Termini.
07-14-2003, 02:25 PM
Hi everyone, I thought that I would share some of my restoration work. This very old painting was vandalized, by some kids, involving a tear in the canvas, that was about 18 inches long, through the center of the canvas. The church hired a restorer, or a person who claimed to be. He soaked part of the painting in water, in an attempt to soften the canvas, and bring both sides of the tear together. Not sure if he had bats in his belfry. Well the old canvas shrunk very rapidly, causing the paint film to detach from the support in hundreds of small areas, and some outright fell off. The "restorer" then went to lunch, never to be seen again. I was later asked to fix it, and after losing approximately 1/4 inch of my hair line, and thanks to WN paints, and other materials, I fixed it, the best that I could. This is the "before" image:
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/01-Jan-2011/30792-repair1.jpg
This is after I did the repair:
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/01-Jan-2011/30792-repair2.jpg
I don't do restoration work that often, This just came upon me, via a quirk of fate. I first started by studying the painting. I used a flashlight iin the dark to examine the construction of the paint film. Also studied the chips, which although damaged, gave clues. I Noticed that it was done in glazes, many layers thick. I then photographed the painting as a reference, in case of more damage as restoration took place. I then painted a test image, on prepared oak board, to experiment and establish values, and color.
This is the test image:
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/01-Jan-2011/30792-testimage.jpg
I determined the colors, and made extensive notes. I then removed the old varnish, and reattached as much of the paint film as I could. The flaking area that had been wet, in the image, was almost entirely destroyed. The pieces just collapsed from the support. The reference images were crucial, as a major portion of the finished product has none of the original paint film, in the damaged areas.
I fixed the tear by patching the painting from the reverse of the canvas.
I had considered linen, yet the original canvas was a rougher weave. I searched until I found a fabric that would approximate the original weave. I also wanted a large weave, in order to treat it as a frame or foundation for the filler. Oh, by the way, I would bet that there was a a great deal of lead in the original, based on the pliability of the undamaged film.
I used a pretty decent quality cotton duck, applied it with an acrylic glue, and wax paper, applied about 100lbs pressure, until dry I chose not to remove from the old stretcher, due to the arched shape of the stretcher, and that the rest of the painting was fine, and the tension was fine. Further, the tear frayed, so it couldn't be put back together accurately. Instead, after the patch was applied, I diligently primed and gessoed the new canvas (patch) from the front. I then shaved off any damaged paint/fray, surrounding the tears, and flake spots, gessoed several times, built up low spots with acrylic thickening medium, and then filled further with layered alkyd paints (Prussian Blue-For dark underpainting), starting with thin layers, and then getting thicker, until the surface area of all the damaged areas was above the original paint film, in between each layer, waited till dry to compensate for minor shrinkage. I did overpaint the original film, slightly for continuity. I chose not to use wax. I then sanded the raised areas smooth with 600 grit sandpaper, very time consuming, until the filled in areas were level with the original paint film.
At this point. I painted an image underpainting in the various colors, representing the various objects. The fashion of this underpainting, was similar to a Verdaccio technique, establishing values using different colors for the monochrome, however. Ie-on the dress, underpainted with cobalt blue, and a touch of Veridian, then highlighted with titanium white, established the values, as the lightest areas were almost white, and then used prussian blue to establish the dark values. In keeping with the original. After this I glazed the dress with prussian blue, in thin glazes to take the tone down to that of the surrounding areas, and also match the original color, probably 20 thinly colored glazes. I also adjusted from time to time, in the light areas, with zinc white. Did a similar procedure with all of the colors. I don't think that I could have done the image alla prima. After the image was suitable, I waited for the drying, to adjust for any darkening, made many minor adjustments. Had lists of up to 300 things, at times, that needed minor corrections. Upon completion of the image, I applied numerous thin glazes over the entire painting, the later of witch were slightly tinted, to unify the entire painting. 6 months after this, Damar. It took the better part of a year from start to finish.
If you are interested in painting restoration, there is a tremendous book dealing with the matter. The title is "The Restoration of Painting", by Knut Nicolaus. It is available via special order at Barnes and Noble. It is the cadillac of restoration books, with a huge number of photos. I also feel that it is a book that artists interested in the work of the Old Masters, should have. It details very closely the techniques that Old Masters used, during many time frames. It deals with pigments,glazing, patina, supports(Canvas/linen/wood-great detail), solvents, even varnishes, such as Damar, Amber, Albumin, copal, mastic, wax. Of interst to me, especially is the decription of deteriorations, and the effects of climate, metal, temp, surface preparation etc., in order to be mindful of this in my own work.
Jim T
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/01-Jan-2011/30792-repair1.jpg
This is after I did the repair:
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/01-Jan-2011/30792-repair2.jpg
I don't do restoration work that often, This just came upon me, via a quirk of fate. I first started by studying the painting. I used a flashlight iin the dark to examine the construction of the paint film. Also studied the chips, which although damaged, gave clues. I Noticed that it was done in glazes, many layers thick. I then photographed the painting as a reference, in case of more damage as restoration took place. I then painted a test image, on prepared oak board, to experiment and establish values, and color.
This is the test image:
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/01-Jan-2011/30792-testimage.jpg
I determined the colors, and made extensive notes. I then removed the old varnish, and reattached as much of the paint film as I could. The flaking area that had been wet, in the image, was almost entirely destroyed. The pieces just collapsed from the support. The reference images were crucial, as a major portion of the finished product has none of the original paint film, in the damaged areas.
I fixed the tear by patching the painting from the reverse of the canvas.
I had considered linen, yet the original canvas was a rougher weave. I searched until I found a fabric that would approximate the original weave. I also wanted a large weave, in order to treat it as a frame or foundation for the filler. Oh, by the way, I would bet that there was a a great deal of lead in the original, based on the pliability of the undamaged film.
I used a pretty decent quality cotton duck, applied it with an acrylic glue, and wax paper, applied about 100lbs pressure, until dry I chose not to remove from the old stretcher, due to the arched shape of the stretcher, and that the rest of the painting was fine, and the tension was fine. Further, the tear frayed, so it couldn't be put back together accurately. Instead, after the patch was applied, I diligently primed and gessoed the new canvas (patch) from the front. I then shaved off any damaged paint/fray, surrounding the tears, and flake spots, gessoed several times, built up low spots with acrylic thickening medium, and then filled further with layered alkyd paints (Prussian Blue-For dark underpainting), starting with thin layers, and then getting thicker, until the surface area of all the damaged areas was above the original paint film, in between each layer, waited till dry to compensate for minor shrinkage. I did overpaint the original film, slightly for continuity. I chose not to use wax. I then sanded the raised areas smooth with 600 grit sandpaper, very time consuming, until the filled in areas were level with the original paint film.
At this point. I painted an image underpainting in the various colors, representing the various objects. The fashion of this underpainting, was similar to a Verdaccio technique, establishing values using different colors for the monochrome, however. Ie-on the dress, underpainted with cobalt blue, and a touch of Veridian, then highlighted with titanium white, established the values, as the lightest areas were almost white, and then used prussian blue to establish the dark values. In keeping with the original. After this I glazed the dress with prussian blue, in thin glazes to take the tone down to that of the surrounding areas, and also match the original color, probably 20 thinly colored glazes. I also adjusted from time to time, in the light areas, with zinc white. Did a similar procedure with all of the colors. I don't think that I could have done the image alla prima. After the image was suitable, I waited for the drying, to adjust for any darkening, made many minor adjustments. Had lists of up to 300 things, at times, that needed minor corrections. Upon completion of the image, I applied numerous thin glazes over the entire painting, the later of witch were slightly tinted, to unify the entire painting. 6 months after this, Damar. It took the better part of a year from start to finish.
If you are interested in painting restoration, there is a tremendous book dealing with the matter. The title is "The Restoration of Painting", by Knut Nicolaus. It is available via special order at Barnes and Noble. It is the cadillac of restoration books, with a huge number of photos. I also feel that it is a book that artists interested in the work of the Old Masters, should have. It details very closely the techniques that Old Masters used, during many time frames. It deals with pigments,glazing, patina, supports(Canvas/linen/wood-great detail), solvents, even varnishes, such as Damar, Amber, Albumin, copal, mastic, wax. Of interst to me, especially is the decription of deteriorations, and the effects of climate, metal, temp, surface preparation etc., in order to be mindful of this in my own work.
Jim T