Fisk Final

Student: Deborah Braga Barra

Date: July 6th, 2017

Short explanation about restoration

This essay intends to introduce a brief history and concept about what is
conservation and restoration, in order to provide information over this work field,
which is little recognized.

Introduction

In ancient times the preventive conservation was already a practice in some

countries of Europe for instance Italy and Greece, where practices such as
collecting, remodeling of damaged parts and reproduction of copies were
common in order to prolongation the life cycle of sculptures, paintings, panels,
murals, and other objects.
In the Middle Ages the lack of materials resulted in the destruction of several
monuments for the reuse of materials in nother constructions or monuments.
There was no concerning to maintain the original characteristics of the buildings,
monuments and others.
With the creation of museums on the beginning of the 19-century the mentality
about cultural heritage has started to appear, and after, with the Industrial
Revolution and the development of technologies, some important names became
reference until today. They were Eugne Violet-Le-Duc, an French architect whom
defend the stylistic restoration which consists in garnish the construction ignoring
its signs of history, and John Ruskin a British writer passionate defendant of ruins,
for him the real value of the monument was in its historicity, the only intervention
that he considers essential was the preventive conservation otherwise buildings
should collapse. Was Le-Duc who introduced the importance of photograph
registration a relevant part for the restoration process.
In the 20 century many countries had already developed policies concerning theirs
cultural heritage. After de First World War, with the wrecking of many
monuments and buildings, and the consequent loss from big part of the European
heritage, were created some international institutes for promoting international
policies about worldwide cultural heritage among them the ICOM International
Council of Museum and the ICCROM International Centre for the Study of the
Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, concepts as reversibility and
legitimacy were also defined.
In 1963, The Theory of the restoration was published by Cesare Brandi, and still
today the most important work with guidelines for the professionals of the area.
It established the basic principles of conservation and restoration adopted until
today.
Nowadays the work of the professionals is guided by the Patrimonial Letters,
which are worldwide recommendations, released from time to time, on how to
preserve the cultural property, and by the Brandis work.

What is conservation and restoration?

The first idea people usually have is to take something old and make it becomes
new it is a wrong impression. In fact the person who works with conservation and
restoration works to preserve the cultural heritage such as: objects, work of art,
photography, buildings, paintings, documents, books, sculptures and monuments.
This professional knows how to maintain these properties in ideal conditions of
climate, environment, exposition to the light, safe from insects and other pests,
and even from accidents, in aiming to protect them. In other words it isnt that
simple, as is shown on some television programs like the American Restoration
it sells the wrong idea on what is restoration, as if it was a mere reformation,
when these professionals work is very complex and it takes years of study
together with knowledge of history, and art history, technical pictorial notions, in
additional to the use of high technologies.
There are three basic principles that must to be followed by every ethical
professional which are: minimal intervention, reversibility and detachability. The
most significant is the minimal intervention, every intervention made in an object
is consider an aggression, because it is already too damaged and it is wise to avoid
unnecessary interventions in order to prevent a greater injury. And each
intervention becomes part of objects history, thus the process of restoration
should be avoid unless it is really necessary. The principle of reversibility denotes
that every intervention done on the object can be undone if needed; furthermore
it shouldn't leave a trail on the object when it is made. Detachability means that
the work made, in the whole isnt to be perceived, but when observing closely it is
able to stand out from the rest.
The process of making a restoration is meticulous and systematical every thing
should be reported. First of all, documentation is essential; therefore the first step
take in the process is making a diagnosis. And always remember to make
photographs, before, during and after the procedure. After the diagnosis it is
made a suggestion of intervention due to the problems described on it, and then
is decided if the intervention will be made or not.
On the diagnosis, each problem present on the object is portrayed, and they can
be: missing parts, dirt, attack of insects, the presence of fungi, etc. The use of
security equipment as gloves, masks and coat, is vital to avoid diseases. Every
problem has its own solution with different levels of complexity, and they are
resolved with the intervention. Afterward, the object should be kept carefully,
attempting to the environment around it.
Sometimes news about restoration appears in the journal, and they are commonly
about accidents or disaster caused by someone. In 2012, Andrew Shannon scathed
the Claude Monets painting Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat; he
punched the painting while had been visiting the museum The painting is 145 old
and evaluated in US$ 12 million; his action caused to the museum an effort of 18
months of restorations work. In 2015 a boy had tripped during a visit to a
museum in Taiwan then scathed the painting Flowers from Paolo Porpora,
which is evaluated in US$ 1,54 million. Fortunately, a specialist was near and
quickly restored the painting. But the most famous case happened in 2012 when
Mrs. Ceclia Gimnez, an old lady decided to make the restoration of the fresco
Ecce Homo from Elas Garca Martnez, it turned out that she ruined the
painting, that was unrecognizable. The disaster was so big that she became
famous, and the happening attracted for the little town of Borja in Spain dozens
of tourists, hopeful to see it. In Brazil most recently in 2017 the Pampulhas
Church, the work from Oscar Niemeyer that has the title of Humanity Cultural
Heritage, was once again, vandalized with a graffiti after having undergone a
restoration last year due to the same reason.

Conclusion

The work of a conservator is more complex and different than people thought,
and its required all over the world. Therefore it is extremely important to know
how to recognize and distinguish what it really is. It is through the job carried out
by these professionals that museums are able to keep their collections, libraries to
keep their books and documents, archaeological digs to keep the artifacts found,
etc. As demonstrated before, some mistakes are taken with the intention to
maintain work arts or other goods to the future generations, so this professional
field should be valued more. Thus the main objective is to preserve the cultural
heritages, of any nature, so that they will last for next generations.
Sources:

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ilustrada/2014/12/1565108-restauro-desastroso-de-
ecce-homo-promove-turismo-na-espanha.shtml

http://www.em.com.br/app/noticia/gerais/2017/03/17/interna_gerais,855004/suces
sao-de-falhas-permite-nova-pichacao-na-igrejinha-da-pampulha.shtml

BRANDI, Cesare. Teoria da Restaurao. Atelie Editorial. 2004. 261p.

http://casavogue.globo.com/Curiosidades/noticia/2015/01/museu-restaura-pintura-
de-monet-destruida-com-soco.html

http://guiadoestudante.abril.com.br/profissoes/conservacao-e-restauro/

http://www.iccrom.org/heritage-science-mora-sample-collection/