Halp! I am in a research quandary

[ratherastory]

Does anyone know of good books and/or resources that would explain the technical aspects of the preservation and, more importantly, the restoration of art works? More specifically paintings, but I am not especially picky about the medium if it comes down to it.

I am trying to write a story and realized that my plot kind of hinges on my understanding the ins and outs of how to restore paintings, which I emphatically do not. In fact, this is so far out of my league I don't even know where to start. /o\

Halp? Anyone? Bueller?

Comments

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

I wish I did! There's a conspicuous hole in my knowledge when it comes to preservation...

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Argh. How am I supposed to explain why my preservation specialist was murdered if I know nothing about his trade? D:

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

I have a HS acquaintance who does paper restoring...and my sister has a BFA...but, um...I guess my only suggestion is to find your local fine arts college and raid their library.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Or, you know, raid a fine arts college's library ONLINE and then see if you can find the books at your local library (on the good chance that you do not live conveniently close to a fine arts college.)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Good point. Must try to remember the finer points of checking online libraries. Man, it has been FOREVER since I did honest-to-God academic research. This is kind of exciting. :D

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Which would be awesome if Montreal still HAD a fine arts college. *le sigh*

If I were still a student I'd hit up the McGill library. Maybe the big modern library downtown will have something...

[maypoles.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I don't. ;( Have you tried little_details? They know a little about everythinggg.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

That's my next stop after I've exhausted all the links on Wikipedia. little_details are surprisingly draconian about answering your questions if you haven't scoured the earth until your fingers are bleeding and you've worn your nails down past the nail bed before posting there, I've found.

Thanks!

[rayvlin.livejournal.com]

Try your library if you can't find anything. I know I've seen something on the restoration of the sisteen chapel. I'll see what I can find when I get home.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the help!

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

I am not an expert, but my Google-fu found this super quick set of answers (at, you know, Answers.com): http://www.answers.com/topic/art-conservation-and-restoration

What are you looking for in particular? How to restore a certain type of art? The tools/chemicals used? The time involved? Info about art restorers?

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Pretty much all of the above. Thank you!

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

OK, first things first: what type of art are you looking for information on restoring? Paintings? Sculpture? Mosaic? Ceramic? Glass?

If I know this I can try to help dig out information on restoration tools and techniques for you from there.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I was thinking painting, something transportable, at least.

You're awesome, thank you!

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

Hum. When you say "transportable" to you mean that the object being restored is to be transported, or that the overall skills/tools would be something that someone one the road could 'peddle' in a variety of locations?

The idea of the object being transportable is harder to tackle, because of the need for a certain level of 'stability/sterility' in the setting that the work is done in (given my limited knowledge of textiles restoration work).

If it is a matter of the job skills being transportable, it might almost be better if the person was a specialist because it would allow them to be called from place-to-place to deal with specific artifacts and their upkeep (whereas someone who is a generalist might find it harder to locate work readily unless they were well known in the field).

[http://users.livejournal.com/tesserae_/]

This may give you a few links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opificio_delle_pietre_dure The Opificio is, in addition to its work in pietra dure, the Florentine mosaic, the main lab for restoration of artwork in Italy. And the story of the restoration of the Cimabue crucifix after the 1966 flood will probably give you some details for the story...and the book this article mentions, Dark Water, actually has a tremendous amount of this kind of info. It's utterly fascinating if you like that kind of thing.

And this is in Italian, but it's a link to the restoration dept for the Italian Cultural Ministry; I remember watching an enormous painting being restored at the Accademia many years ago; the restorers were up on scaffolding in front of it, doing tiny detailed things while mobs of tourists mostly ignored them.

(And I speak Italian; if you run into anything that you can't get a translation for, send it over!)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thank you so much! I have a smattering of Italian at my disposal, but I will probably have to ask you for help.

Youtube Vidoes

[rayvlin.livejournal.com]

A very detailed video on a conservation effort of a Renaissance painting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V--J37806dU

An art restorer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ROgqH27DE0

There are actually quite a few documentaries on youtube that are a bit long. Try using phrases like conservation, restoration, and a specific medium.

Note to add

[rayvlin.livejournal.com]

Something that is very important that I remember hearing from my art history class is that any thing a restorer does/adds/corrects must be able to be reversed which is why you may still be able to make out cracks in painting on display at museums. Art restorers are set out to reverse time as much as they can, not improve the piece.

Re: Note to add

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

See, this is the sort of thing I'm talking about. How do they document their changes, too? What's the process? It must be fascinating, you know?

[http://users.livejournal.com/tesserae_/]

You have to be able to see what's been done is the basic idea. The U.S. Dept of the Interior guidelines for historic preservation of buildings tell you that any restoration work has be be documentable by future scholars - that's why, for example, you'll see variation in dentil moldings or baseboards in old houses: the idea is *not* to duplicate the older work but to complement it. With the Cimabue crucifix, the restorer did this kind of cross-hatching where the paint was simply gone. When you view it, your eye fills in the details and the piece looks nearly intact, but up close, you can see what's paint and what's restoration.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

But they must keep a written record of changes too, right? See, I don't even know the basics of this. I would not have known any of what you just said, and I'd love to feel like I have a handle on it...

[http://users.livejournal.com/tesserae_/]

I can't answer that question with any authority, but I would imagine that keeping a log of what one has done is critical - restorers may work on priceless artifacts, and so need to be able to justify the choices they've made. Plus, if a restored piece is sold to a museum or via auction/through a dealer, those records would be part of the provenance & a useful guide for any future restoration.

If you have specific questions, I can get them answered - I have a friend who's an art dealer in Florence, and likely keeps up with this field although his specialization (renaissance drawings) is fairly narrow. But I don't know if I can ask him for a primer without knowing more closely what period you're looking at! (And keep in mind that the field has advanced to the point that one of the tools for analysis is now Raman spectroscopy, which analyses the molecular structure of pigments... Maybe start with Dark Water? It'll give you a great look at what kinds of damage can occur and a sense of the challenges the field faces, which might be a good place to start...)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was thinking Renaissance, so at least we're in the same hemisphere. ;)

What's Dark Water? I tried Google/Amazon, but you'd be amazed how many novels/thrillers with that name exist out there...

[http://users.livejournal.com/tesserae_/]

The story of the great flood: http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Water-Disaster-Redemption-Florence/dp/0767926498/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330542542&sr=8-1

When I was there last year, I kept seeing signs fifteen feet up on walls and churches saying that the water'd gotten to that height - I'd read the book before going, so it was fascinating to see how the flood had impacted the city. They're *still* working on some of the artworks, too.

[rbmi-fan.livejournal.com]

You could always have your preservation specialist murdered for completely unrelated reasons that don't become clear until later. Which probably won't actually help you *is unhelpful*

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I still need there to be an art restoration aspect to the mystery. It might end up being a red herring, but I still need to know what I'm writing about. :)

[annie200.livejournal.com]

I thought you were writing White Collar for a moment, but now i'm not so sure????

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

No, it's for an original story. :)

Although it started as possibly a J2 story, but I decided it would work better as original fic.

[pkwench.livejournal.com]

I still have no knowledge about this subject, but I fully approve of this venture! :D