KONS2010 – History and Theory of Conservation

Spring 2014

Course tutor: Noëlle Streeton

 

NB

All texts referred to in this pensum list are included in the Compendium, available from Akademica.

 

The pensum reading is not divided equally throughout the course. Students are encouraged to complete the reading in advance of lectures.

 

MAIN TEXTS

Jokilehto, Jukka, A History of Architectural Conservation, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford (2002) [First published 1999].

Muñoz Viñas, Salvador, Contemporary Theory of Conservation, Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford (2005).

Stanley Price, Nicholas, Talley Jr., M. Kirby, Melucco Vaccaro, Alessandra, eds., Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage (Readings in Conservation), Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles (1996).

 

 

LECTURE 1

The history of conservation/restoration: an overview of ideas and concepts

 

Antiquity to the early twentieth century

Muñoz Viñas, Salvador, Contemporary Theory of Conservation, Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford (2005) ‘Chapter 1: What is conservation?’ pp. 7–25 ‘Chapter 7: The reasons for conservation’ pp. 171–181.

Jokilehto, J., A History of Architectural Conservation, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford (2002) pp. 1–6, 13–16, 21–25, 29–48, 56–65 [First published 1999].

Schießl, U., ’The conservator-restorer. A short history of his profession and the development of professional education’, in CON.B.E.FOR., Ricerca Comparata: Conservatori-Restauratori di Beni Culturali in Europa: Centri ed Istituti di Formazione, ed. C. Gimondi, Associazione Giovanni Secco Suardo, Lurano (2000) pp. 37–61 (biblio 98–105).

Émile-Mâle, Gilberte, ‘The first transfer at the Louvre in 1750: Andrea del Sarto’s La Charité (1982)’, in Issues in the Conservation of Paintings, eds. D. Bomford and M. Leonard, Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles (2004) 275–289.

Brommelle, Norman, ’Material for a History of Conservation’, Studies in Conservation 2/4 (1956) pp. 176–188. (JSTOR)

Keck, Sheldon, ‘Further materials for a history of conservation’, in Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, eds. N. Stanley Price et al., Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles (1996) pp. 281–287.

 

Optional (external to pensum):

Darrow, Elisabeth, ‘Necessity Introduced these Arts: Pietro Edwards and the Restoration of the Public Pictures of Venice 1778–1819’, in Past Practice, Future Prospects; The British Museum Occasional Paper Number 145, eds. A. Oddy and S. Smith, The British Museum Press, London (2001) pp. 61–65.

 

LECTURE 2 

Formative debates in the nineteenth century

 

Jokilehto, J., A History of Architectural Conservation, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford (2002) pp. 101, 109–110, 127–132, 137–141, 149–157, 174–176, 181–186, 252–255.

Melucco Vaccaro, Alessandra, ‘Restoration and Anti-Restoration’, in Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, eds. N. Stanley Price et al., Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles (1996) pp. 308–313.

Morris, William, ‘Manifesto of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings’, in Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, eds. N. Stanley Price et al., Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles (1996) pp. 319–321. [Originally published in ‘The Principles of the Society [for the Protection of Ancient Buildings] As Set Forth upon Its Foundation’, Builder 35 (25 August 1877)].

Ruskin, John, ‘The Lamp of Memory, II’, in Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, eds. N. Stanley Price et al., Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles (1996) pp. 322–323. [Originally published in: ‘The Lamp of Memory’, chap. 6 in The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Smith, Elder, London (1849) nos. 18–20].

Miele, Christopher, ‘“A Small Knot of Cultured People”: William Morris and ideologies of protection’, Art Journal 54/2 (1995) pp. 73–79. (JSTOR)

 

Optional (external to pensum):

Falser, M.S., Lipp, W., Tomaszewski, A., eds., Conservation and preservation: interactions between theory and practice: in memoriam Alois Riegl (1858‒1905), Edizioni Polistampa, Firenze, c. 2010.

 

LECTURE 3

Scientific research and museum objects

 

What can be gained?

Oddy, Andrew, ‘Scientific examination of artefacts’, in Manual of Curatorship: A Guide to Museum Practice, 2nd ed., ed. J.M.A. Thompson, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford (1994) pp. 480–486.

Urbani, Giovanni, ‘The science and art of conservation of cultural property’, in Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, eds. N. Stanley Price et al., Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles (1996) pp. 445–450.

 

Science, archaeology and the study of paint

Nadolny, Jilleen, ‘The first century of published scientific analyses of the materials of historical painting and polychromy, circa 1780–1880’, Reviews in Conservation 4 (2003) pp. 39–51.

Bradley, Susan, ‘The impact of conservation science at the British Museum’, in The Interface between Science and Conservation, British Museum Occasional Paper No. 116, ed. S. Bradley, The British Museum, London (1997) pp. 1–7.

Gilberg, M., and Vivian, D., ’The rise of conservation science in archaeology (1830–1930)’, in Past Practice – Future Prospects, The British Museum Occasional Paper No. 145, eds. A. Oddy and S. Smith, The British Museum Press, London (2001) pp. 87–93.

Plenderleith, H.J., ‘Notes on technique in the examination of panel paintings’, Technical Studies in the Field of the Fine Arts 1(1) 1932, 3-7.

Effmann, Elise, ‘Theories about the Eyckian painting medium from the late-eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries’, Reviews in Conservation 7 (2006) 17–26.

Ainsworth, M.W., ‘From connoisseurship to technical history: the evolution of the interdisciplinary study of art’, Getty Conservation Institute Newsletter, 20(1), Spring 2005. See http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications/newsletters/20_1/feature.html (accessed October 2010).

 

Early cleaning controversies

Anderson, Jaynie, ‘The first cleaning controversy at the National Gallery 1846–1853’, in Appearance, Opinion, Change: Evaluation the Look of Paintings, The United Kingdom Institute for Conservation, London (1990) pp. 3–7.

Keck, Sheldon, ‘Some picture cleaning controversies: past and present’, Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 23/2 (1984) pp. 73–87. (JSTOR)

Schmitt, Sibylle, ‘Examination of paintings treated by Pettenkoffer’s process’, in Cleaning, Retouching and Coatings. Preprints of the Contributions to the Brussels Congress, 3–7 September 1990, eds. J.S. Mills and P. Smith, IIC, London (1990) pp. 81–84.

Rød, Johannes, ‘The cleaning controversy and the keeping of secrets at the National Gallery in Oslo 1917–1921’, in ICOM-CC, 11th triennial meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, 1–6 September 1996: Preprints, ed. J. Bridgland, James & James (Science Publishers), London (1996) pp. 172–176.

 

LECTURE 4

From craftsman to conservator: catalysts and frameworks for multi-disciplinary training

 

Catalysts: Europe at war

Stout, George, ‘Letters’ and ‘Section V: The aftermath’, in Robert M. Edsel, Monuments Men, Preface Publishing, London (2009), pp. 95–96, 277–279, 371–387.

Keck, C., ‘Salute to Paul Coremans’, Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 30(1), 1991, 1–2 (available at http://cool.conservation-us.org/jaic/articles/jaic30-01-001_indx.html ).

 

Theoretical frameworks

Coremans, P., ‘The technique of the “Flemish Primitives’”, in Issues in the Conservation of Paintings, eds. D. Bomford and M. Leonard, Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles (2004) pp. 194–206.

Brandi, Cesare, ‘Theory of Restoration, I’, in Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, eds. N. Stanley Price et al., Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles (1996) pp. 230–235 (first published in Italian in 1963).

Riefsnyder, Joan M., ‘Cesare Brandi and Italian Conservation Theory: In and Out of Context’, AIC Paintings Speciality Group Postprints Vol. 16, ed. H.M. Parkin, AIC, Washington, D.C. (2003) pp. 23–32.

Philippot, Paul, ‘Historic preservation: Philosophy, Criteria, Guidelines, I.’, in Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, eds. N. Stanley Price et al., Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles (1996) pp. 268–274.

 

Training and education

Keck, Caroline and Keck, Sheldon, ‘The creator of a new approach to training art conservators/Homage à Paul Coremans’, Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique Bulletin 8, 1965, 73-76.

Stout, George L., ‘Thirty years of conservation in the arts: a summary of remarks to the I.I.C. American Group in New York, June 1963’, Studies in Conservation 9 (1964) pp. 126-128.

Larsen, René, ‘The Science of Conservation-Restoration’, in 25 Years School of Conservation: the Jubilee Symposium Preprints 18-20 May 1998, Konservatorskolen Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi, Copenhagen (1998) pp. 77–85.

The ENCoRE Document of Constitution, Drafted in Dresden, 9 November (1997), in 25 Years School of Conservation: the Jubilee Symposium Preprints 18-20 May 1998, Konservatorskolen Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi, Copenhagen (1998) pp. 201–203.

 

 

 

LECTURE 5

Conservation standards: conventions, charters and codes of ethics

 

Overview

Sease, C, ‘Codes of ethics for conservation’, International Journal of Cultural Property 7(1) (1998) pp. 98–115.

Muñoz Viñas, Salvador, ‘Contemporary theory of conservation’, Reviews in Conservation 3 (2002) pp. 25–34.

Clavir, Miriam, ‘The social and historic construction of professional values in conservation’, Studies in Conservation 43 (1998) pp. 1–8.

Hanssen-Bauer, Francoise, ’Konvensjoner om faste kulturminner: Norges forpliktelser og utfordringer til fagmiljøet’, Kirkearkæologi i Norden 8 (2006) pp. 115–122.

 

Charters and guidelines

‘The Hague Convention’, Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, 1954, http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13637&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

‘The Murray Pease Report’, Studies in Conservation 9(3) (1964), pp. 116–121.

‘The Venice Charter’, International Charter for the conservation and restoration of monuments and sites (ICOMOS), 2nd International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historic Monuments, Venice, (25–31 May 1964, adopted 1965). See http://www.international.icomos.org/charters/venice_e.pdf

‘The Nara Document on Authenticity’ (ICOMOS), Agency for Cultural Affairs (Government of Japan), UNESCO, ICCROM, ICOMOS, Nara (1994). See http://www.international.icomos.org/charters/nara_e.htm

‘The Conservator-Restorer: a Definition of the Profession’, International Council of Museums–Committee for Conservation, http://www.icom-cc.org/47/about-icom-cc/definition-of-profession/ (accessed October 2010).

ECCO Professional Guidelines I/II/III, ECCO, Brussels (2002). See http://www.ecco-eu.org/about-e.c.c.o./professional-guidelines.html or Google ECCO Professional Guidelines for the link to the pdf.

 

 

Ethics in practice

Oddy, A., and Holmes, R., ‘The Hockwold Treasure’, in The Art of the Conservator, ed. A. Oddy, British Museum Press, London (1992) pp. 137–150.

Easterbrook, M.J., ‘“Going all the Way”: Ethics in Private Practice’, in Proceedings of the 14th Annual IIC-CG Conference, May 27‒30, 1988, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, ed. J. Wellheiser, IIC-CG, Ottawa (1989) pp. 18–21.

 

 

LECTURE 6

Ethics and problems in contemporary conservation practice

 

Pye, E., ‘Reaching a decision’ in Caring for the Past: Issues in Conservation for Archaeology and Museums, James and James, London (2001) pp. 116–120.

Muñoz Viñas, Salvador, Contemporary Theory of Conservation, Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford/Burlington (2005) ‘Chapter 5: A brief excursion into the real world’, pp. 115–146.

Clavir, Miriam, ‘The social and historic construction of professional values in conservation’, Studies in Conservation 43 (1998) pp. 1–8.

 

Restortation : an acceptable concept?

Oddy, Andrew, ’Restoration – is it acceptable?’, in British Museum Occasional Paper 99. Restoration – is it acceptable?, ed. A. Oddy, The British Museum, London (1994) pp. 3–8.

Richmond, Alison, ‘Review: restoration – is it acceptable?’, V&A Conservation Journal No. 15 (1995) pp. 10–11.

 

Reversibility

Oddy, Andrew, ‘Does reversibility exist in conservation?’, in Reversibility – does it exist?, British Museum Occasional Paper number 135, ed. A. Oddy, British Museum Press, London (1999) pp. 1–5.

 

Original intent

van de Wetering, Ernst, ‘The autonomy of restoration: ethical considerations in relation to artistic concepts’, in Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, eds. N. Stanley Price et al., Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles (1996) pp. 193–199.

 

Collections

Ashley-Smith, Jonathan, ‘A consistent approach to a varied collection’, in British Museum Occasional Paper 99. Restoration – Is It Acceptable?, ed. A. Oddy, The British Museum, London (1994) pp. 89–91.

Child, Robert, ‘Putting things in context. The ethics of working collections’, in British Museum Occasional Paper 99. Restoration – Is It Acceptable?, ed. A. Oddy, The British Museum, London (1994) pp. 139–143.

 

 

LECTURE 7

ArtWatch and critics of conservation

 

We will watch and discuss the following film:

James Aviles Martin, ArtWatch: The Scandal Behind Art Restoration, National Film Network, Lanham, Maryland, 2005.

 

 

 

LECTURE 8

More cleaning controversies and their implications

 

Hedley, G., ‘Cleaning and meaning: The Ravished Image reviewed’,The Conservator 10, 1986, 2‒6. (Reprinted in Measured Opinions: Collected Papers on the Conservation of Paintings, ed. C. Villers, UKIC, London, 1993, 167‒171).

 

Hedley, G., ‘Long lost relations and new found relativities: issues in the cleaning of paintings’, in Appearance, Opinion and Change: Evaluating the Look of Paintings. Preprints of the UKIC/AAH Conference, June 1990,eds. P. Booth and V. Todd, UKIC, London, 1990. (Reprinted in Measured Opinions: Collected Papers on the Conservation of Paintings, ed. C. Villers, UKIC, London, 1993, 172‒178.)

 

Daley, M., ‘Review: Who Cleaned the Queen’s Windows and the Lady’s Pearls?’, ArtWatch UK, http://artwatchuk.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/12-july-2013/ (accessed 10 October 2013).

 

Case studies:

 

The Shroud of Turin: Meacham, William, ‘The “restoration” of the Turin Shroud: a conservation and scientific disaster’, E-conservation, the online magazine 13 (February 2010), 28–42. Available at http://www.e-conservationline.com/content/view/862/

 

Looted art: Cembalest, Robin, ‘Claims conflict’, Artnews (October 2010), http://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=OGQ6RR900511 (accessed October 2010).

 

Cleaning Michelangelo’s David: ‘Distilled water to clean David’, BBC News, 24 July 2003, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3092143.stm (accessed October 2010).

Sterling, Kristin, ‘ArtWatch Founder James Beck Discusses Restoration of ‘David’; Participates in Film that Screens February’, Columbia News, 30 January (2004), http://www.artwatchinternational.org/db_images/pdfs/ColumbiaRecordJan2004.mht (accessed October 2010).

 

 

 

 

Cleaning Leonardo’s The Virgin and Child With St Anne: Alberge, D., ‘Louvre's Leonardo was overcleaned, say art experts’, The Guardian (UK), 28 December 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/dec/28/louvre-leonardo-overcleaned-art-experts?fb=optOut (accessed 10 October 2013).

 

LECTURE 9

Ethical considerations in archaeological conservation

Guest lecturer: Douwtje van der Meulen

 

Elia, Ricardo J., ‘Conservators and unprovenanced objects: preserving the cultural heritage or servicing the antiquities trade?’, in Antiquities Trade or Betrayed. Legal, Ethical & Conservation Issues, ed. K.W. Tubb, Archetype, London (1995) pp. 244–255.

Jaeschke, Helena F., ‘The conservation treatment of looted antiquities and the responsibilities of conservators’, in Archaeological Conservation and its Consequences. Preprints of the Contributions to the Copenhagen Conference, 26-30 August, 1996, eds. A. Roy and P. Smith, Copenhagen (1996) pp. 82–85.

Sease, Catherine, ‘Conservation and the Antiquities Trade’, JAIC 36 (1997) pp. 49–58. (JSTOR)

Sease, Catherine, and Thimme, Danaë, ‘The Kanakariá Mosaics: the conservator’s view’, in Antiquities Trade or Betrayed. Legal, Ethical & Conservation Issues, ed. K.W. Tubb, Archetype, London (1995) pp. 122–130.

Walker Tubb, Kathryn, ‘The Antiquities Trade: an archaeological conservator’s perspective’, in Antiquities Trade or Betrayed. Legal, Ethical & Conservation Issues, ed. K.W. Tubb, Archetype, London (1995) pp. 256–263.

Walker Tubb, Kathryn, and Sease, Catherine, ‘Sacrificing the wood for the trees – should conservation have a role in the antiquities trade?’, Archaeological Conservation and its Consequences. Preprints of the Contributions to the Copenhagen Conference, 26-30 August, 1996, Copenhagen (1996) pp. 193–197.

 

LECTURE 10

Dilemmas and decision-making

 

Dead or Alive? Preserving heavily damaged or heavily restored objects

de Jonge, Piet, ‘The Unexpected Life of a Total Loss’, in Modern Art: Who Cares? An interdisciplinary research project and an international symposium on the conservation of modern and contemporary art, eds. I. Hummelen and D. Sillé, The Foundation for the Conservation of Modern Art and the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage, Amsterdam (1999) pp. 137–141.

Bracker, Alison and Barker, Rachel, ‘Relic or release: defining and documenting the physical and aesthetic death of contemporary works of art’, in ICOM-CC Preprints, 14th Triennial Meeting, The Hague, 12-16 September 2005, ed. I. Verger, Vol. 2, James & James, London (2005) pp. 1009–1015.

Brajer, Isabelle, ‘Dilemmas in the restoration of wall paintings: conflicts between ethics, aesthetics, functions and values illustrated by examples from Denmark’, Die Kunst der Restaurierung. Entwicklungen und Tendenzen der Restaurierungsästhetick in Europa, ed. U. Schädler-Saub, Bayerisches National Museum & ICOMOS, Munich (2003) pp. 123–140.

Hummelen, Ijsbrand, ‘The authenticity of colour, a problem of restoration in modern art’, NMV 93: retusjering, komplettering, rekonstruksjon (= Nordisk Ministrråds videreutdannelseskurs for konservatorer) Oslo (1993) pp. 1–4.

 

Dilemmas and decision-making

Sirois, P.J., Johnsom, J.S., Shugar, A., Poulin, J. and Madden, O., 2007: ‘Pesticide contamination: working together to find a common solution’, in Proceedings of Symposium: Preserving Aboriginal Heritage: Technical and Traditional Approaches, eds. C. Dignard, K. Helwig, J. Mason, K. Nanowin and T. Stone, Canadian Conservation Institute, Ottawa (2008) pp. 175–186.

Klokkernes, T., and Olli, A.M., ‘Understanding museum artifacts: the role of tradition bearers and material analysis in investigating skin processing technology’, in Proceedings of Symposium: Preserving Aboriginal Heritage: Technical and Traditional Approaches, eds. C. Dignard, K. Helwig, J. Mason, K. Nanowin and and T. Stone, Canadian Conservation Institute, Ottawa (2008) pp. 109–114.

Muir, K., ‘Approaches to the reintegration of paint loss: theory and practice in the conservation of easel paintings, Reviews in Conservation 2009, pp. 19‒28.

‘To hunt or not to hunt? Minneapolis Institute of Arts lets public vote on masking of 19th century addition to Hobbema painting’  Tuesday, 17 May 2011, http://www.codart.nl/news/651/

 

 

 

LECTURE 11

Sustainability

 

de Silva, M., and Henderson, J., ’Sustainability in conservation practice’, Journal of the Institute of Conservation 34:1 (2011) 5-15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19455224.2011.566013

‘Annual Report November 2010 – October 2011’, ICCROM Newsletter 37.