The Art of Conservation

This fascinating volume presents a wide-ranging overview of one of the lesser knownyet fundamental disciplines of Art History: conservation. What happens when art ages?By bringing together some of the leading experts in the field, the essays chart a journeythrough the theoretical, aesthetic and technical debates surrounding the conservationof Old Masters.The problem of how to look after paintings as they grow old is a historically complexone. Should they be ‘restored’ to their original glory, or should the patina of timebe acknowledged? What is to be done with damp and dirt, with rotten panels andyellowing varnishes? The development of conservation is profoundly entwined with thedevelopment of Art History itself, as both deal in the interpretation of the past and itspreservation for the future. The seventeen essays collected by editors Jane Martineauand David Bomford, which originally appeared in The Burlington Magazine, explore howthese questions have been answered from the mid-sixteenth century to the present day.Masterpieces like Jan and Hubert van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece or Rembrandt’sNight Watch have been treated and mis-treated many times in their long lives. By thenineteenth century, the growing knowledge of the techniques employed by the oldmasters had a profound influence on the treatments applied to their works. In thesame period, the birth of national galleries as public institutions entrusted with thecollective heritage led to the need to preserve large numbers of paintings and establishconservation departments rooted in scientific research. By the mid-twentieth century,the materials and techniques of painting were utterly transformed, demanding freshapproaches to their preservation.A discipline that sits uniquely at the crossroads of art, science, philosophy andtechnology, modern conservation is the result of an ongoing collaboration betweenconservators, scientists and art historians following rigorous ethical standards andtraining programmes.