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The first English-language book to comprehensively discuss the history and methodology of conserving medieval polychrome wood sculpture. Medieval polychrome wood sculptures are highly complex objects, bearers of histories that begin with their original carving and adornment and continue through long centuries of repainting, deterioration, restoration, and conservation. Abundantly illustrated, this book is the first in English to offer a comprehensive overview of the conservation of medieval painted wood sculpture for conservators, curators, and others charged with their care. Beginning with an illuminating discussion of the history, techniques, and meanings of these works, it continues with their examination and documentation, including chapters on the identification of both the wooden support and the polychromy itself—the paint layers, metal leaf, and other materials used for these sculptures. The volume also covers the many aspects of treatment: the process of determining the best approach; consolidation and adhesion of paint, ground, and support; overpaint removal and surface cleaning; and compensation. Four case studies on artworks in the collection of The Cloisters in New York, a comprehensive bibliography, and a checklist to aid in documentation complement the text.
In the decades since its initial publication in German in 1978, Polychrome Sculpture has come to be widely regarded as a watershed text on the making and meaning of European medieval and Baroque painted wood sculpture. An early proponent of interdisciplinary research, Johannes Taubert played a pioneering role in combining the rigorous scientific analysis of materials with a fuller understanding of form and function, an approach that has led to the development of technical art history as practiced today. Many of the essays in this volume apply such scientific techniques as microscopic analysis to an art-historical understanding of Romanesque and late Gothic wood sculpture, revealing that, far from serving a merely decorative function, the painted surface of these works was intricately connected to their meaning. The paint layers on the sculptures, for example, which the author spent years documenting through close examination and analysis, were intended to impart a heightened sense of reality to the life-sized sculptures, thereby enhancing the viewer’s experience of worship. Taubert believed it was crucial for conservators to understand this context before undertaking any treatments. No other book offers such a focused, subtle, and interdisciplinary examination of the subject as Polychrome Sculpture. This influential work is now available in English for the first time, in a meticulous translation enhanced and updated by new color illustrations, annotations to the original text, and a new introduction.
The function of the painted wooden object ranges from the practical to the profound. These objects may perform utilitarian tasks, convey artistic whimsy, connote noble aspirations, and embody the highest spiritual expressions. This volume, illustrated in color throughout, presents the proceedings of a conference organized by the Wooden Artifacts Group of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) and held in November 1994 at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg, Virginia. The book includes 40 articles that explore the history and conservation of a wide range of painted wooden objects, from polychrome sculpture and altarpieces to carousel horses, tobacconist figures, Native American totems, Victorian garden furniture, French cabinets, architectural elements, and horse-drawn carriages. Contributors include Ian C. Bristow, an architect and historic-building consultant in London; Myriam Serck-Dewaide, head of the Sculpture Workshop, Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, Brussels; and Frances Gruber Safford, associate curator of American decorative arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A broad range of professionals—including art historians, curators, scientists, and conservators—will be interested in this volume and in the multidisciplinary nature of its articles.
This volume presents the proceedings of an international symposium organized by the Getty Conservation Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum. The first conference of its kind in twenty years, the symposium assembled an international group of conservators of painted panels, and gave them the opportunity to discuss their philosophies and share their work methods. Illustrated in color throughout, this volume presents thirty-one papers grouped into four topic areas: Wood Science and Technology, History of Panel-Manufacturing Techniques, History of the Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings, and Current Approaches to the Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings.
This volume highlights recent research efforts in the conservation and investigation of works of art on wood. Through eleven case studies it showcases different experimental methods ranging from X-ray analysis of objects to the study of cross-sections made from micro-samples. New research focusing on the technical study, treatment and assessment of works of art on wood in its many forms is featured in this edited volume. Technical studies include the attribution and investigations of a triptych by Hans Memling and a sculpture from workshop of Michel and Gregor Erhart, decorated Syrian rooms, and investigations of finely carved Gothic wooden objects. Synchrotron-based methods are presented for studying the alteration of 19th c. verdigris in Norway, and multi-analytical methods are employed for the investigations of 16th to 19th c. East Asian lacquer from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Novel methods for the cleaning of gilded surfaces using gels and emulsions are shown, as are innovative strategies for the consolidation for waterlogged wood, providing key data for the assessment of risks and benefits of new methods, and the short and long-term effects on gilding layers and archaeological wood. The book clearly shows how collaboration between engineers, physicists, biologists and chemists and conservators of different types of materials can lead to new research in conservation science. This book is crucial reading for conservators and conservation scientists, as well as for technical art historians, providing key methodological case studies of polychromy from different temporal and geographical contexts.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art houses one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive collections of works of art from antiquities to modern and contemporary material. Their preservation is a responsibility shared by the many individuals employed at the Museum who oversee and have direct contact with the collection on a daily basis. The Care and Handing of Art Objects—first published in the 1940s and continually updated—offers a guide to the best practices in handling and preserving works of art while on display, in storage and in transit. It explains many of the fundamental principles of conservation that underlie these methods. One of its goals is to make the complexities of caring for a collection readily accessible. The first part offers basic guidelines for the preservation of the diverse types of materials and art objects found in the Met. Each chapter addresses the physical characteristics specific to the particular category, and the environmental, handling and housing factors to which one should be alert to prevent damage and ensure their preservation. Written by experts in the respective specialty, it addresses the Museum’s vast holdings summarizing the most critical preservation issues, many of which are amplified by photographs. As the table of contents makes evident these range from paintings on canvas and works on paper and photographs to furniture and objects made of stone, wood and metals to arms and armor, upholstery, ethnographic materials and many others. Part II succinctly describes factors that affect the collection as a whole: among them, current environmental standards for temperature, relative humidity, light exposure, storage and art in transit. Based on Museum protocols it addresses emergency preparedness and response, and integrated pest management. For easy reference, it includes charts on storage and display conditions, on factors contributing to deterioration, and a glossary of conservation terms, principles, and housing materials referenced in the individual chapters. Drawing upon the knowledge of conservators, scientists, and curators from many different departments, as well as technicians and engineers whose expertise crosses boundaries of culture, chronology, medium and condition, The Care and Handing of Art Objects is primarily directed to staff at the Met. It is, no less, an invaluable resource for students, collectors, small museums, museum study programs, art dealers, and members of the public who want to enhance their understanding of how works of art are safeguarded and the role environment, handling and materials play in making this possible.
The sculpture of Tilman Riemenschneider stands at the threshold of two eras. Solidly anchored in the late Gothic tradition, it is also astonishingly daring. Riemenschneider, who was active in Wurzburg from around 1483 until 1531, was one of the first sculptors to abandon polychromy on occasion, making a conscious aesthetic decision to leave visible his favored material, limewood. His sculpture strikes a rare balance between formal elegance and expressive strength, and it is among the most appealing work of the late Middle Ages. The approximately fifty works documented in this handsome volume offer a fresh look at this great master. The book presents a broad survey of Riemenschneider's oeuvre, including representative work from all periods of his career. Contributors explore the sources for his art, his social millieu and the organization of his workshop, the critical reception of his work, his polychrome and monochrome sculpture. Photographs commissioned especially for the book present the great altarpieces in Rothenburg on the Tauber, Creglingen, and Maidbronn as well as the large stone sculpture in Wurzburg. The book is the first publication in English with color reproductions of a significant portion of Riemenschneider's oeuvre.
The Mogao Grottoes, a World Heritage Site in northwestern China, are located along the ancient caravan routes—collectively known as the Silk Road—that once linked China with the West. Founded by a Buddhist monk in the late fourth century, Mogao flourished over the following millennium, as monks, local rulers, and travelers commissioned hundreds of cave temples cut into a mile-long rock cliff and adorned them with vibrant murals. More than 490 decorated grottoes remain, containing thousands of sculptures and some 45,000 square meters of wall paintings, making Mogao one of the world’s most significant sites of Buddhist art. In 1997 the Getty Conservation Institute, which had been working with the Dunhuang Academy since 1989, began a case study using the Late–Tang dynasty Cave 85 to develop a methodology that would stabilize the deteriorating wall paintings. This abundantly illustrated volume is the definitive report on the project, which was completed in 2010.
Catalog of the exhibition at the Asia Society Museum, New York, February 9-May 8, 2016.
Bridging the fields of conservation, art history, and museum curating, this volume contains the principal papers from an international symposium titled "Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice" at the University of Leiden in Amsterdam, Netherlands, from June 26 to 29, 1995. The symposium—designed for art historians, conservators, conservation scientists, and museum curators worldwide—was organized by the Department of Art History at the University of Leiden and the Art History Department of the Central Research Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science in Amsterdam. Twenty-five contributors representing museums and conservation institutions throughout the world provide recent research on historical painting techniques, including wall painting and polychrome sculpture. Topics cover the latest art historical research and scientific analyses of original techniques and materials, as well as historical sources, such as medieval treatises and descriptions of painting techniques in historical literature. Chapters include the painting methods of Rembrandt and Vermeer, Dutch 17th-century landscape painting, wall paintings in English churches, Chinese paintings on paper and canvas, and Tibetan thangkas. Color plates and black-and-white photographs illustrate works from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.