats, the corner was changed. The vision of the architects of the interwar time can be best understood from the photographs of that epoch, and it is a support for the research in history of architecture [8]. In the same way it can be understood which typologies were the most vulnerable to earthquakes, a use ful research instrument apart of the photographs after the event. Photographs from the Modernism period in Germany became particularly useful in the research before restoration interventions such as, for example, the Muche Schlemmer house of Gropius in Dessau [9], where there were interven tions which radically changed the shape of the whole facade [10] (Figure 1). Similar approaches of reconstruction were done with the Loos house in Vienna and would be needed for the house Vaida
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Comsa, architect Rudolf Frnkel on Zorileanu street, Bucharest. On the other hand, photogra phy in its early times did not have the memory of colour, which led to the false impression that Mod ernism was an architecture of the white [11], an idea infirmed by the studies of colour stratigraphy (and that of the drawing sketches of the architects) as shown, for example, in a study from Casa del Fascio [12]. Some critics see in the extension of digital pho tography the fact that the days of documentary photography are in their countdown, given the possibilities of manipulation and the lack of a physical archive of the initial image [6]. Despite this, the manipulation of the digital photography gives new possibilities. For example Randolph Langenbach juxtaposed in "The Piranesi Project, a Stratigraphy of Views of Rome" some engravings of Giambattista Piranesi from ca. 1750 with com binations of digital photography edited into a
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single image. Langenbach [12] explains the du rability in time of the Vedute, the engraved views of Piranesi of historical sites, through the fact that he captured the spirit of the place in order to present antique Rome to those who have the occasion to visit Rome. More than that: the images were not merely touristic but Piranesi, as quoted by Langenbach [13], wished to conserve these images for the eternity. The tourism gen erated by Piranesis Vedute lead in fact to a fac tual conservation [13]. The images surprise more than the objective of a photo camera does, given that the point of view of the painter can move dur ing the painting process. Digital photography also makes now possible such perspectives and the com parison of the engraved archive with the contem porary situation of the ruins, very similar in this case. It is a new truth, that of the spirit of the place, which comes close to the one in painting, and a new possibility of documentary photography [13]. The TzigaraSamurcas archive Between November 2007 and March 2010 we had the occasion to work at the digitization and invent orying of the Alexandru TzigaraSamurcas archive, dated approximately 1904 [14, p. 1823]. The ar chive contains glass slides collected by Tzigara Samurcas in his journeys in Romania and abroad. The glass slides represent architecture and land scapes but also paintings and reproductions of drawings. Some years ago, when digital photo graphy was not yet so widespread, souvenir shops were offering slide series, apart of the regular albums, posters and postcards. All of them serve the memory of the visited place. The souvenir, ac cording to Bazin [1] has its origin in the "mummy complex", i.e. in the wish to embalm for eternity. Also Warburton [6] agrees with Bazin [1] referring that photography is a kind of relic. According to Emerson the souvenir should serve artistic pleasure [5]. The utility of a slide series is in first place in
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its use for projection, such as in teaching, where the accent lays in offering information, if we follow Emersons categories. Krakauer [15] cites Baude laire who admitted that photographs reproduce and thus conserve temporary things which de serve a place in the archives of our memory and connects this affirmation to their value as souve nir. Once the time passed, they get documentary functions, their impact as photographic record shadows the initial one of memory help. This hap pens also with the interwar photographs of mi cro landscape presented by Adrian Majuru [16]. It is also the case of the glass slides of Tzigara Samurcas. For teaching purposes the collection of photographs had to realistically reproduce the object of the photography, which was the object of investigation. But there are exceptions, like the photographs of London [17], in which the realism gives place to some symbolism, with land scape parts lost in shadow. But it is possible that in the London of 1900 this was realism, and in fact the exactness of the reproduction of architectural details gave place to the exactness in the repro duction of the atmosphere. About the landscape of the street at Tzigara Samurcas On the 20th of October 2000 in Florence, the Euro pean Convention of the Landscape was adopted enlarging the concept of landscape from the natur al one in the following sense: the landscape des ignates a part from the territory which is perceived as such by the population, the character of which is the result of the action and interaction of nat ural and/or human factors [18]. In the acceptance of that European Convention, the street is such a landscape. Krakauer [2] quotes a French who talks about the catch of a moment which appears unexpectedly under our eyes and
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which interests us, the instantaneous photogra phy. From here derives [2] the attraction of crowds on the street, the mix of people and vehicles in New York of the 1859 or of the later, Victorian ones, which can lead to chance meeting, coin cidences or superposition such as in street pho tographs from Patras [19] or from Cartagena [20]. We also have the same mix of people and vehicles in the photographs of Calea Victoriei of Nicolae Ionescu, in Romania [7]. Urban life was and re mains a major photogenic topic. Sandu [21, 22] affirms that out of all urban spaces the street is the most adequate for the affirmation of the urban character. The urban character of a street is defined by its paving, the background and the fronts. In the photographs of the Tzigara Samurcas archive there is a preoccupation for catch ing some perspectives of the street so that it is assured a perspective background, which can be created out of the background itself (for example the cathedral in Clermond Ferrand or in Strasbourg, or the Beautiful Tower in Valencia) or through the exploitation of the sinuous path of the street. Although these define the street, the ideal per spective in order to illustrate these aspects can be catched from a single angle and this compositional intervention is part of the art of photography. The 19th century realists stated, according to Krakauer [2], that the photographer "lacks the artist's free dom to dispose of existing shapes and spatial in terrelationships for the sake of his inner vision" while the 20th century realists often underline the artistic character of their work, to the selectivity of the photographer [2]. The photographer can not be absolutely objective; he chooses the motive, the frame and technically determinant details, such as the filter and the resolution, participating thus in the process [2]. The frame of the photograph is part of the infinity of nature [2]. The painter can create a work of his imagination. For the photo graph, Snyder and Allen [4] quote Arnheim who
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identifies that the photograph "finds", "captures" or "selects" as an artistic contribution. Snyder and Allen [5] then discuss the role of the selection of the technical elements quoting finally Szarkows ky who affirmed that the biggest creativity is in establishing which shall be the subject [4]. Of course, the fact that photography can be con sidered a copy of nature [2], in the case of a real ist photography, has consequences till today in the definition of the copyright terms of photographs, considered a reproduction of a building and, there fore, the interdiction to photograph or to publish photographs of some places. However, Krakauer [2] fights this idea of mirror through the fact that photography transforms something threedimen sional into a plane image, transforms the colour, breaks from the context and reduces the sensori al experience to the visual one. The spatial manifestation of the street results from a combination of factors: functionality, climate and field conditions, historic existence, concep tual design and last but not least the "life way" [19]. Alexander et al. [20] wrote about the qual ity of public space enouncing in pattern 61 "Small public squares": "... this pattern forms the core which makes an ACTIVITY NODE (30): it can also help to generate a node, by its mere existence, provided that it is correctly placed along the intersection of paths which people use most often. And it can also help to generate a PROMENADE (31), a WORK COMMU NITY (41), an IDENTIFIABLE NEIGHBOURHOOD (14), through the action of the people who gather there. But it is essential, in every case, that it is not too large. *** A town needs public squares; they are the largest, most public rooms, that the town has. But when they are too large, they look and feel deserted. [23]
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An empty street doesnt say us as much as one full of people. A public space is defined through the events which take place in that space, not through its architecture [24]. This differs from country to country, from the electric tram in Oakland to the donkey in Cartagena [20, 22] or Patras [19, 25]. Krakauer [3] quotes GayLussac who stated that "no detail, not even imperceptible cannot evade the eye and the brush of this new painter". This is what Philip Greenspun was also saying in the 21st century about the quality of street photogra phy [26] when he says that the one who sees the photography can see more than the photograph er. Greenspun adheres here to the "mechanical" model, cited by Snyder and Allen [4], which can be described through the fact that a photograph doesnt show us what the photographer saw, but what was. Actually, the photography shows us what we would have seen if the eye would have been equipped with the lens of the camera and would have printed on the same medium [4, p. 294]. In this case, "the medium does not favour a compositional model" [2] as it happens when photographing the frame elements of the street. The later generations will observe details which at the given time were not observed, as also states Krakauer [2], about the street photography. Krakauer [2] states that the photographer reads in the book of nature. Jordi Punti, at the confer ence "Contemporary Public Space", stated that an unused public space is like a book which is read by nobody; a book in order to be of value has to be read [27]. Also the urban landscapes from 1900 in the TzigaraSamurcas collection were transmitted to us as they were photographed. Lewis Mumford [28] told that the stones of Athens would not tell us much about the life of the city if the written heritage wouldnt have remained. With the pho tographic realism of the 19th century another con servation mean of the information about the life of the city appeared.
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The street results out of this combination between public space and its architectural elements (fronts, background, etc.). Also the photographs differ, some being interesting only through their archi tectural elements, result of the way of life and even tually of the adaptation to the natural environment in a certain geographic zone, other putting the accent on such a street activity (promenade, ac quisitions, transport) and finally some being the accidental catch of a certain frame of human activ ity on the street. Such there is a photograph in Lauterbrunnen which shows us the adaptation to a mountain natural environment with timber build ings typical for Switzerland [29]; another photo graph in Strasbourg shows us typical traditional Fachwerk buildings for this geographic zone [30]. In a photograph of Cartagena there are typical houses with loggias [31], as in the former Bucha rest, and for Granada [32] and Istanbul [33] are typical the storeys in console, even if from differ ent construction materials. The TzigaraSamurcas archive is from before the Modernism, which broke with the tradition, and many of the images present a urban vernacular framework, which does not happen in American cities. Lets focus on the value of "mirror with memory" of the photographs in the street landscape of Tzigara Samurcas. Greenspun [34] argued for photographs of people, with tourists as subject as compared to deserted photographs, taken in early hours of the day. Not all touristic objectives change during some decades, but the clothes and generally the "micro landscape" [35] of the people change. The photographs of TzigaraSamurcas reveal the typ ical promenade clothes (ex. Lauterbrunnen, Los Angeles [36]) or circulation (Patras, [37]), the favourite (or mainly) masculine spheres (Bank of England [38]) or feminine (promenade). Another times also the built context changed. In Istanbul only a few from the old timber buildings,
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ready gathered during a support grant stay there in JuneJuly 2010. The covered events were: Earthquake: San Francisco 1906, USA; Norcia, Italy and Antigua; Fire: Boston 1860, USA; St. Claude, France; Paris (Commune), France; Philadelphia, USA; Louisiana, USA; Notre Dame de Montreal, Canada; Chicago, USA; Quebec, Canada; Illinois, USA; Portland (Maine), USA (stereo); Flood: Norwich 1878, England; Latchford 1890, England; Warburton 1891; Johnstown 1889; Avi gnon, France; Montreal, Canada; Conemaugh, USA; Brisbane, Australia; Volcanic activity: Pompei Notable 19th century photographers who photo graphed such subjects were: for earthquake: Arnold Genthe, Robert Macph erson, Eadweard Muybridge, R.J. Waters & Co (publisher), James Stoddard and Willard Worden; for fire: J. Andrieu, Edouard Baldus, George N. Barnard, James Wallace Black, Robert Burley, Al fred CapelCure, Franck, Frederick Gutekunst, Bri an Merrett, A. Richebourg, C. Seaver Jr., John P. Soule and William Notman & Son; for flood: Edouard Baldus, G. Herbert Bayley, Alexander Henderson and Charles Rudd; for volcanic activity: Giorgio Sommer; for thunders: Alfred CapelCure; for the Paris Commune: Gustave Le Gray, J. An drieu, Bruno Braquehais, Albert Fernique, Franck, C. Jung, A. Richebourg and Charles Soulier. The approach to catastrophe photography in the 19th century was different of the one today. Were the photographs then still available as souvenirs, today the photographs are spread through mass media, and, when done by professionals, they feed databases on photographs mainly investig ated in order to recognise and removed damages,
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Figure 2. Andalucian street. Photo by Maria Bostenaru.

as those on the street in the TzigaraSamurcas collection, are conserved. The German institute in Istanbul recently launched a campaign of building surveys for their virtual conservation. Or even the character of presence or absence of people changed in the last 100 years, Granada becoming very pop ular for tourists (Figure 2), for example. Or the infrastructure, the central canalisation with rain water in Mainz changed, even if some cities, like Freiburg am Breisgau integrated in the regional development plans grabs to remind this. The archive on photos of disasters A second part of the study is dealing with archive photographs of 19th century individual events as found in the archive of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, archive material which has been al
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About memory Even if the realism in photography is in favour of the knowledge in science, the quality of realist photography discusses its role to serve the me mory and, as object of the memory, to facilitate the access through arts to past worlds. We can differentiate between own memory and collective memory. A space or a landscape can be covered by forgetness and must be digged off, rediscovered. Nietzsche [40] talked about the re lationship between history and forgetness, how we can live without memory but not also without forgetting. Nietzsche sees two enemies of the history: the unhistorical (who forgets, and can this way destroy a culture, a civilisation) and the superhistorical (who detaches his view from what is developed to the eternal). Between the monu mental history, which believes that the great acts of the past can be repeated because they took place once, and the antiquarian history, which considers that everything that comes from the past has value, Nietzsche proposes the critical history. The photography as mean of memory represents an entrance door to the critical history. Bazin [1] recognises the psychological basic need of the man for protection against the passing of time and sees in the Egyptian mummifications or in the paintings from the French classical period how the time will be victorious on death. It is the preservation of life by a representation of life [1]. The topic of the essay published by Trachten berg [1] in Classic Essays on Photography is the ontology of the photographic image and Bazin puts the problem of the ontological difference between the model and the image despite which still the image helps us to remember the subject and to preserve him from a second spiritual death [1]. For this, the image does not have to be realist in the sense of the duplication of the world, and the
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Figure 3. Street of Naples. Photo by Giorgio Sommer (1834 1914).

or to investigate the collapse mechanisms. The architecture historian Stephen Tobriner looks at historic photos of the 19th century considering the modern approach, and trying to identify col lapse mechanisms [39]. The beginning of the in volvement of mass media in catastrophes started with the eruption of Krakatau. We investigated material on the street photography of these not able photographers and from what was available Edouard Baldus and Eadweard Muybridge did not perform street photography. Also Giorgio Sommer photographed the street only in his residence city of Naples (Figure 3), not when traveling, and, of course, in the neighbouring Pompei (Figure 4). Arnold Genthe surprised some street scenes dur ing the earthquake and street scenes in New Or leans , which was affected in recent times, not in Genthes times, by the catastrophe.
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MARIA BOSTENARU

Figure 4. Mercurius street in Pompeii, before 1914. Photo by Giorgio Sommer (18341914).

symbol can be the image of the model, the arts creates such an eternity, while the photography is only a certain moment frozen in time [1], also quoted by Warburton [5], that the photograph is the model liberated by the space and the time which govern them. For Scruton, quoted by War burton [5], looking at a photograph is a substi tute of looking to the object itself in some sense, and relates again to the topic of the mirror. War burton [5] quotes Walton with the idea from the 1980s about the transparency thesis: looking at the images of the past is like looking at what was in the past, even if it relates at our deceased rela tives, we see photos in the past as we see through a telescope or television at the distance, and this is a consequence of realism in photography. The critics of Walton [5] put the accent on the dif ference between the real and the virtual image. The virtual image through the concave lens and
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the one through the convex lens of film or photog raphy are different in physics, as the first doesnt need a screen to be projected on, but Walton did not modify his theory, including in it instead also the documentary photography. Warburton [5] notes the contradiction of this with the philoso phy of perception. If we take into consideration the affirmation of Caroll, as quoted by Warburton [5], of dependence of the characteristics of the photographic medium, such as for example the transparency, then the documentary photography were done to be seen over a short period of time, of remembering of the person who visited the place, or in order to see at distance, to be used for teaching, but not for the goal of archiving so that other people could see them 100 years later. The thesis of transparency is applicable also at the use of photography for the reproduction of paintings, as it is the case for the TzigaraSamurcas archive, also as Savedoff [5, p. 622] observed.
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THE STREET IN PHOTOGRAPHY AS MEAN OF ART OR SCIENCE

The fact that archive photographs present us just some places from only certain angles, reminds us the fact that archaeologists dont always find buildings, but just objects that remind of a past civilisation. The civilisation doesnt get to life through this, but we have a history of it. The his tory transformed into museum item as we perceive it today is the future; the testimonies of the past become an object of research. The culture of the past, as it is in the conserved monuments is some thing what belongs to the perception of the present and which we want to make accessible in the fu ture, but is not to bring back the past to life. We can rediscover the culture as it was through arts, not of the science of archaeology, such as for exam ple in a novel or a film, and also in a photograph. The conclusion of Krakauer [2] is that also the realist photography can be art, even if it does not make use of the means of the experimental one of avantgarde if it succeeds to make the faces of the people and the stones of the houses to talk eloquently to the viewer, because of their beauty and sensibility. The photographs of TzigaraSamur cas are already too old in order to make us a space of personal remembering looking to them. For some of their contemporaries they were also de tached of the personal memory, because they did not have the occasion to visit those places. They now belong to the collective memory, to History. The photographers created access to this space of memory through which we can "visit" the streets that TzigaraSamurcas visited. This was also the teaching purpose of the glass slides: that students can visit them as well. They were cut away by the distance in space; we are cut away also in time.

Conclusions The photography immortalises a moment in time. The documentary photography in the Tzigara Samurcas archive has artistic values through the reproduction of not only the architecture frame in which the street life takes place but also of the way of life, caught in the presence of users in the public space, and in the geographic characterist ics. Through this, we enter in another universe, another world which we can understand through art and not science becomes accessible, even if the world of the past, or for the TzigaraSamurcas contemporaries who were at a certain distance, wasnt accessible through personal memories. Although the photography from the end of the 19th and early 20th century was made through mech anical means lacking the possibilities of painting or todays digital photography to combine differ ent views, the spirit of the place survived using the characteristics of the medium of photographic image on glass support.

Acknowledgments The study on philosophy of photography was sup ported by the Marie Curie Reintegration Grant for the project PIANO "The innovation in the plan of the current floor: Zoning in blocks of flats for the middle class in the first half of the 20th century", contract number MERGCT2007200636, run time 20072010, from the European Commission, while the work on the archive of Tzigara Samurc as was supported by the Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism with cofunding from the Timbrul Arhitecturii, through the Union of Romanian architects, as well as the support grant of the Canadian Centre for Architecture to inves tigate historic photography of natural disasters.

"It is no longer a question of survival after death, but of a larger concept, the creation of an ideal world in the likeness of the real, with its own tem poral destiny." [1]

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References [1] A. Bazin, The Ontology of the Photographic Image, in A. Trachtenberg (ed.), Classic Essays on Photography, Leetes Island Books, New Haven, 1980, pp. 237244 [2] S. Krakauer, Photography, in A. Trachtenberg (ed.), Classic Essays on Photography, Leetes Island Books, New Haven, 1980, pp. 245268 [3] Proust quoted in S. Krakauer, Photography, in A. Trachtenberg (ed.), Classic Essays on Photo graphy, Leetes Island Books, New Haven, 1980, pp. 258259 [4] J. Snyder and N. W. Allen, Photography, Vi sion and Representation, in P. Alperson (ed.), The philosophy of the visual arts, Oxford Univer sity Press, 1992, pp. 289305, republished after the original article from 1975 [5] N. Warburton, Photography, in Jerrold Levin son (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics, Ox ford University Press, 2005, pp. 614626 [6] R. Arnheim, On the Nature of Photography, Critical Inquiry I, September l974, p. 154 [7] Nicolae Ionescu, URL, accessed 24 March 2011 [8] L. Machedon and E. Scoffham, Romanian Mod ernism, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, USA, 1999 [9] A. Gebeler (ed.), Gropius Meisterhaus Muche/ Schlemmer, Die Geschichte einer Instandsetzung, Krmer, Stuttgart, 2003 [10] Die Meisterhuser Dessau, URL, accessed 24 March 2011 [11] Hochschule fr Gestaltung Karlsruhe (HfG),
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Weie Vernunft Siedlungsbau der 20er Jahre, CDROM, Prestel, 2001 [12] Study tour in frame of the Planned Conser vation conference, 3013 October 2009, Como, Italy [13] R. Langenbach, "The Building of a Symbolic Image: The Juxtaposition of Giambattista Pirane sis Vedute Di Roma with Photographs Taken 250 Years Later", Proceedings of the ICOMOS, General Assembly and Scientific Symposium "Finding the Spirit of the Place", Quebec City, Canada, 2008. [14] T. Popescu, Shardes of entangled worlds, in Anca Bratuleanu (ed.), Arhiva (the) Alexandru TzigaraSamurcas archive (with CD), Editura Uni versitara Ion Mincu, Bucharest, 2009 [15] C. Baudelaire, The Modem Public and Photo graphy, from Art in Paris, 18451862, with per mission of Phaidon Press, Ltd., reprinted in Alan Trachtenberg, Leetes Island Books, 1980 [16] Round Table, architecture competition "Pres ent", November 2008, in press [17] Architecture and Settlement, England, URL accessed 24 March 2011 [18] Lege nr. 451 din 8 iulie 2002 pentru ratifi carea Conventiei europene a peisajului, adopta ta la Florenta la 20 Octombrie 2000 (L451/2002) [19] Strada din Patras (Street from Patras), ima ge 254, URL, accessed 19 December 2010 [20] Strada din Cartagena (Street from Cartagena), image 529, URL, accessed 19 December 2010 [21] A. Sandu, Compozitie urbana, course notes, 1997, URL, accessed 24 March 2011
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[22] A. Sandu, Structura urbana, course notes, 1995, URL, accessed 24 March 2011 [23] C. Alexander, S. Ishikawa, and M. Silverstein, A Pattern Language. Towns. Buildings. Construction, Oxford University Press, New York, 1977 [24] A. Ioan, Conference Contemporary Public Space in frame of the Architecture Annual Bu charest 2009, unpublished [25] A. Bratuleanu (ed.), Arhiva (the) Alexandru TzigaraSamurcas archive (with CD), Editura Uni versitara Ion Mincu, Bucuresti, 2009 [26] P. Greenspun, Street Photography, 2007, URL, accessed 24 March 2011 [27] Jordi Punti at the Conference Contemporary Public Space in frame of the Architecture Annual Bucharest 2009, unpublished [28] L. Mumford, The City in History, Harcourt, San Diego, 1961 [29] Strada din Lauterbrunnen (Street in Lauter brunnen), image 1810, URL, accessed 19 Decem ber 2010 [30] Street and Cathedral in Strasbourg (Strada si Catedrala din Strasbourg), image 19113, URL, accessed 19 December 2010 [31] Strada din Cartagena (Street from Cartagena), image 529, URL, accessed 19 December 2010 [32] Strada din Granada (Street from Granada), image 530, URL, accessed 19 December 2010 [33] Strada din Constantinopol (Street from Con stantinople), image 630, URL, accessed 19 De cember 2010
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[34] P. Greenspun, Tourists as Subjects, URL, 2007, accessed 24 March 2011 [35] A. Majuru, Round Table in frame of the Pre sent competition, 2008, in press [36] Strada Primaverii (Spring Street), image 7 19, URL, accessed 19 December 2010 [37] Strada din Patras (Street from Pantras), ima ge 254, URL, (accessed 19 December 2010) [38] Parlamentul si Turnul Orologiului (Parliament and Big Ben), image 459, URL, accessed 19 De cember 2010 [39] S. Tobriner, Bracing for disaster: earthquake resistant architecture and engineering in San Fran cisco, 18381933, Heyday Books, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, 2006 [40] F. Nietzsche, On the Use and Abuse of History for Life, Ian Johnston (trans.) accessed 2009 (original: Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie fur das Leben, 1873)

MARIA BOSTENARU DAN Architectural Engineer Maria Bostenaru Dan (Dipl.Ing.) has an engineer ing degree in architecture, specialisation in urban ism, from the Universitt Karlsruhe, Germany (1999). She specialised in the study of risks on built herita ge, seismic retrofit, doing research in Karlsruhe (Germany), Pavia (Italy) and Bucharest (Romania).
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case study

SCIENTIFIC STUDY AND CONSERVATION OF A PAINTED ENAMEL QAJAR PENDANT


By Wafaa Anwar Mohamed

This research aims to investigate the chemical composition and the technical features of a painted enamel Qajar pendant. This investigation was followed by cleaning and conservation of the pendant. Optical light microscope (OLM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) combined with energy dispersive Xray spectroscopy (EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Xray fluorescence analysis (XRF) were used respectively for imaging and microanalysis of the object. The study proved that the pendant is made of gold foils, round and halfround gold wires of different sizes and carats. Different forming and decorative techniques were found to be used for the manufacturing of the pendent: repouss, granulation, filigree, chasing, stamping, painted and cloisonn enameling. The study also proved that the central quatrefoil ornament is not solid metal, containing a wax core.

CONSERVATION OF A PAINTED ENAMEL QAJAR PENDANT

Introduction Qajar art is the art of Persia during the rule of the Qajar dynasty, from 1794 to 1925. Enamel work ing on metals was one of the significant forms of art in Isfahan, Iran. Painting with enamels, or what is referred to as painted enamel was first developed in Limoges, France in the 15th century and later transferred into Iran and other parts of the world. The examples of enamels that survived reflected the interest of Iranian artists in this art since the Achaemenian dynasty (c. 550330 B.C.). Qajar enamels are characterized by figurative scenes including portraits of youth and lovers. These were similar in style to the oil paintings of the same period. Luxury, prevalent costume and jewelry styles are apparently documented in such portraits and scenes [17]. There are quite few ex amples of Qajar painted enamel pendants which sur vived and are now exhibited in museums world wide. The case study presented in this research is a Per sian enameled gold pendant. It belongs to the museum of the Faculty of Applied Arts at Helwan University, Egypt. It was given the identification number 49/1 in the museum records although the details about its source and date are not specified. Figures 1 and 2 show the obverse and reverse of the pendant. Lack of information affected the documentation and authentication processes. For its authentication, a survey was needed to identify possible parallels showing a similar style, technical features and material structure. Microchemical analysis was also required for proper identifica tion and documentation of the object. Examina tion and investigation were required as well to identify the state of preservation before under taking any further conservation intervention. From the conservation point of view, the principle of minimal intervention is uppermost not only be cause of the condition of the object but also for ethical guidelines.
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Figures 1 and 2. Obverse and reverse side of the investigated pendant.

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Experimental The surface of the object was examined by optical microscopy to show details and deterioration as pects. A digital caliper was used for measuring the length, the width and the diameter of the differ ent parts of the pendant. A tiny sample of filling material (the core) was removed and examined by optical light microscope (OLM) before analysis. The sample was also analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) using a Jasco460. The sample was first ground and pressed in KBr pellets. The analysis has a spectral range from 400 to 4000 cm1 with a maximum resolution of 4 cm1. All spectra were recorded in transmission mode. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) imaging and energydispersive Xray spectroscopy (EDX) micro chemical analysis of the counter enamel were un dertaken using a Philips XL 30 combining SEM with EDX. The sample taken for this analysis was first coated with carbon. The main detection limits of EDX measurement are 0.2% for Cu, 0.5% for Au and 0.1% for Ag. Data at or below these limits are not significant. A portable Niton XLt 700, version 4, Xray fluor escence (XRF) analyzer was used to determine the composition of different parts of the metal and enamel composition of different colors of the portrait. The Certified Reference Material used for the measurement was 35 EN04292005 IARMP. The error was not more than + 0.2% for Cu, +0.4% for Pb, +0.1% for Sn, +0.4% for Ag, +0.09% for Au, +0.1% for Sb, +1.6% for Fe and +0.05% for Zn. The obtained results are the average of two measurements. Precipitated calcium carbonate in denatured ethyl alcohol, 100% pure cotton cloth and ethyl alcohol were used for cleaning, polishing and wiping off the metal surface, respectively.

Results and discussion A parallel was found by the author in an enameled gold pendant from the Metropolitan Museum col lection (available at the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, URL). It is dated to the 19th century and belonged originally to Iran. It was fabricated from metal sheet and halfround wire and enameled on both obverse and reverse sides. The common shapes of such enameled plaques are round and elliptical and they were usually set into nonor namental objects such as water pipes. However, this pendant has engravings on its back and its thought to have been used as talisman [6]. A comparison between the proposed parallel pen dant and the present case study reveals that the object under investigation is similar in style and can be identified as a Qajar pendant which is full of decorations (figures 1 and 2). It weighs 25 g and its dimensions are 11.5 cm long, 4.5 cm max imum width and 5 mm thick. The pendant consists of three elements: the chain, the inverted crescent element and the central quatrefoil ornament with seven dangling discs attached. In order to inves tigate the quality of the metal wires and foil, a non destructive XRF microchemical analysis was under taken for the metal parts and the enamel. The results are given in table 1. From the analysis results it is evident that the pendant was made of a gold alloy (gold, silver and copper ternary alloy). Different quantities of constituent metals were used to produce foils, round and halfround wires of different gauges. Different forming and decorative techniques were used for the fabrication of the pendent. Repouss was used for decorating the reverse side of the central ornament by embossed flowers (figure 2) and chasing was used to decorate the sides and contour strip of the painted enamel portrait. Fili gree was used to make an up side down dangling
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CONSERVATION OF A PAINTED ENAMEL QAJAR PENDANT

Analyzed part Au Ag Cu Sn Pb

Chemical composition wt% Sb Fe Cd Zn Bi In Se Ni Co Mn

Metal reverse 60.23 32.93 4.41 1.49 0.04 0.29 0.06 0.06 0.07 0.16 0.15 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.02 /repouss work 67.88 21.07 8.78 8.78 0.00 0.10 0.20 0.05 0.14 0.16 0.11 0.35 0.01 0.01 0.09 Metal / filigree Metal/ chain 65.30 25.50 6.92 0.91 0.01 0.09 0.11 0.07 0.04 0.11 0.03 0.2 0.02 0.01 0.11 Enamel rose 15.51 7.87 2.17 7.76 63.61 0.39 1.69 0.06 0.07 0.25 0.00 0.05 0.00 0.38 0.00 color Enamel black 22.11 6.85 2.73 6.35 50.80 0.16 6.80 0.00 0.31 0.47 0.00 0.21 0.55 0.46 2.14 color
Table 1: Analysis results of the metal parts and enamel using XRF spectroscopy.

crescent, which was decorated by granulation. Stamping was used to decorate six small discs by an eight leaves flower pattern punch. These small dangling circular discs were soldered to small loops after stamping. Painted enamel technique was used for the por trait of the beautiful young woman standing in front of a colored geometric background, most probably resembling a window and wearing a jew eled red dress. Cloisonn enamel was also used to inlay a small disc dangling from the central lower part of the pendant with white, pink, green and blue colors. Segments of the manufacture such as foil and wire production could have been independent opera tions. High carat gold was cut out, embossed, painted with enamel and fired before it was as sembled into its place. It is known that enamels are composed princip ally of silicate formers, fluxes such as borax, sta bilizers, and different oxides as colorants, giving the enamel its color [8]. The enamel is mixed with oil and then painted on the object to give
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an effect very much like that of oil paints. To ap ply painted enamel on a gold foil it is usually turned to slightly convex, then a layer of flux called counter enamel is applied on the metal back to reduce stresses arising from different expansion coeffi cient of metal and enamel. The metal surface is then covered with a uniform layer of enamel that, when fired, produces a background for the drawing. The painting is applied color by color using a paint brush. The highest flowing temperature enamel is fired first and followed by lower flowing temper ature enamels. This can prevent colors diffusion at later stages. Multiple firing is required to fixate the colors, sometimes up to 20 rounds of firing are need for a complete project. The firing tem perature can be up to 800 C (1500 F) [9]. Microchemical analysis using XRF (table 1) revealed that the finest gold alloy was used for making the filigree crescent ornament, SEM examination and EDX analysis results (figures 3 and 4) revealed that enamel was applied on gold of about 20 carats. High carat gold is normally required for more exquisite enameling [10]. To this fine gold foil, opaque white counter enamel was applied on the back (figure 3). EDX analysis results of the counter
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Figure 3. Highcarat gold foil with counter enamel in the back (left) as imaged by SEM (right).

Figure 4. SEM image and EDX analysis result of gold foil.

enamel (figure 4) in combination with FTIR ana lysis results (figure 5b) revealed that both calcium and carbonate group are present. This may indicate the use of either lime containing counter enamel, such as sodalime, or calcium antimonite opaque white enamel. Wax was identified by FTIR analysis of the pendant core (figures 5a and 5b). This core may have not only supported the gold foil during assembly but also gave the figurative motif fur ther structural support. The added weight by the core may have played an aesthetic role by allowing the pendant to dangle or to sway, and an economic role by reducing the quantity of precious materials used for the manufacturing of the pendant. The analysis results of the black color enamel re veal the presence of iron, while those of the rose color enamel reveal the presence of iron and cop per. The oxides of these elements are responsible for the produced colors [11].
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It was difficult for the author to get meaningful analyses results of other enamel colors in smaller areas using the available portable XRF apparatus. The chemical composition of enamels can indicate the period of production and authenticate the object [8, 1114]. The chemical composition of medieval enamels is similar to that of the Roman period, consisting of sodalime glass mixed with opacifiers such as tin or antimony oxides. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the chemical composi tion was basically leadpotash glass with arsenic oxides opacifiers. XRF could not detect some ele ments such as sodium and magnesium so it pre vented identification of flux but the presence of tin (Sn) as an opacifier is in agreement with liter ature on medieval production [12, 13]. Moreover, the analysis results of enamel using XRF revealed that lead (Pb) content is very high (table 1), this result is in agreement with the assumption that leadpotash glass was used for the painted enamel,
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CONSERVATION OF A PAINTED ENAMEL QAJAR PENDANT

Figure 5a. Core material inside the quatrefoil central ornament.

Figure 5b. A sample of the core material (left) with the corresponding FTIR analysis results (right).

as lead became an almost universal additive to enamels by the 19th century [14]. Accordingly, the pendant is suggested to date back to the 19th cen tury, but this is in contradiction with the analysis result of the counter enamel so dating of the pen dant still needs further work for archaeologists to explain these results.
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Cleaning and conservation Both the vitreous material and the metal support were taken into account when carrying out the conservation treatment. The enamel was in a good condition, presenting no cracks, although there were some missing parts of the green circle that
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Figure 6. Aspect during the cleaning of the metal surface.

Figure 7. The pendant after cleaning.

outlines the portrait. At first, the whole pendant was cleaned from dust with a soft brush. The metal parts of the object were cleaned using precipitated calcium carbonate in denatured ethyl alcohol. This was applied using 100% pure cotton cloth for cleaning and polishing metal surface (figures 6 and 7). Calcium carbonate proved to be efficient, abrasive and least likely to scratch soft metal sur faces [15]. The metal surface was cleaned after polishing using ethyl alcohol and cotton swaps. The object was allowed to air dry immediately after cleaning, meanwhile avoiding leaking of the carrier fluid to the inner core. Dirt and grime in cloisonn enamel was mechanically removed using a soft, pointed wooden stick, followed by cleaning by ethanol which also served to degrease the metal. 3% of Paraloid B72 in acetone was applied on the whole surface to give a transparent protective thin film. Paraloid B72 is used in preference to
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other protective coating materials as it ensures protection and provides consolidation and visual improvement of the surface [16]. Moreover, it is nonstaining for enamel and less likely to stain metals. Following the work of Ryan et al., an air tight Plexiglass showcase conditioned to 40% RH, using silica gel (PRO Sorb) was designed for tem porary display of the pendant [17]. This Plexiglass microenvironment showcase was intended to pro vide a stable RH environment (figure 8) which is important for the preservation of metal enamel composites [18]. Conclusion Optical examination enabled full technical descrip tion and detailed documentation of a painted enamel gold Qajar pendant of the Faculty of Ap plied Arts at Helwan University, Egypt. The pen
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CONSERVATION OF A PAINTED ENAMEL QAJAR PENDANT

dant could have been used as head of a water pipe. Microchemical analysis enabled to identify the metal as being a gold alloy and two enamel col ors composition. The study also proved the pres ence of a wax core. The object was cleaned and coated with a transparent Paraloid B72 protective film and isolated in a controlled relative humidity microenvironment showcase. The showcase was made of Plexiglass to fit the size of the object. These temporarily procedures were meant to min imize the effect of high and fluctuating relative humidity until the museum renovation works take place.

References [1] A. D. Tushingham, Persian Enamels, in The Memorial Volume of the Vth International Con gress of Iranian Art and Archaeology, 11th18th April 1968, Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Volume 2, Special Publication of the Ministry of Culture and Arts, Iranian Center of Archaeological Research, Tehran, 1968, pp. 200211 [2] A. D. Tushingham, Qajar Painted Enamels in R. PinderWilson (ed.), Paintings from Islamic Lands, Oxford, 1969, pp. 187204 [3] B. W. Robinson, Persian Painting in the Qajar Period, in E. Yarshater and R. Ettinghausen (ed.), Highlights of Persian Art, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 1979 [4] B. W. Robinson, A Royal Qajar Enamel, Iran 10, 1972, pp. 2530. [5] S. J. Falk, Qajar paintings: Persian oil paint ings of the 18th and 19th centuries, Faber and Faber Ltd. in association with Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications, London, 1972

Figure 8. Plexiglass microenvironment showcase.

[6] Enameled gold pendant [Iran] (20.106.2), in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metro politan Museum of Art, New York, 2000, available at URL [7] S. Hassan, Qajar School of Painting: Artistic and Archaeological Study, [translated from Arabic], Master Thesis, Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo Uni versity, 1977 [8] P. Craddock, Scientific investigation of copies, fakes and forgeries, ButterworthHeinemann, 2009, pp. 220225 [9] C. Codina, Handbook of Jewellery Techniques, A & C Black Publishers, London, 2000, pp. 9899

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[10] G. L. Matthews, Enamels, Enameling, Enamel lists, Chilton Book Company, Pennsylvania, 1984, p. 17 [11] L. Ibrahim, R. L. Scranton, R. H. Brilland, and H. Williams, Kenchreai, Eastern port of Corinth: Results of Investigations by the University of Chicago and Indiana University for the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol. 4, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1976, pp. 235236 [12] A. Agostino, M. Aceto, and S. Castronovo, Authentication of Limoges Enamels by Noninva sive Techniques: The Larcade Collection, in 3rd Bi ennial ICOMCC Experts Meeting on Enamel on Metal Conservation, ICOMCC Enamel group, The Frick Collection, New York City, October 2010, pp. 516 [13] B. Kirmizi and P. Colomban, Onsite Ana lysis of Enamels on Metal from the Fifteenth to Nineteenth Century: An Attempt towards Differ entiation between Genuine Artifacts and Copies, in 3rd Biennial ICOMCC Experts Meeting on Ena mel on Metal Conservation, ICOMCC Enamel group, The Frick Collection, New York City, October 2010, pp. 1723 [14] I. Biron, P. Dandridge, and M. Wypyski, Techniques and Materials in Limoges Enamels, In Enamels of Limoge 11001350, B. Boehm and E. TaburetDelahaye (eds.), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1996, pp. 446462 [15] G. Wharton, S. L. Maish and W. S. Ginell, A Comparative Study of Silver Cleaning Abrasives, Journal of The American Institute for Conservation 29(1), 1990, pp. 1331, available at URL [16] J. L. Down, M. A. MacDonald, J. Ttreault, S. Williams, "Adhesive Testing at the Canadian Conservation Institute An Evaluation of Selected Poly(Vinyl Acetate) and Acrylic Adhesives", Studies
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in Conservation 41(1), 1996, pp. 1944 [17] J. L. Ryan, D. S. McPhail, P. S. Rogers, and V. L. Oakley, Glass Deterioration in The Museum Environment: A Study of The Mechanism of Decay using Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, in ICCOMCC 11th Triennial Meeting Edinburgh, Scotland, 16 September 1996, London, 1996, pp. 839844 [18] J. Navarro, Reviewing the Conservation of Unstable Enamels at The Victoria and Albert Mu seum, in 3rd Biennial ICOMCC Experts Meeting on Enamel on Metal Conservation, ICOMCC Enamel group, The Frick Collection, New York City, October 2010, pp. 2428

WAFAA ANWAR MOHAMED


Conservatorrestorer Contact: wafaaanw@yahoo.com Wafaa Anwar Mohamed, PhD, associate professor of metals conservation at the Conservation De partment, faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University. Her principal interests focus on the conservation of metal objects, examination and conservation of metals organic and inorganic composite ar tifacts and metal technologies in ancient Egypt. She has been teaching conservation of metals for undergraduate and graduate conservation students and supervises master and doctoral conservation researches since 2000. In addition to teaching she has recently took up her position as head of the Quality Assurance Unit at the Faculty of Archae ology, Cairo University, Egypt.
econser vation

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