e­conservationthe online magazine No. 22, November 2011

4 The Nomad Conservator

By Rui Bordalo

Intangible Cultural Heritage and Rise of the Meme

By Daniel Cull

On Some Problems of the Relationship Between Science

and Conservation

By António João Cruz

Historic Conservation Project Begins at “Machu Picchu of the North”

By Global Heritage Fund

Conservation Matters in Wales

Review by Johanna Sandström

Microscopy and Microanalysis Applications in Cultural Heritage

Research

Review by Ana Bidarra

MATCONS 2011

Review by Teodora Poiata

ICOM‐CC 16th Triennial Conference

Review by Rui Bordalo

The External Ion Beam Facility in Portugal for Studying

Cultural Heritage

By Victoria Corregidor, Luís Cerqueira Alves, Paula Alexandra Rodrigues,

Márcia Vilarigues, Rui C. Silva

The Contribution of Transmitted Infrared Imaging to

Non‐Invasive Study of Canvas Paintings at the National Gallery

– Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Greece

By Anna Moutsatsou, Dimitra Skapoula, Michael Doulgeridis

Chinese Islamic Scrolls: a Conservation Case Study

By Aristoteles Sakellariou, Lalit Kumar Pathak, Siti Yuhainizar Mohd Ismail

Conservation Intervention of Vernacular Architectures:

Two Case Studies in Calabria, Italy

By Alessia Bianco

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ARTICLES

NEWS & VIEWS

EDITORIAL

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lThe Nomad Conservator

When the computer gained a permanent place in our houses, teleworking or rather the home

based work revolution started. But conservation is not one of those professions you can carry out

from your computer at home, unless you are working in documentation. On the contrary,

conservation has always been work that needs to be done somewhere else. In modern times, this

phenomena has reached a dimension never seen before.

We often complain about the problems of modern times. We don’t have major revolutions or world

wars but things are changing more than we care to notice. It has never been easier or cheaper to

travel, just as it seems that it has never been more difficult to hold on to a job. Mobility is the

word of reference nowadays. Long‐term contracts are so difficult to get that we must consider

them long gone. Short‐term contracts, and/or freelancing, are here to stay and dictate our lives.

It is now pretty common to be 35 to 40 years old and have spent the last 10 to 15 years going from

project to project, either at academia, in the museum field or in the private sector.

Nowadays, mobility is considered as a necessary requirement for the modern work market. In

conservation we may contemplate three main types of mobility: micro‐mobility, when you move

inside the region where you live; macro‐mobility, when you move continually around your

country, which means not going home very often; and inter‐mobility, when you move to another

country either permanently or for long‐term periods (2‐5 years).

Mobility is great! It allows you to travel, see the world, and if you don’t like something you can

always move on to your next target. But it also does not allow you to plan your future, know

where you will be living in a few years time, create roots in your community or raise a family,

basically it doesn’t let you settle down.

This is the true nature of conservation: to go “in situ”, where you are needed, although you might

say it has now turned into “to go anywhere you get the chance to”. The whole initial concept is

very attractive, to search for a better place, to always move for the better, but when better is not

available and you need to move on because your last work or project is just finishing, then it turns

into a matter of survival.

This may be seen as a sign of present times and not as a major problem. As a factor that is shaping

the actual generation of conservator‐restorers and that will probably change the way that

conservation is done, I believe it deserves some reflection.

Rui BordaloEditor‐in‐Chief

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INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE AND RISE OF THE MEME

In 2003 the safeguarding of Intangible Cultural

Heritage (ICH) was codified, and defined as

heritage that is:

“...transmitted from generation to generation, is

constantly recreated by communities and groups in

response to their environment, their interaction

with nature and their history, and provides them

with a sense of identity and continuity.” [2]

The convention talks of language, performance,

rituals, and traditional crafts as being “vehicles”

of transmission, but doesn’t attribute a particular

method of transfer. I was intrigued by the ideas

of transmission and recreation, and wondered

whether ICH would mesh with an assertion that

“all transmitted knowledge is memetic” [3]. The

internet has brought the idea of the meme to

popular consciousness, with famous memes such

as ‘LOLCat’. The meme has been defined as: “a

contagious information pattern that replicates by

parasitically infecting human minds and altering

their behavior, causing them to propagate the

pattern” [3]. The meme existed prior to its popula‐

rization online, and traditional memetic concepts

include; slogans, catch‐phrases, images, icons,

melodies, and fashions, however, an idea “is not

a meme until it causes someone to replicate it,

to repeat it to someone else” [3]. Furthermore

an object is not a meme, no matter the speed or

repetition of production, nor of use, the object

remains a “meme vehicle” [1], as does its user.

Intriguingly the UNESCO convention refers to

language, performance, ritual, and traditional

"The meme is not the dancer but the dance."

James Gleick [1]

By Daniel Cull

craft as being “vehicles” of

transmission.

Religion, or ritual, was identified as

one vehicle for the transfer of ICH,

and it seems it does exhibit a meme‐

tic nature. I recently experienced

this when I walked ‘el Camino de

Santiago de Compostela’, a religious

pilgrimage through Galicia, in

northern Spain, the pilgrimage

culminates with a series of rituals

at the relics in Santiago de Compos‐

tela Cathedral. Conservation con‐

cerns had limited the ability to per‐

form two of the rituals, touching

the Tree of Jesse, and headbutting

the statue of Maestro Mateo ‘the

Saint of the Bumps’, but I was able

to hug the statue of St James above

the alter and descend into the tomb

to pray at the reliquary casket; join‐

ing these rituals as a ‘meme vehicle’.

Many pilgrims on route to Santiago

carry scallop shells, a walking staff

and a gourd, these objects appear

repeatedly in art throughout the

region, especially in depictions of

St James as a pilgrim (Santiago

Peregrino); forming another meme

vehicle. Through the realization that

the rituals, symbols, art, and I were

meme vehicles, it was possible to

see the pilgrimage itself as a meme,

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and this provided one potential explanation for

why the pilgrimage route continues to exist and

have such resonance today.

Another vehicle for transmission was identified as

language. Symbols are an excellent example of a

language which exhibits the memetic nature of

ICH transfer; this is especially evident in contem‐

porary post‐modern politics. As the twitter revolu‐

tion continues around the world with its hashtags

#jan25, #15M, and #OccupyWallStreet, museums

have rushed to collect material culture pertaining

to these protest movements [4]. I’m sure high on

their wish list will be a Guy Fawkes mask from the

film ‘V for Vendetta’, because of its use on and

offline as a symbol of the collective Anonymous

[5]. Guy Fawkes was a Roman Catholic conspirator

who, in 1605, failed in an attempt to blow up the

English Parliament during the state opening by

the King. This was a pivotal moment in the

Camino road sign.

creation of the modern British state, a moment

that continues to be marked today. The annual

burning of an effigy of Guy Fawkes was a potent

symbol of Protestant nationalism, but as a result

of the secularization of the event in the mid‐

nineteenth century, the image of Guy Fawkes was

liberated from the bonfires and replaced with

contemporary figures of antagonism, leaving the

image of Guy Fawkes to become a “free floating

symbol” [6, 156], capable of multiple and shifting

meanings. It is this image that has been embraced

by protesters across the globe, mirroring the emo‐

tional climax of the film V for Vendetta in which

“the audience is treated to an inspirational sight:

Evey's beautiful lips, caressing the lifeless fea‐

tures of a Guy Fawkes mask. Evey loves the meme.

She loves the symbol, its power, and the way V has

wielded this power.” [6, 170] It is this love of the

meme that is so relevant to the contemporary

political realm, and therefore our understanding

of contemporary ICH.

To the meme the real and virtual are not bounda‐

ries, the brain and the computer serve the same

vehicular function. As the meme becomes a more

widely regarded concept it becomes an ever

greater potential interpretive avenue for contem‐

plating ICH, leading us to an intriguing question

within the study of memes: ‘who is in charge, us

or the meme?’

Notes:

[1] J. Gleick," What Defines a Meme?", Smithsonian

Magazine, May 2011, URL (accessed 04‐11‐2011)

[2] UNESCO, Convention for the Safeguarding of

the Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2003, URL

(accessed 04‐11‐2011)

[3] G. Grant, Memetic Lexicon, 1990, HTMLized by

Anders Sandberg, 1994, altered and expanded by

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DANIEL CULLConservatorThe Musical Instrument Museum

Daniel Cull is from the West Country of the British

Isles. He trained at the Institute of Archaeology,

University College London, where he received a

BSc in Archaeology, MA in Principles of conser‐

vation, and an MSc in Conservation for Archae‐

ology and Museums. He was later awarded an

Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the National

Museum of the American Indian/Smithsonian

Institution, Washington, DC. He currently works as

a conservator at the Musical Instrument Museum

and as a collaborator with e‐conservation

magazine.

Website: http://dancull.wordpress.com

Contact: daniel.cull@themim.org

David McFadzean, 1995‐1999, URL (accessed

04‐11‐2011)

[4] M. Machado and V. Hilbig, Statement: Occupy

Wall Street Collecting, Smithsonian/National Museum

of American History, URL (accessed 04‐11‐2011)

[5] Anonymous is a collective pseudonym, in the

tradition of Luther Blisset, Nedd Ludd, or Captain

Swing

[6] L. Call, "A Is for Anarchy, V is for Vendetta:

Images of Guy Fawkes and the Creation of Post‐

modern Anarchism", Anarchist Studies 16(2), 2008

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7

The News section is bringing up‐to‐dateinformation on cultural heritage topics such ason‐site conservation projects reports, reviews

of conferences, lectures or workshops andany other kind of appropriate

announcements.

If you are involved in interesting projects andyou want to share your experience with

everybody else, please send us your newsor announcements.

For more details, such as deadlines andpublication guidelines, please visit

www.e‐conservationline.com

By António João Cruz

ON SOME PROBLEMS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEENSCIENCE AND CONSERVATION

It is now common ground that Science (exact and

natural sciences) is an important and indispen‐

sable support for Conservation. For example, any

higher education degree of Conservation contains

in its curriculum several courses on Chemistry,

Physics, Materials and Biology, which help to

understand the materiality of the works to be

conserved, and Methods of Examination and

Analysis that are fundamental for identification

and characterisation of the materials that consti‐

tute the works of art. The importance that Science

has for Conservation is also observed in many

publications authored or co‐authored by conser‐

vator‐restorers where the knowledge of the exact

and natural sciences is increasingly used and relied

upon, as seen on several manuals [1‐4].

However, as testified by any manual on methods

of examination and analysis relevant for Conser‐

vation or dedicated to conservator‐restorers, this

relation between Science and Conservation has

been developed within the wider context of the

application of analytical methods to the resolu‐

tion of problems in Archaeology, History and Art

History and many of these studies have only

indirect interest for Conservation (Table I). On

this wider context, there are other research areas

beyond Conservation Science such as Archaeo‐

logical Chemistry, Archaeometry and Technical

Art History, to cite some disciplines that have

become important in the last years or decades.

Obviously, all information about the object may

be useful and important for its intervention since

it is “impossible to treat what is not known” [5]

but it should be borne in mind that there is not

always a direct relationship between Science and

Conservation.

In general, the wide relationship between Science

and Conservation, developed since the second

half of the XVIII century, has been achieved

through three models (Table II).

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Table I. General questions that laboratory studies try to answer.

Question

What is it made of?

How was it made?

When was it made?

Where was it made?

Who made it?

What purpose did it have?

What is its conservation condition?

How did it change?

How to preserve it?

Aspects involved

Identification of materials

Identification and characterisation of the techniques and technologies

Dating

Determination of provenance

Determination of authorship

Determination of function

Diagnosis of the conservation condition

Determination of the alteration mechanisms

Establishment of preventive conservation strategies

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One of the models, the request to the laboratory,

corresponds to the situation where someone

contacts a laboratory to obtain information about

an object. This model goes back at least to the

1770’s, when Thomas Pownall asked the head of

the Royal Mint for help for the identification of a

metal alloy used in prehistoric swords [6], but it

is still current nowadays. Typical cases are those

in which a conservator‐restorer uses the services

of a laboratory, for example, to identify the

constituent materials of the work to be treated

and to improve the intervention report. Due to

the cost of the services, the study is generally

limited and the results have little impact, at least

in the Conservation field.

Other model is the opposite, the offer from the

laboratory, which occurs when someone from the

Sciences proposes a project involving works of art

or other cultural heritage objects. The underlining

intention is to apply the knowledge and technology

developed for other purposes to new domains and,

thus, to enlarge its area of influence. An early

example was the proposal of renowned chemist

Humphry Davy on the 1810’s to develop a chemical

process to allow to unroll quickly the scrolls

found during the archaeological excavations at

Herculanum, in Italy, for which only a time‐consu‐

ming mechanical method existed at the time [7].

More recently, the laboratory offer has increased

significantly, specially since 1995, when the

Molart (Molecular Aspects of Ageing in Painted

Works of Art) project started [8]. This is probably

due to the increase of competitiveness within the

scientific fields and the consequent tendency of

extend their areas of influence. This great offer

is clearly revealed by the significant number of

papers devoted to the study of the cultural

heritage published in journals of Chemistry and

Physics, often in thematic issues [9]. It is because

of this that there are more papers concerning

cultural heritage issues published in journals from

other areas referenced on ISI Web of Knowledge

than published in journals dedicated to cultural

heritage (Table III). Looking for answers to parti‐

cular problems of scientific disciplines rather than

to conservation problems, the papers published

in Chemistry and Physics journals frequently have

little impact on the cultural heritage field, in

particular on Conservation, despite the existence

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Table II. Models of the relation between Science and Conservation.

ModelParameter

Request to laboratory Offer from laboratory Collaboration

Reason of study Historical problem Technology applicationConservation

and restoration orhistorical problem

Occurrence Moderate Low to moderate Low

Direct costs for theconservator‐restorer

High Low or none Low

Direct implicationin Conservation

Low Variable, butfrequently low

Variable

Main problem Study inadequacyIncomprehension

of the historical andartistic aspects

Difficulty incommunication

Dissemination type Report Paper oninternational journal

Article or book chapter

of notable exceptions such as the studies from

the Molart project. The exceptional situation of

this project was certainly due to the fact that it

started as an offer from the laboratory but it

rapidly developed into other model.

This model, the third type of the relation between

Science and Conservation, corresponds to the

collaboration, in which the work is conceived,

planned and developed by a multidisciplinary

team working in consonance. This type and its

advantages started to be discussed after the First

International Conference for the Study of Scientific

Methods for Examination and Preservation of Works

of Art organised in Rome in 1930 by the prede‐

cessor of ICOM. From this conference resulted a

manual on the conservation of paintings written

by an international multidisciplinary group [10].

However, the first major study carried out in this

way was the study of the Adoration of the Mystic

Lamb by Jan van Eyck, coordinated by Paul Core‐

mans in the early 1950’s [11]. The team was com‐

posed of chemists, biologists, art historians,

conservator‐restorers and archivists.

This type of relation, certainly the most advan‐

tageous from the conservation point of view, is

relatively uncommon due to the communication

difficulties between the areas that need to be

involved, which belong to two different cultures

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[12]. These difficulties not only undermine the

development of studies but also create some

conflicts and delicate situations. On this respect,

J. R. J. van Asperen de Boer, the inventor of infra‐

red reflectography, made in 1998 an important

and clear statement based on his experience of

many years about the impact of Sciences in Art

History: “The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘impact’

as ‘striking (on, against), collision, effect, influ‐

ence’. The author has held a chair of ‘scientific

examination of works of art’, being a physicist by

training but operated professionally for more than

twenty years within an institute for Art History,

and would obviously prefer ‘effect’ or at least

‘influence’ as the accepted connotation. Unfor‐

tunately endeavours to use – or even better –

integrate methods of scientific examination in

art history are not infrequently seen as ‘striking

against’ art historical views or traditions and may

thus well lead to ‘collisions’” [13].

The communication difficulties, which naturally

also affect the other models, have been addressed

and some progress has occurred in this regard in

the last decades [14]. However, some recent

technological developments oppose this trend.

The same van Asperen de Boer also commented

this fact when he stated, concerning the Molart

project, that “the specialized language used by

the participating scientists is not easily grasped

Topic

Conservation AND Restoration AND Art

Painting AND Conservation

Painting AND Conservation AND Analysis

Painting AND Pigments

Nr. Nr. % **

158 11 7

295 68 23

139 6 4

466 36 8

Alljournals

Cultural heritagerelated journals*

Table III. Number of papers published between 2005 and 2011 on some topics related to Conservation found in ISI Web of Knowledge(search performed on 09.25.2011).

* Archaeometry, International Journal of Architectural Heritage, Journal of Architectural Conservation, Journal of Cultural Heritage, Journal ofthe American Institute for Conservation, Restaurator, Studies in Conservation.** Percentage of papers published in cultural heritage related journals in relation to the total number of papers related to the topic.

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by restorers and art historians, not even by

the present writer trained as an experimental

physicist” [8].

The problems that derive from the existence of

both cultures also manifest themselves in the

publication of studies.

On the one hand, as already mentioned, many

papers have appeared recently in international

journals of Chemistry and Physics. However, they

focused on the search of new areas of application

of knowledge, techniques and technologies deve‐

loped elsewhere and end up giving little importance

to the works of art and their problems, besides

being difficult to read for most conservator‐

restorers.

On the other hand, the most adequate journals

to publish studies that address issues related to

conservation problems, material history and

technical characterisation of works of art are

unattractive for chemists and physicists. This

space is available in the Conservation journals,

specially in those with circulation predominantly

limited to a country or to a small set of countries,

such as Conservar Património (published by ARP,

Associação Profissional de Conservadores‐Restau‐

radores de Portugal) [15], ECR ‐ Estudos de Conser‐

vação e Restauro (published by Escola das Artes

of Universidade Católica Portuguesa) [16] or Ge‐

conservación (published by the Spanish Conserva‐

tion Group of the International Institute for Conser‐

vation of Historic and Artistic Works) [17]. The

problem is that chemists or physicists have little

or no interest on such journals. Scientists have a

publication dynamics very different from that of

conservator‐restorers: they almost limit themselves

to publish in journals indexed on ISI Web of Know‐

ledge and any other publication has a negligible

impact on their curriculums. Because Conservation

journals with national circulation are not part of

this group, it is difficult for them to receive any

study involving Science and Conservation.

Although this may not be evident at first sight,

the problems related with publishing have equally

important implications on another level, namely

on the financing of institutions dedicated to

Conservation and Restoration.

Despite these problems that derive from the

existence of two cultures, and the ignorance that

conservator‐restorers often have of the details

of the analytical processes, these professionals

may have a fundamental role on the laboratory

study. Indeed, contrary to what one might expect,

questions that may be made based on direct and

deep knowledge of the materials might influence

the entire analytical process. This is particularly

evident in the case of identification of the binding

media used by Rembrandt, described in detail by

Ernest van de Wetering [18]. Shortly, the case

started with the idea, which had been gaining

importance on mid‐nineteenth century, that some

effects found on Rembrandt‘s paintings resulted

from the use of a mixture of oil and resin. Thus, as

soon as the analytical techniques allowed it, in the

1980’s several paintings by Rembrandt were ana‐

lysed and the presence of resin in the binder was

tested. However, according to the results obtained

by gas chromatography ‐ mass spectrometry (GC‐

MS), the binder consisted only of oil, since no

trace of resin was detected. Given the experience

and reputation of the laboratory, these results

meant that the effects were only due to the excel‐

lence of Rembrandt’s technique. The results were

generally accepted by those working in the labo‐

ratories but were rejected, or at least, doubted by

those who knew in detail the subjects regarding

to the matter of the painting. For this attitude,

the justification was that each material has its

limits and, thus, as good as Rembrandt’s technique

was, the mixture of oil and resin could not allow

12 e‐conservation

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to obtain the diversity of the plastic effects obser‐

ved on the surface of some works. It was then

possible to conduct further analysis in other

laboratories, this time using other techniques,

namely high‐performance liquid chromatography

(HPLC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

(FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

These results showed the use of emulsions formed

by oil, water and egg, which have rheological pro‐

perties that may explain the variety of the effects.

The differences between the results obtained in

the two studies are not due to the technological

development that occurred but mostly due to the

fact that the analysis were oriented in different

ways: in the first case for the detection of resins,

in the second for the detection of other possible

constituents. So, the analytical results were

decisively determined by those who knew well

the materials, as it is the case of conservator‐

restorers, ignoring even how the equipments

operate. After all, this is merely an illustration

of a general situation: there are no good answers

without good questions.

Note

This text is the essence of the communication

presented by invitation at the I Encontro Luso‐

brasileiro de Conservação e Restauro that took

place on September 26, 2001 at the Universidade

Católica Portuguesa, Porto. I would like to thank

the welcome given to this communication, speci‐

ally by the speakers that followed. I also thank

Rui Bordalo for his invitation to address this issue

and for the English translation.

References

[1] J. Janssens, R. Van Grieken (ed.), Non‐destruc‐

tive Microanalysis of Cultural Heritage Materials,

Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2004

[2] B. Stuart, Analytical Techniques in Materials

Conservation, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 2007

[3] M. Egido, T. Calderón (ed.), La Ciencia y el

Arte. Ciencias experimentales y conservación del

patrimonio histórico, Instituto del Patrimonio

Histórico Español, Madrid, 2008

[4] G. Artioli, Scientific Methods and Cultural

Heritage. An Introduction to the Application of

Materials Science to Archaeometry and Conserva‐

tion Science, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010

[5] A. V. Remígio, "História da Arte vs. Conservação

e Restauro", Newsletter ‐ Associação Portuguesa de

Historiadores da Arte 6, 2011, p. 5

[6] T. Pownall, "An account of some Irish anti‐

quities", Archaeologia, Or, Miscellaneous Tracts

Relating to Antiquity 3, 1775, pp. 355‐370

[7] H. Davy, "Report on the state of the manu‐

scripts of papyrus, found at Herculaneum", The

Quaterly Journal of Literature, Science and the

Arts 7, 1819, pp. 154‐161

[8] J. R. J. A. Boer, "Reflections on MOLART", in

M. Clarke, J. Boon (ed.), MOLART. A multidiscipli‐

nary NWO PRIORITEIT project on Molecular Aspects

of Ageing in Painted Works of Art. Final Report and

Highlights. 1995‐2002, FOM Institute, Amsterdam,

2003, pp. 9‐10

[9] A. J. Cruz, Números temáticos de revistas

online, URL (accessed 17‐10‐2011)

[10] International Museums Office, Manual on the

Conservation of Paintings, 2nd ed., Archetype

Publications, London, 1997

[11] P. Coremans (ed.), L'Agneau Mystique au Labo‐

ratoire. Examen et traitement, De Sikkel, Anvers, 1953

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ANTÓNIO JOÃO CRUZConservation ScientistContact: ajcruz@ipt.pt

António João Cruz teaches conservation science

at Escola Superior de Tecnologia de Tomar, Insti‐

tuto Politécnico de Tomar, Portugal and he is a

researcher at CITAR – Centro de Investigação em

Ciência e Tecnologia das Artes, Universidade

Católica, Porto, Portugal.

[12] C. P. Snow, The Two Cultures, Cambridge

University Press, Cambridge, 1998

[13] J. R. J. A. Boer, "Some reflections upon the

impact of scientific examination on art historical

research", in E. Hermens (ed.), Looking Through

Paintings. The Study of Painting Techniques and

Materials in Support of Art Historical Research, de

Prom Publications‐Archetype Publications, Baarn‐

London, 1998, pp. 13‐17

[14] H. Lechtman, R. Stone, K. W. Miller, B. Consi‐

dine, J. Levin, "A matter of teamwork a discussion

about technical studies and art history", Conserva‐

tion ‐ The Getty Conservation Institute Newsletter

20(1), 2005, pp. 11‐16

[15] http://revista.arp.org.pt/

(accessed 17‐10‐2011)

[16] http://citar.artes.ucp.pt/ecr/

(accessed 17‐10‐2011)

[17] http://revista.ge‐iic.com/

(accessed 17‐10‐2011)

[18] E. Wetering, Rembrandt. The Painter at Work,

University of California Press, Berkeley ‐ Los

Angeles ‐ London, 2000

GHF has announced its newest conservation

project at Marcahuamachuco, a site of Pre‐Incan

ruins often referred to by archaeologists as “Machu

Picchu of the North” and the “Jewel of La Liber‐

tad”. Marcahuamachuco is set atop the nexus of

three mountain valleys at over 10,000 feet (3,200

meters), overlooking the land and rivers below.

Celebrated for its massive castillos (castles) and

unique circular double‐walled archaeological

structures that predate the imperial expansion of

the Incas and the Huari, Marcahuamachuco was

constructed between 400‐800 AD and became

northern Peru’s most important political, econo‐

mic and military center.

Located at an altitude of approximately 3,200

meters, Marcahuamachuco is one of the largest

and most complex archaeological sites in the

northern highlands of Peru. With its massive walls

and impressive stone architecture that predates

the imperial expansion of the Incas and the Huari,

the site has intrigued and attracted travelers and

researchers since Colonial times. Its construction

dates back to around 400 AD, and before being

conquered by the Incas, it became northern Peru’s

most important political, economic and military

center. Over many centuries, it has been damaged

by natural factors and a lack of surveillance, but

it remains one of the country’s most important

archaeological sites.

Global Heritage Fund (GHF), an international

conservancy dedicated to saving endangered heri‐

tage sites in developing countries, is launching

this newest conservation project at a special

event to be held in the city of Trujillo on November

2nd, 2011. Following this event, the GHF team will

journey from Trujillo to Huamachuco, passing

through the most important archaeological sites

from Moche culture (predating the Incas) to Chimu

culture, until they reach the site of Marcahuama‐

chuco.

GHF’s technical expertise will support its local

partner, the Unidad Ejecutora Marcahuamachuco

(UEM), in scientific planning, GIS and mapping,

and archaeological conservation. In addition,

GHF’s Preservation by Design® methodology will

be applied to community development to promote

employment of local conservation workers, train‐

ing guides and artisan works to ensure long‐term

sustainability. Since March 2011, the UEM has

been performing emergency actions at the site,

including clearing vegetation and provisionally

repairing the most damaged walls in advance of

large‐scale conservation. Currently, the UEM

team includes 24 local workers from the town of

Huamachuco.

HISTORIC CONSERVATION PROJECT BEGINS AT 'MACHU PICCHU OF THE NORTH'Global Heritage Fund & Unidad Ejecutivo Marcahaumachucopartner up to revive the Pre‐Inca City of the Dead

Wall shoring at Marcahuamachuco.

14 e‐conservation

NEWS

Alejandra Figueroa, who has worked on many

archaeological missions across Peru, serves as

project director for GHF Marcahuamachuco, and

is working closely with the UEM to ensure the best

preservation practices and community develop‐

ment. “The GHF project represents a unique oppor‐

tunity to use the latest technology to protect and

preserve Marcahuamachuco, and to create a new

management model in Peru combining public and

private efforts to protect archaeological heritage”,

said Figueroa.

“My personal stake in the preservation of Marca‐

huamachuco is twofold: as an archaeologist, I want

to see the site protected and prepared to survive

for many generations. As a Peruvian citizen, I can‐

not ignore the many needs of my country’s popu‐

lation, and the desire for improving their quality

of life. Marcahuamachuco has great potential to

become a major tourist attraction, and also to

strengthen the bond between people from Huama‐

chuco and their cultural heritage and Peru’s past

— a process that hopefully will allow us to better

understand our present and shape our future.”

With excellent potential to become one of the first

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the northern high‐

lands of Peru, Marcahuamachuco will provide a

major focus for economic development in an area

with few opportunities for local communities. The

heritage site of Marcahuamachuco is considered

endangered and faces accelerating threats as the

ruins degrade from grazing of livestock, lack of

conservation, weathering, plant growth and the

continued unchecked effects of natural elements

on the ancient structures.

Marcahuamachuco is GHF’s second project in Peru,

joining Chavín de Huántar, a UNESCO World Heri‐

tage Site located in the high mountains of the

Andes. Since 2004, GHF has been working in part‐

nership with Stanford University’s Dr. John Rick

and the Instituto Nacional de Cultura (INC) to

preserve Chavín. GHF’s multi‐stage methodology,

Historic wall ruins at Marcahuamachuco. Photo by Johan Reinhard.

15e‐conservation

NEWS

View from Marcahuamachuco. Photo by Johan Reinhard.

West side of the Marcahuamachuco ruins. Photo by Johan Reinhard.

16 e‐conservation

NEWS

FREE

CONSERVATION

RESOURCES

Art Conservation Research

conservationresearch.blogspot.com

called Preservation by Design®, has ensured

Chavín de Huántar has the highest‐caliber science,

planning and training for archaeological conser‐

vation and community development.

“As our work at Chavín de Huántar has shown, GHF

understands not only the need for responsible

planning and development, but the sustainable

economic potential of cultural heritage sites —

not just in Peru, but in developing countries all

over the world”, says Jeff Morgan, Executive

Director of GHF. In 2010, GHF funded the cata‐

loging and conservation of thousands of Chavin

artifacts which are now displayed in the new

$4 million National Museum of Chavín and 60,000

people have already visited the site over the last

year.

Much of Marcahuamachuco's history still remains

a mystery ‐ with the engagement of archaeolo‐

gists, historians and the local community, the

project will shed light on this important Peruvian

treasure. Like so many of the country’s top heri‐

tage sites, it has suffered in the shadow of Machu

Picchu for too long.

Visit GHF online and on Twitter to follow the trip

to Marcahuamachuco @Global_Heritage.

About Marcahuamachuco, Peru

Visit Marcahuamachuco on the Global Heritage

Network (GHN)

About Chavin de Huantar, Peru

17e‐conservation

NEWS

18 e‐conservation

CONSERVATION MATTERS IN WALES

16 June 2011

Cardiff , United Kingdom

Review by Johanna Sandström

Organised by:National Museum Wales, The Federation of

Museums and Art Galleries of Wales and

Cardiff University

The conference “Conservation Matters in Wales”

focused on the theme “Use and misuse of objects”.

The event was organized by National Museum

Wales, The Federation of Museums and Art Galleries

of Wales and Cardiff University, and was held at the

Icon suite of the Amgueddfa Cymru – National

Museum Wales on the 16th of June 2011.

Speakers from different parts of Wales and England

presented their thoughts about ethics and decision‐

making in relation to the conference theme, focu‐

sing mainly on the state of the actual economic

situation and how it causes problems for conserva‐

tors. This conference offered many interesting

insights into how conservators in Britain have

worked to deal with these problems.

The first speaker was Jane Thomson Webb from

Birmingham Museums and Art Galleries. She spoke

about Risk, and a program called RAPT, short for

Risk Awareness Profiling Tool. It is a free online

tool, developed by Birmingham Museums and Art

galleries and The Museum of London in co‐opera‐

tion with risk expert Jonathan Ashley‐Smith,

designed to help museums and other organiza‐

tions dealing with cultural heritage to assess their

risk‐awareness. It is a program where one answers

questions in different steps, with the possibility

to gain further information on the questions along

the way, and in the end get to know in which areas

their risk awareness plans are good and where they

need improving, with feedback on how to improve.

The program is accessed via http://www.rapton

line.org.uk, and registration is mandatory to

complete the test. Jane was the first to mention

that the main risk for most organizations in the

cultural heritage sector is a lack of funding, some‐

thing that was to come up as a subject in most of

the following talks.

The second speaker was Paul Meredith, engineer

at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales.

His talk focused on the importance of knowing the

technology and engineering of machinery one

works with in a museum environment, if you are

to have it running and at the same time keeping

damage to a minimum. He stated how the know‐

ledge of old, outdated machinery is something

that is becoming forgotten in a period of rapid

tempo. This knowledge is often lost with the

people who used to operate the machines. He

stressed how it is important for engineers/con‐

servators of old machinery to gather as much

information as possible about the machines they

work with from the people who ran it before them,

and also to write it down for future reference and

make use of it in their everyday work. He described

how he made up check‐lists for the machines in his

care, of which parts needed to be under regular

surveillance when they were run and not run. He

described how a routine of checking these points

is essential to preserve the machinery, and also

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to ensure safety for operators and audience who

are spending time close to the machine.

The third speaker was Katie Hebborn, graduating

student at Cardiff University BSc Conservation of

Objects in Museums and Archaeology. She presen‐

ted her third‐year practical project, analyzing the

original paint in the ceiling of the Tabernacle

Chapel of Pontypridd, which was first painted in

1910 and then re‐painted in 1983, example of the

1980’s paint (Figure 1). The purpose of her work

was to analyze the original paint to give Ponty‐

pridd art‐society an idea of how the ceiling was

originally painted so they could then use the infor‐

mation to make a reconstruction of what it looked

like in 1910, and then possibly repaint the roof.

Having some knowledge of the colours originally

used, Duresco paint, Katie made exposure windows

at vital parts of the patterns in the ceiling to un‐

cover the original paint and take samples for colour

analysis. She analyzed the original paint in a labo‐

ratory using cross‐section microscopy and SEM‐

EDX technology. She made a guideline for the art‐

society after the Munsell book of colours, descri‐

bing hue, value and chroma of the paint. She

ended her presentation with reasoning around the

theme of use and misuse of objects, stating that

to us the misuse in this case is surely that the ceil‐

ing was repainted in 1983, while in the future we

do not know if it would be considered a misuse to

restore the ceiling to its original state at the

expense of the 1980’s art‐work.

The fourth speaker, Clare Stoughton Harris of the

National Trust talked about the buildings in the

care of the National Trust and how the greatest

threat to these properties is the lack of funding

within the organization. She also spoke of how to

deal with the ever flowing stream of tourists, and

how one can go about to calculate maximum sus‐

tainable amount of visitors for a given time in a

historical building without interfering too much

with the conservation and preservation work. A

stable relationship between letting the visitors

enjoy themselves in the cultural property without

interfering with the conservation of the same

property was their main goal. To cope with the

funding allocation she described how the National

Trust has worked out check‐lists for conservation

and preventive conservation of the buildings in

their care. These checklists describe what the most

urgent concerns are allowing a focus on them. A

check list could include, for example, the number

of rooms in a building, what pests that are present

in the building, what protected species there are

that need to be taken into consideration, hazard‐

ous materials in the constructions, etc. For each

there are guidelines of what needed to be done,

priority lists and routines for the care of the

building. Her thoughts on the theme of use and

misuse of objects: she defined misuse as being

the use of an object without risk awareness or use

disregarding risk awareness.

The fifth speaker, Laura Caradonna of Monmouth‐

shire Museum Service, had evaluated the use of

polyester pockets for storing documents and went

Figure 1. 1980’s paint in the ceiling Tabernacle Chapel ofPontypridd. Photo by Katie Hebborn.

19

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20 e‐conservation

through the pros and cons for conservation pur‐

poses and for some other options for storage. The

Monmouthshire Museum holds in their care the

personal correspondence of Admiral Horatio

Nelson together with other artifacts associated

with him such as swords, ship models and log

books. This presentation focused on the conserva‐

tion and storage of his letters (Figure 2), written

with iron gall ink, folded and sealed with shellac,

later flattened and bound, and at the time of the

presentation stored in polyester pockets in conser‐

vation boxes (Figure 3). Laura listed the pros of

polyester pockets as being inexpensive and space‐

saving, and making both sides of letters accessible.

The cons were the risk to damage the letter during

extraction, the creation of a microclimate inside

the pockets, and that they create electrostatic

attracting dust and as such speeding up degrada‐

tion. The options for re‐housing the letters were

putting them in four‐flap folders, or so called

Ephemera rehousing; putting them in a ring bin‐

der, then in conservation boxes, or wrapping them

in manila folders using polyester sheet, also giving

the addition of a carrier in the pocket. The last

suggestion was to create enhanced breathing in

the polyester pockets by piercing the folder to

allow air movement. The problem for the museum

is that there is not enough storage‐space for other

options, and also a concern that adding buffering

in the folders might lead to problems with corro‐

sion in the iron gall ink.

The sixth speaker was David Lewis, a furniture

restorer who spoke about his experiences through

his career, mainly concerning the ethical issues

he has faced and still faces in his every‐day work.

Not being a conservator he does not fall under the

ethical guidelines of any conservation organiza‐

tion, so he has to base his decisions from only his

own ethical standpoints. In some cases the wishes

of the customer clashes with these standpoints,

and the only way to handle that is to either con‐

vince the customer to rethink their decisions, or

to carry out their wishes causing the least possible

damage to the original integrity of the object. As

a restorer it is also out of his control to govern the

environment where the piece of furniture ends up

after his work has been carried out. As an example

to illustrate what he sometimes faces in his work,

he told a story about a customer who asked him

to make an antique chest of drawers into a wine‐

cooler. While he did not want to do this he also

realized that this customer would have the work

carried out, and if not by him then by somebody

else, who would quite possible, do a worse job.

So despite the obvious ethical issues, he took the

job and turned the piece into a wine‐cooler, while

keeping its original surface appearance to the

Figure 3. The current way of storing Nelson’s letters, in polyesterpockets in conservation boxes. Photo by Laura Caradonna.

Figure 2. One of the Nelson Letters. Photo by Laura Caradonna.

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21e‐conservation

best of his ability. He said that his main tasks as

a restorer, apart from general repairs or an occa‐

sional strange request, is usually to either remake

the original look of a piece of furniture, and to

redo or undo bad craftsmanship. When working

with antiquities he stated that the best way to

carry out his job was to consult a conservator to

establish least harmful treatment.

The last speaker was Caroline Buttler of Amgueddfa

Cymru – National Museum Wales, former conser‐

vator and now working with natural history type

specimens. Her talk treated the subject of how

she felt was the right way to use the irreplaceable

collections in her care. Natural history type speci‐

mens are the bearers of the scientific names of all

animal taxa, after the Linnean binominal system.

A type specimen is the one specimen that defines

a species, and it is important to have as compa‐

rison if someone believes they have discovered a

new species, to conclude that it is not in fact an

existing one. The single type specimen is called

the holotype, and it is the one specimen that

defines the whole species. These are the most

scientifically valuable parts of museum collections

and it is important for researchers to know where

to find these specimens. So, how are they to be

used causing the least possible damage? For scien‐

tific research for example, paratypes should be

used as far as possible. Paratypes are secondary

examples of the species and more examples than

the one holotype exist. These samples sometimes

need to undergo a harmful procedure in scientific

research such as when accessing DNA data. She

raised the question especially concerning fossils,

where methods exist to gather a lot of informa‐

tion, but often at the expense of the sample itself.

Should she cut up fossils to see what it looks like

inside and thereby classify species? There are

techniques for creating virtual 3D images that

creates virtual holotypes but this requires the

destruction of the original specimen. When a

sample is destroyed, casts of the original speci‐

men should be made as far as it is possible. When

it comes to old and new samples the scientific

value is the same, but there is a historical value

to some prepared holotypes and paratypes such

as the samples that were prepared by Darwin.

Some of them are in bad shape and of little

scientific value since the DNA data has been

destroyed, but they still possess a historical

value and are considered worth preserving since

they can be connected to such an important

scientist as Darwin.

This was an interesting day where the delegates

were given inputs from many different parts of

the conservation profession, got a view on how

use and misuse of objects can manifest itself,

and how there are many risks concerning our

cultural heritage, and the main one right now is

a lack of funding for carrying out conservation

work.

JOHANNA SANDSTRÖMConservator‐restorer

Johanna moved from Uppsala, Sweden to Cardiff,

UK, in September 2010 to study BSc Conservation

of Objects in Museums and Archaeology at Cardiff

University. In the summer of 2011 she did four

weeks of vacation placement at the Swedish Natio‐

nal Heritage Board and is now in her second year,

looking very much forward to continue her career

in conservation.

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22 e‐conservation

The scientific session on 'Microscopy and Micro‐

analysis Applications in Cultural Heritage Research'

was held during the 8th and 9th of August in an

afternoon and morning conferences. This session

was a very small part of an annual meeting orga‐

nized by the Microscopy Society of America (MSA),

the Microanalysis Society (MAS) and the Interna‐

tional Metallographic Society (IMS). The sympo‐

sium chairs were John Mansfield (University of

Michigan), Ed Vicenzi (Museum Conservation

Institute, Smithsonian Institution) and Cathy

Selvius DeRoo (The Detroit Institute of Arts).

The M&M conference is a meeting that spans the

physical, life and analytical sciences, bringing

together delegates from around the globe repor‐

ting on the latest work and advances in microscopy

and microanalysis. The conference was organized

in over 30 symposia reflecting the current state‐

of‐the‐art, as well as the innovative and emerging

fields of research were held, focusing in areas

such as nanotechnology, traditional metallurgy,

biology or clinical diagnosis, or the growing field

of multifunctional hard/soft materials. Comple‐

menting the symposia was an exhibition of micros‐

copy/microanalysis instrumentation and resources,

which included access to vendor tutorials.

The “Microscopy and Microanalysis Applications

in Cultural Heritage Research” was held under the

Physical Science symposia. The first day comprised

six presentations. The first one, “Non‐destructive

investigation of Pre‐Columbian goldwork from

Panama with Variable Pressure Scanning Electron

Microscopy” was presented by the invited speaker

Ainslie Harrison from the National Museum of the

American Indian (Smithsonian Institution, USA).

Goldworking technology spread to Panama from

neighbouring regions in the first centuries AD;

however, not all metalworking techniques were

adopted and many stylistic and technological

variations were developed locally. Almost all of

the 318 objects examined in this study were

fabricated from Au‐Ag‐Cu alloys and included

pendants, plaques, nose rings, finger rings, ear

rods, bands, cuffs, sheathing, beads, and tools.

Optical microscopy alone was capable of providing

a great deal of technological information such as

primary fabrication method (e.g. cast vs. ham‐

mered), as well as some joining and finishing

techniques. Examination of every object in the

study was therefore carried out under the stereo‐

microscope while evidence of manufacture was

recorded with photomicrographs and entered into

the project database. In cases where the methods

REVIEWS

Review byAna Bidarra

7‐11 August 2011, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

MICROSCOPY AND MICROANALYSIS APPLICATIONS IN CULTURALHERITAGE RESEARCH

Organised by:Microscopy Society of America (MSA)

of fabrication and joining remained unclear from

examination under the microscope, objects were

selected to undergo VP‐SEM‐EDS. As only non‐

destructive analysis was permitted on the Smith‐

sonian material, this technique was ideal to help

answer research questions not resolved with

optical microscopy or XRF.

The second presentation, by Jose Luis Ruvalcaba‐

Sil (Instituto de Física, UNAM, Mexico), was also

on the study of gold and was entitled “Combining

SEM‐EDS, PIXE and XRF techniques for complex

analytical problems: depth profile characterization

of Pre‐Hispanic gold”. Technological characteri‐

zation of Pre‐Hispanic gold metallurgy has a wide

deficit of analytical data upon which to build a

synthesis, comparable to that made for ancient

Europe. This study tries to fill the gap between

the well established stylistic classifications and

the scientific identification of the production pro‐

cesses, focusing on the tumbaga alloys, lost wax

technological processes and depletion gilding.

The third contribution was my own presentation

(University of Aveiro, Portugal) and focused on the

study of gold leaf from Portuguese Baroque altar‐

pieces. Despite the existence of several works on

the study of this art form, they are mainly related

to treatises and orders from the manufacturing

period or to art history relations. This study,

however, aimed to provide a new approach to the

analysis of this architectural art by studying not

only these aspects but also the gold leaf, in order

to identify a distinct fingerprint for each altar‐

piece. The gold provenance relations, circulation,

compositional and textural aspects – structure

and micro structural – are some of the factors

considered.

The presentation “Technology and trade at Ancient

Gordion: insights from microanalysis of first

millennium BCE glass” was brought by the second

invited speaker Karen Privat (Electron Microscope

Unit, University of New South Wales, Kensington,

Australia). In the first half of the first millennium

BCE, the ancient city of Gordion, in central Ana‐

tolia, was the capital of the kingdom of Phrygia.

Still famous as the home of King Midas, Gordion

was located on major east‐west trade routes and

arterial rivers, and provided a link between sur‐

rounding Near Eastern states and between these

states and the Greek world further to the west.

Excavations at Gordion have yielded a number of

monochrome glass objects, mainly vessels, from

the Phrygian period (Iron Age, 9th‐7th c. BCE) and

later Hellenistic period (mid‐4th to early 2nd c. BC).

A set of 51 glass samples from Phrygian, Hellenistic

and undated contexts at Gordion were examined

in order to establish similarities and differences

among glass of the two periods and to investigate

broader technological and economic relationships

between Phrygian and Hellenistic Gordion and its

neighbours.

The final presentations were from two MAS Distin‐

guished Scholar Awards, Susana Coentro and

Alessandro Re. These awards are offered annually

to full‐time students presenting high quality

technical papers with significant microanalysis

content. The award comprised complimentary

registration and funds to defray travel expenses

to attend the meeting.

Susana Coentro (VICARTE: Vidro e Cerâmica para

as Artes, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Uni‐

versidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal) presented

“The colours and techniques of 17th century

Portuguese azulejos: a multi‐analytical study”.

In the 17th century, Portuguese azulejo manufac‐

ture was already well established and widespread.

The tiles were produced by the majolica technique

and had a relatively rich palette which included

blue, green, yellow, orange and a set of tones

ranging from purple to dark brown. This work is

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23e‐conservation

focused on the identification of the pigments and

pigment mixtures and also on the morphology of

colour in the lead‐tin glaze. A multi‐analytical

approach was used, with preference for the non‐

destructive techniques.

The second awarded scholar, Alessandro Re

(Dipartimento di Fisica Sperimentale, Università

di Torino and INFN, Italy), spoke on the use of

SEM‐EDX and SEM‐CL to characterize lapis lazuli

from different provenances. Lapis lazuli has been

used for more than 7000 years for the manufacture

of precious objects and jewels. The main quarries

for this stone are still active in Afghanistan, but

there are other quarries that could have been

exploited since antiquity in the Pamir Mountains

(Tajikistan), in Pakistan and in Siberia. For this

reason a provenance study of lapis lazuli could

provide answers to some important issues, in

particular the use and the dissemination of this

rock through historic commercial routes. During

the investigation a systematic study has been

performed on lapis lazuli from different quarries

using Energy Dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDX)

and cathodoluminescence (CL). The aim of this

characterization is to identify the main phases

present in the stone and to find some markers to

distinguish among provenances.

The poster session followed the end of the first

session of platform presentations and was held

at the exhibit hall.

The second and last day of presentations started

with two invited speakers: Patrick Ravines (Art

Conservation Department, SUNY Buffalo State,

New York, USA) and Joris Dik (Department of

Materials Science, Delft University of Technology,

the Netherlands). The first presentation “Surface

characterization of 19th century and modern

daguerreotypes using High‐Resolution SEM”

focused on the study of 19th century and recent

modern daguerreotypes using HR‐SEM with mag‐

nifications ranging from 20,000x to 250,000x.

The surface characterization study corroborates

the metallurgical nature of the silver mercury

amalgam image particles and demonstrated the

nano‐textured nature of the background and

image particle surface. The nano‐texture features

of the background surface in the studied gilded

plates provided information that potentially

explains the occurrence of tarnish as corrosion in

the inter‐nodular regions. It appears that gold is

not continuous and may only be capping silver

nodules that range in size in the tens of nanome‐

ters. The narrower nodule boundary regions show

tarnish cubic crystals of AgCl and/or Ag2O infer‐

ring that a protective gold layer is not present and

that silver metal is exposed to atmospheric conta‐

minants, thereby allowing tarnish to develop.

In “The Skin of Van Gogh's Paintings”, by Joris

Dik, the focus was on the degradation mechanism

of early modern painting pigments used in the

work of Vincent van Gogh. These included pigments

such as cadmium yellow and lead chromate yellow.

Recent studies of these pigments have revealed

Nashville Convention Center.

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24 e‐conservation

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25e‐conservation

stability problems. Cadmium yellow, or cadmium

sulphide, may suffer from photo‐oxidation at the

utmost surface of the paint film, resulting in the

formation of colourless cadmium sulphate hydra‐

tes. Lead chromate, on the other hand, can be

subject to a reduction process, yielding green

chrome oxide at the visible surface. Such effects

can seriously disfigure the original appearance of

Van Gogh's works, as it was shown by a number

of case studies.

The first two presentations of the morning were

on the “The use of X‐ray mapping to investigate

art works before their restoration” and on “Micro‐

computed tomography applied to museum

collections”.

Conservation involves the restoration and preser‐

vation of museum objects and historical monu‐

ments using compositional and structural informa‐

tion obtained from modern analytical techniques.

The conservation of oil paintings requires an under‐

standing of the individual structure of each work

of art. This often involves the need for correct

identification of the pigments used by the artist,

a detailed knowledge of the chemical interactions

between these pigments and an understanding of

the artist’s method of mixing colours and laying

paint on canvas. These were the basis for Richard

Wuhrer (Microstructural Analysis Unit, University of

Technology, Sydney, Australia) presentation that

brought examples of the study of different works

of art prior to restoration ‐ Claude Monet “Port‐

Goulphar, Belle Îlle” (1887), John Russell “Mon

ami Polite” (1900) and Philips Fox “Summer” (1912).

Invited speaker Alexander Ball (Electron Micros‐

cope Unit, Department of Mineralogy, The Natural

History Museum, London, UK) ended the first

part of the morning with a presentation on micro‐

computed tomography (micro‐CT) applied to the

study of natural history collections. The ability to

create virtual models using micro‐CT allows very

precise control over lighting and this was used to

examine flint stone tools and to determine how

they were knapped. Virtual specimens can also

be manipulated digitally – either through cross‐

sections, segmentation or rendering to produce

detailed dissections for comparison to published

data. This avoids the need for destructive sampling.

Alternatively, the data can be used to create

movies and specimens can be reproduced using

stereolithography and experimentally tested.

John Mansfield (North Campus Electron Micro‐

beam Analysis Laboratory, University of Michigan,

USA) started the second part of the morning ses‐

sion with a presentation entitled “SEM and XEDS

Analysis of Paint Layers on a 1907 Model G White

Steam Touring Car from The Henry Ford Museum

Collection”. The selection of this car was of parti‐

cular interest to the museum’s conservators since

it was believed that, unlike most of the automo‐

biles in the collection from this era, the painted

surface on this touring car is original. The muse‐

um’s founder, Henry Ford, did not hesitate to

restore damaged components and had every

resource at his disposal to repaint and re‐make

parts. Many cars were also restored before coming

to the museum. The fact that this specimen was

not heavily restored is important, since the car is

from an era where the early automobile paint pro‐

cesses were being derived from the coach builders’

craft. The early painting methods applied to auto‐

mobile bodywork were rarely documented and

transmission of the techniques was typically from

an experienced master of the trade to apprentices.

The sequence of primers, undercoats and finish

coats is of interest in the attempts to conserve the

car and its appearance without seriously changing

the original materials.

The invited speaker Andrew Lins (Conservation

Department, Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA)

ANA BIDARRAConservator‐restorer

Contact: bidarra.ana@gmail.com

Ana Bidarra has a Degree in Conservation‐Resto‐

ration and a Master Degree in GeoSciences on

white structured pigments for restoration. Cur‐

rently she is a PhD candidate researching the com‐

positional and technological aspects of gold leaf

from Portuguese baroque altarpieces. She works as

conservator‐restorer in private practice since 1999.

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26 e‐conservation

spoke on the “Materials evaluation and monito‐

ring of a large‐scale conservation project: eight

monumental sculptures by A. M. Calder”. The

presentation described the process involved in

the repair and stabilization of eight monumental

bronze sculptures situated on the massive clock

tower of Philadelphia City Hall, some 107 metres

above ground level with very limited access. Crea‐

ted by A. M. Calder and installed between 1894

and 1896, the sculptures comprise four figural

groups (each averaging ~5 metres high and

weighting 6,35 tons) and four eagles (each with

a wingspan ~3,5 metres and weighing 3,18 tons).

The sculptures were comprised of sand‐cast,

flanged sections that were bolted together with

ferrous fasteners. Beyond the structural neces‐

sity of replacing the ferrous fasteners with ~2200

silicon or stainless steel fasteners, the two basic

questions for the eight sculptures in this conser‐

vation program were: “What were the safest, low‐

est risk, affordable cleaning and coating proce‐

dures that could be applied with predictable lon‐

gevity exceeding ten years?” and “How easily could

the sculptures be maintained to create the longest

interval between retreatment, thereby reducing

long‐term costs to the City for preservation?”

Compositional analysis of corroded materials often

provides information about the corrosion process

and can assist with the selection of solvents for

cleaning and restoration. This was the purpose of

Amy Hemmati (National Institute of Standards and

Technology, Surface and Microanalysis Science

Division, USA) study on Rodin’s Eve. An X‐ray

microanalysis based study was conducted to deter‐

mine the composition of particles taken from the

surface of the bronze statue displayed outdoors.

The final presentation was from the invited speaker

Nahoko Sugioka (Graduate School of Cultural

Conservation, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan)

on the “Microstructure of woollen fibre dyed by

PbCrO4 yellow dyeing technique imported into

Japan in the middle of the 19th century”. A cotton

fabric called Touzan, having a vertically striped

pattern, was imported into Japan from Southeast

Asian countries during the 15th to the 19th centu‐

ries. However the use of a chrome‐yellow dyeing

technique was only applied for the yellow thread

in the Touzan fabric imported in the late 19th cen‐

tury. It is thought that the conventional plant‐

based yellow dye for the thread in Touzan fabric

was replaced with artificial dye, such as chrome‐

yellow, developed in Europe. Then, the dyeing

technique was brought into Japan, perhaps in the

middle of the 19th century and was utilized to

make the cotton fabric called domestic‐Touzan.

Although this two day session had some very inte‐

resting presentations that covered a series of

different approaches to the use of microscopic

and micro analytical techniques in cultural heri‐

tage and a significant participation of speakers

from outside the USA, the organizers were not

convinced of the need to proceed with this specific

topic within the following M&M symposia. This

was the first and probably the last time that the

“Microscopy and Microanalysis Applications in

Cultural Heritage Research” was held, since the

next M&M meeting (2012) in Phoenix (USA) will

not contemplate this area of investigation.

Review byTeodora Poiata

MATCONS 2011MATTER AND MATERIALS IN/FOR HERITAGE CONSERVATION

REVIEWS

27e‐conservation

The second edition of MATCONS, a conference dedi‐

cated to the Conservation and Restoration of Cul‐

tural Heritage, took place last August in Craiova,

Romania. This event aimed to bring together an

international community focusing on scientific

research and its applications to conservation prac‐

tice. It was an interesting event to take part of,

with a rich programme concentrated into 3 days of

lectures followed by 2 days of thematic field trips.

Around 50 presentations by speakers from 17

countries were given during these days, organised

in parallel sessions that included key lectures, oral

presentations, a seminar, a training course, and

a round table on education and training issues.

Among other activities of the conference were

poster sessions, a national exhibition of restora‐

tion and awards for the best master and doctoral

thesis on conservation science.

The first day started with the opening ceremony

held at University of Craiova’s conference hall. A

welcoming message was addressed by Elena Badea

from the University of Turin as part of the local

scientific programme committee. Invited speakers

were cultural officials involved in the organisation

of the event. A foray into the history of the resto‐

ration laboratories in Dolj County showed that

the economic and politic climate have a strong

impact on cultural heritage, which reflects on

various levels from the rehabilitation of buildings

and funding for equipment to organization of

events such as MATCONS. The crisis that Romania

is currently confronting has serious consequences

upon museums and has brought a few of their con‐

servation laboratories to close during the last

years. On a positive note, the laboratory of the

Oltenia Museum in Craiova, established in 1975,

succeeded to overcome these problems and opera‐

tes today in five main areas in their new facilities.

The first session was a seminar dedicated to “Sci‐

ence and Art” and featured three presentations

by renowned speakers: Nicolae Panea from the

University of Craiova – “Postmodernism, culture,

popular culture and technical support”; Ioan Opris

from the National Museum of History in Bucharest

– “About chemistry, chemists and cultural herita‐

ge”; and Luigi Dei from the University of Florence –

“Primo Levi’s lesson: a bridge between chemistry

and literature”. Professor Dei’s impressive presen‐

tation was built on the story “Cerium” by Primo

Levi from the book “The Periodic Table”, a wonder‐

ful story showing how knowledge can be the rea‐

son for survival. The story takes place back in 1944

24‐28 August 2011Craiova, Romania

Organised by:Dolj County Council, Oltenia Museum inCraiova, ICOM Romania and University ofCraiova

REVIEWS

28 e‐conservation

at the concentration camp of Auschwitz where the

author, an Italian Jewish chemist, spent a year

as prisoner struggling to survive. It was a very

touching story that raised a question ‐ how far

are chemistry and literature one from the other?

The answer ‐ the bridge ‐ was Culture. A video of

this same presentation is available online here.

Afterwards, the opening plenary session was

given by Gustavo Brunetti who presented “Open

European Facilities for the Study and Conservation

of Artworks: the CHARISMA Program”. The spea‐

ker presented an overview of the objectives and

work alredy developed of CHARISMA, which is a

EU‐funded project that provides access to analy‐

tical equipment and know‐how to cultural heri‐

tage researchers.

Next followed two parallel sessions: a training

course organized in association with iCON (“Sci‐

ence and Cultural Heritage in Connection”) on

various applications of thermal analysis to cultu‐

ral heritage, and a session dedicated to case stu‐

dies and research carried out in various centers

and laboratories of Romanian museums.

A very interesting intervention was “Museums

and Politics” by David Fleming, who gave an in‐

sight into cost effective museum management

based on his extensive experience as Director of

National Museums Liverpool. His advice on how

to make museums work was given in a very direct

and practical way: if politicians do not speak

museums language, then museums must learn

to speak the language of politicians. Education

came in as a very important factor in this equa‐

tion; it is seen as the main function of a museum

by the public, so it must offer interesting activi‐

ties and know how to engage it. People are able

to stand for their museums and their voices are

heard by politicians, hence this will attract their

support and provide funding for educational pur‐

poses. Hopefully his advice has proved to be an

inspiration to many of the museums representa‐

tives in Romania.

The afternoon continued with another two parallel

sessions: a round table on education and training

in conservation‐restoration and a session dedicated

to more case studies of conservation treatments

carried out in Romania.

Opening ceremony ‐ invited speakers were Mihai Fifor, director of Oltenia Museum, Ioan Opris, professor and historian from theNational Museum of History in Bucharest, Cristinel Iovan from the Dolj County Council, Nicolae Panea and Daniela Tarnita fromthe University of Craiova and Virgil Stefan Nitulescu, president of ICOM Romania.

REVIEWS

29e‐conservation

An interesting case study was presented by Olim‐

pia Coman‐Sipeanu regarding the impressive col‐

lection of icons on glass “Cornel Irimie” acquired

by the Astra Museum in Sibiu. The author gave a

detailed presentation of the collection manage‐

ment and the conservation methodology for these

64 icons during the course of a treatment that

has started almost 20 years ago. This great work

finalized with the publication of a catalogue that

includes detailed written and photographic docu‐

mentation of the collection.

The second day started with a plenary session ope‐

ned by Gerhard Eggert, conservator at the State

Academy of Art and Design in Stuttgart, with

“Endangered neighbour: how corroding glass

causes contact corrosion on metals”. This was a

well documented presentation that focused on a

very specific degradation form which is often

ignored: the corrosion induced by the contact

between copper alloys and historic glass. Once

the chemical process was explained, several

examples of artefacts affected by this pheno‐

menon were given as well as advice on the best

preservation practices.

The session continued with two other interesting

presentations: Wilfried Vetter spoke about Non‐

invasive material analysis in art and archaeology,

trends and perspectives. His work was carried out

together with Manfred Schreiner at the Academy

of Fine Arts in Vienna and included the develop‐

ment of a transportable x‐ray fluorescence (XRF)

equipment for in‐situ applications in archaeolo‐

gical sites, museums and libraries. Other methods

A view of the conference posters exhibited in the main hall ofthe University of Craiova.

Round table – chairpersons Matija Strlič, Hannelore Roemich and Patricia Engel.

REVIEWS

30 e‐conservation

of non‐invasive analysis such as a novel external

reflection‐FTIR equipment and a spectrometer for

fibre optic reflection‐UV‐Vis analysis were also

experimented at the Academy with promising

results.

Luigi Dei closed the session with a fascinating

application of science to conservation – nano‐

technology. Its applications to frescoes, historic

buildings and panel paintings are revolutionary

in conservation. The author presented recent

advances in the research carried out at University

of Florence on nanomaterials chemistry, which

make possible delicate procedures such as conso‐

lidation of severely detached paint layers and

selective cleaning.

Throughout the day some other interesting inter‐

ventions were made. On the same topic of non‐

destructive analytical characterisation of works

of art, Matija Strlič from University College London

presented “Modelling the past and the future and

visualisation of the present: NIR Spectroscopy for

Cultural Heritage”. Near Infrared spectroscopy is

a relatively new tool new tool in art conservation.

Coupled with multivariate data analysis (MVA)

this examination technique becomes especially

useful for characterisation of organic materials.

It also has the capability to give information on

chemical properties of an object, such as acidity

or molecular weight, which allows conservators

to visualise the degradation of an object. Its

application to modelling of material stability

makes it a valuable tool for assessing risks of

collections.

On a different note, the presentation of Hans

Christoph von Imhoff, conservator in private

practice, introduced the audience to an interes‐

ting case study – the conservation of the painting

“Sanctus Beatus (1657) by Claude Fréchot, part of

a larger ensemble made of 34 paintings from the

cathedral Saint Nicholas in Fribourg, Switzerland.

The author discussed interesting aspects that he

observed during the conservation treatment regar‐

ding the technological process of the artwork,

from the preparation and mounting of the wood

panels to finer details such as the preparatory

drawing and the brushstrokes.

Hans Christoph von Imhoff presenting the conservation case studyof the painting “Sanctus Beatus" (1657) by Claude Fréchot.

Roberto Padoan presenting “Quantitative hyperspectralimaging as a conservation tool in archives and libraries”.

REVIEWS

31e‐conservation

The presentation of Oliviu Boldura, professor at

the National Art University in Bucharest and co‐

founder of the association Art Conservation Sup‐

port, was an impressive summary of a lifetime

conservation experience and research carried out

on important monuments with exterior painting

from the north of Moldavia. During his interven‐

tions of conservation‐restoration he has confron‐

ted with different alteration phenomena of pig‐

ments such as azurite, malachite or cinnabar,

which he has studied and interpreted based on

the scientific research carried out by chemist

Ioan Istudor. The chemical processes that took

place are explained in the context of the contribu‐

ting environmental factors based on the in‐situ

observations of the conservator‐restorer. Once

again it was proved how valuable interdisciplina‐

rity is and the close connection between science

and conservation.

The day ended with a visit to the Museum of

Oltenia for the opening of the National Exhibition

of Restoration and a concert at Oltenia Philhar‐

monic House as part of the social events offered

by the organisers.

On the last day of the conference the presenta‐

tions continued to bring interesting topics into

the discussion. In the morning were presented

case studies of book and paper conservation and

preservation of wood and leather heritage objects.

The afternoon was dedicated to more scientific

research, this time with application on icons and

oil paintings. Two other analytical techniques were

presented: Optical Coherence Tomography, by

Adrian Podoleanu, and Quantitative Hyperspectral

Imaging (QHSI), by Roberto Padoan. This last pre‐

sentation discussed an interesting project carried

out at the Nationaal Archief (National Archives of

the Netherlands) that had the objective to develop

dedicated instrumentation and explore the appli‐

cations of QHSI technique to archives and libraries.

Compared to conventional multi‐spectral imaging,

QHSI provides a much greater number of spectral

bands which allows to discriminate between diffe‐

rent types of degradation processes. For monito‐

ring archival documents, measurements were

recorded before and after the documents were on

exhibit or storage for long periods of time. One

of the main goals of the project is to establish a

standard monitoring technique which would

Calopareanu Silvia‐Coralia, nun Mina from Bistrita Monastery,speaking about traditional techniques applied to new items.

A view from the National Exhibition of Restoration at Museumof Oltenia.

REVIEWS

32 e‐conservation

improve the accuracy of the condition documen‐

tation and assist conservators in developing more

effective preventive conservation procedures.

The last session of the day was dedicated to the

awards for the best master and doctoral thesis on

conservation science. The first was awarded to

Hyoyun Kim for her Master thesis “A comparative

study of the colour change of dyed and pigmented

epoxy resins used in glass conservation with the

particular focus on their application in the conser‐

vation of the Hwangnamdeachong Korean glass

ewer”. The prize for the best PhD thesis went to

Dragos‐Valentin Ene with “Non‐contact optical

methods for monitoring monuments conservation

status”.

The conference continued for more two days with

field trips to representative monuments for

Oltenia region: Hurezi Monastery, two fortified

boyar houses, Duca and Greceanu, and Polovragi,

Brancoveni and Clocociov Monasteries.

All papers presented at the conference will be

published in the Conference Proceedings.

TEODORA POIATAConservator‐restorer

Contact: teodora.poiata@e‐conservationline.com

Teodora Poiata is a mural paintings conservator.

She received her BA in 2002 and her MA degree in

2005 from the National Art University in Bucharest.

Currently she is involved in different conservation

projects dividing her time between Romania and

Portugal. She is one of the founders of Art Conserva‐

tion Support, association that supports cultural

heritage conservation in Romania and of e‐conser‐

vation magazine where she is editor since 2007.

Visit at Polovragi Monastery.

REVIEWS

33e‐conservation

Review byRui Bordalo

ICOM‐CC 16TH TRIENNIAL CONFERENCE

19‐23 September 2011, Lisbon, Portugal

Organised by:International Committee of ICOM ‐ TheCommittee for Conservation

The ICOM‐CC 16th Triennial Conference took place

in Lisbon, Portugal from 19 to 23, September 2011,

at the Lisbon Congress Centre. Its theme was “Cul‐

tural Heritage/Cultural Identity – The Role of

Conservation”. Lisbon, a very nice historical city

to visit, has greatly contributed to the conference

success, and it was a luck that it was going through

a late summer period, with nice warm weather.

If the conference had to be summarised in one

single word, that would be ‘massive’: five days,

five rooms with parallel sessions, 21 group ses‐

sions, over 250 presentations, and I estimated a

number of over 800 participants. Contrary to con‐

ferences spent in a single room, parallel sessions

enable participants to make their own conference

‘à la carte’, allowing them to choose the most

relevant presentations according to their interests.

In fact, the organization anticipated this and in

the first day we were presented with a handy

pocket guide of all the presentations and rooms.

However, the advantage of parallel sessions was

counterbalanced by the fact I probably missed

many interesting presentations because there

were too many options at the same time. To change

from one room to the other was also part of the

experience, although an exhausting one. It was

curious to see the corridors always full with parti‐

cipants in rush to catch the next presentation.

Fortunately, we have the conference preprints,

which this year were distributed in electronic

format.

As the conference took place in Portugal, I sus‐

pected I would find the event full of Portuguese

attendees, always eager to participate in conser‐

vation events, although it was not so. Perhaps it

was due to the current crisis the country under‐

goes or due to many other conferences that were

happening in Lisbon at the same time. September

was indeed a full month in Lisbon.

The conference itself only started on the after‐

noon of the first day, Monday. The morning was

reserved for the Opening Session and the first

part of the General Assembly. The second part

took place on Friday afternoon, just before the

closing ceremony. The third day, Wednesday, was

reserved for the plenary session (morning) and

technical visits (afternoon). The conference pre‐

sentations were organised in 21 group sessions

distributed in the rest of the days.

On Monday afternoon there were presentations

of five groups although my interest was focused

on two, preventive conservation and paintings.

The first presentation I saw was one of the most

interesting as well. It was given by Jane Hender‐

son who spoke about decision‐making in conser‐

vation. In her presentation she referred that con‐

REVIEWS

34 e‐conservation

servators generally use a ‘rational’ system of

weighting the options’ benefits and costs. How‐

ever, conservators do not always have all the infor‐

mation to make these decisions which led her to

propose an heuristic approach to the decision‐

making process, enabling thus conservators to

make an educated decision even when not all the

data required is available.

On Tuesday I found the Documentation presenta‐

tions particularly interesting. The session started

with a presentation given by Austin Nevin and

Aviva Burnstock who presented a case study where

they used off‐the‐shelf open source software to

develop an online platform. The website allowed

different participants from a research project to

contribute online with their research, insights

and comments, allowing thus an easy way of

communication. This is the sort of thing that can

be made anywhere, at low cost and with a huge

impact.

Later on, there was one of my favourite presenta‐

tions, given by Ruven Pillay from Centre de recher‐

che et de restauration des musées de France. I

could not find the reference to his presentation

in the preprints nor the book of abstracts but I

really would like to read it. It was the last presen‐

tation of the Documentation group on Tuesday and

it was an overview of the history and potential

that digital imaging has on the conservation field.

Several examples were given and a number of

open source software were mentioned. It is my

impression that many conservators still do not

grasp the real potential of this technology. It

often does not require any other investment

other than time and interest as it implies using

equipment and software already available.

This leads me to observe a striking lack of digital

applications during the conference, at least com‐

pared to what I was expecting. Most presenta‐

tions that touched on this subject were focused

on the development of a series of databases for

Anne Cummings presenting "Developing a computer‐based management system for monitoring change to Inside Australia(Antony Gormley, 2003)".

REVIEWS

e‐conservatione‐conservation 35

some specific end but the thematic of digital

imaging in particular was a huge absence in my

opinion. Even more because everything is turning

digital nowadays and because of its huge applica‐

tion potential.

Wednesday there were no working group presen‐

tations as in the morning the plenary sessions

took place. The afternoon was reserved for the

many technical visits possible to choose from.

From Lisbon to Sintra, there were groups that

could visit virtually any major museum, monastery,

historical parks or monuments in the area. As I

already knew most of those places, I chose one of

the few I didn’t had the pleasure to visit before:

the Museum of Science and Botanical Garden from

the University of Lisbon. The highlight of the visit

was the Laboratorio Chimico, an original nine‐

teenth‐century Chemistry Laboratory with its old

instruments, which was used for teaching.

One of the highlights of the conference was on the

scientific research group on the last day. From all

the presentations I assisted, Bill Wey, from Central

Heritage Agency of The Netherlands, was the one

to have the best interaction with the public, not

only because of the original way he presented but

also because of the subject of his work. His lecture

was on “Surface micro‐roughness, cleaning, and

perception”. Scientifically we can quantify things

that the eye can not see. The use of profilometry

to measure surface roughness is one of such appli‐

cations and it was discussed the limits of human

perception and the importance for conservation

of such small changes that only can be quantified

with analytical equipment. A true communicator,

it was one of the few presentations that really

made a balanced bridge between science and

conservation.

Given that the main theme of the conference was

so broad, I think the overall set of presentations

contributed to it one way or another. Although

many of them were interesting, they were focused

on familiar subjects as in many other conservation

conferences: ethical reflexions, scientific research

results and lots of case studies which mostly

interest those from a specific field. Being one of

the biggest conferences in conservation, besides

regular material research, it could have included

some presentations about the actual situation of

conservation, the lack of funding and jobs, and

Sanjay Dhar presenting "Temple of the Oracle Dorje Chenmoat Shey (Ladakh, India). Developing methodology for theconservation of living religious and cultural sites".

Andrew Thorn presenting "Cultural stability in an unstableenvironment: the waka of Te ana a maru".

36 e‐conservation

REVIEWS

Visit our website

the closure of teaching institutions. On the over‐

all, there were several new contributions but

always focused on small details. As science histo‐

rian James Burke once said, “people tend to

become experts in highly specialized fields, lear‐

ning more and more about less and less” and that

was precisely my impression. Most of the presen‐

tations, mine included, were too focused on parti‐

cularities. This could have been counterbalanced

by more presentations speaking about the holistic

views of conservation and, why not, of the role it

plays in cultural heritage, in the cultural identity,

in the actual world.

As a final point, I enjoyed very much the confe‐

rence and meeting fellow colleagues although

perhaps the conference was too big, too massive

to take advantage from all the possibilities it

offered. The next general ICOM meeting will be

held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2013 and the

next ICOM‐CC will be in Melbourne, Australia in

2014. I hope to see you there.

RUI BORDALOConservator‐restorer

Contact: rmbordalo@e‐conservationline.com

Rui Bordalo is a conservator‐restorer specialised

in easel paintings. He has a particular interest in

the study of art materials and in the application

of new technologies to conservation. This interest

led him to pursue a PhD at the Courtauld Institute

of Art in the application of laser technology in

the cleaning of paintings. He currently teaches

several disciplines of the conservation course at

Portucalense University, Porto. He is a board

member of the Portuguese Association of Conser‐

vator‐Restorers (ARP) and a Committee member

of the European Confederation of Conservator‐

Restorers' Organisations (ECCO) since 2005. He is

also one of the founders of e‐conservation maga‐

zine, where he is currently the editor‐in‐chief.

Sarah Court and Jane thomson presenting "Recognizing the interdependent relationship between heritage and its widercontext" during the plenary session.

Do you need an online presence?Do you feel it’s time to update to 'digital conservation'?

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AREAS OF PUBLISHING

Conservation TreatmentMural Painting

Painting

Stone

Sculpture

Textiles

Paper / Documents

Photography

Metals

Tile / Ceramic / Glass

Furniture

Music instruments

Ethnographic assets

Archeological objects

Conservation ScienceScientific research

Material studies and characterisation

Analytical techniques

Technology development

Biodeterioration

State‐of‐the‐art

Reviews

Preventive ConservationTheoretic principles

Case studies

Documentation in ConservationStandardisation

Documentation methods

Data management

Conservation TheoryEthics

Conservation History

Art History, Iconography,

Iconology, Chemistry, Physics,

Biology, Photography, Cultural

Management, Museology,

Computer Science, Legislation and

Juridical Processes, Conservation

Policies

and any other field applied to

Conservation and Restoration

of works of art.

Find out more: www.e‐conservationline.com

e‐conservation

THE EXTERNAL ION BEAM FACILITYIN PORTUGAL FOR STUDYING

CULTURAL HERITAGE

ByVictoria CorregidorLuís Cerqueira Alves

Paula Alexandra RodriguesMárcia Vilarigues

Rui C. Silva

Introduction

Knowing the composition of an object is extremely

important for the conservator‐restorer’s work. It

can also indicate, for example, if the constituent

elements are consistent with the ones used in

the period to which the object is supposed to be.

Furthermore, the trace element concentration can

indicate in some cases the provenance or relate it

with other objects of the same type. The possi‐

bility to analyze and identify corrosion products

is also important, in order to better understand

the mechanisms of degradation, which is essen‐

tial for their preservation for the present and fu‐

ture generations.

There are several available analytical techniques

that allow us to know the composition of materi‐

als, such as X‐Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and X‐Ray

Diffraction (XRD) performed with portable equip‐

ments, UV‐Visible and FTIR spectrometries and/or

Scanning Electron Microscopy, etc. Some of them

may provide information about the compounds

that are present in the sample while others will

determine their elements. Some of them are de‐

structive, others are not. Generally speaking, we

can say that for each object and depending on the

information we are looking for, there is a set of

analytical techniques that are more suitable than

others. The choice is not always straightforward,

but should be jointly determined by the different

specialists involved.

One of the complicated choices refers to the sam‐

pling process. It is true that along the years the

quantities of material needed for some techniques

have been reduced substantially. In some cases,

the quantities needed are in the range of micro‐

grams and the resulting marks are not visible to

the naked eye. But even under these conditions

sometimes sampling is not possible. On the other

hand, if we are interested in the material “core”

of the object, there may be no other alternative

and sampling is necessary.

There are also techniques where sampling is not

needed although they may induce permanent

changes to the objects’ surface to be analyzed.

For example, a surface preparation is needed or

the technique may alter the surface composition

such as those involving sputtering or laser abla‐

tion processes.

In this article, the characterization of different

objects by means of Ion Beam Analytical (IBA)

techniques is reported. These are a set of tech‐

niques used to study the composition and/or the

quality of samples in a non‐destructive way, using

e‐conservation 41

In 2008 an external ion microbeam analytical end‐station became operational at the ion microprobe

facility of the Laboratório de Feixe de Iões at Instituto Tecnológico e Nuclear, Portugal. Its availability

adds a set of valuable analytical techniques for the community involved in the study and conservation of

Cultural Heritage. With the external ion microbeam it is possible to analyze the elemental composition

(in point, line or areal maps modes) and perform structural studies of different objects, large or small,

using Ion Beam Analysis techniques in open air or helium atmosphere – i.e. without vacuum conditions

– and without the need of sampling or any special preparation. In this article, the details concerning the

external beam set‐up and a selection of the results obtained from selected analyzed objects will be

presented. These objects include glass fragments from a Roman villa and religious gilt objects from the

XVI‐XVIII centuries.

THE EXTERNAL ION BEAM FACILITY IN PORTUGAL

a beam of high energy particles, typically of 1–3

MeV. Upon interaction in the sample, the beam

induces the emission of secondary radiation and

particles: depending on which one we choose to

explore, there will be a specific IBA technique for

each one (Figure 1).

When the X‐rays generated by the sample are re‐

corded and identified, the Particle Induced X‐ray

Emission (PIXE) technique is used. In the same

way, Particle Induced Gamma Emission (PIGE) is

used when gamma rays are involved. If the back‐

scattered particles are recorded, Rutherford

Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) is performed.

When visible light is emitted and recorded, the

technique is called Ion Beam Induced Lumines‐

cence (IBIL). There are other IBA techniques that

are not included in this introduction and we en‐

courage the interested reader to read through the

specialized literature [1, 2].

In our case, the most used IBA techniques are

PIXE, PIGE and RBS. Each one can provide different

information, but what is really remarkable is the

information that can be extracted when they are

combined.

A wide range of elements are automatically iden‐

tified with PIXE, and the sensitivity is very high,

typically in the range of some μg/g. However, the

detection of elements with an atomic number less

than 12 is poor, but the PIGE technique is an ex‐

cellent alternative for their identification. With

RBS the compositional depth profiles, i.e. the

relative concentration of the constituents as a

function of depth, can be determined. In this

way, the combination of PIXE and RBS allows to

obtain the concentration of the majority of ele‐

ments present – from trace to major elements –

and information on their depth distribution as

well. And, if we add the PIGE technique then the

concentration of almost every element of the

periodic table may be obtained.

The experimental conditions involve low beam

currents, in the order of 0.5‐3 nA and short time,

42 e‐conservation

VICTORIA CORREGIDOR et al.

Figure 1. Scheme of interactions between ion beam particles and sample atoms with the corresponding IBA techniques.

around 10‐20 minutes, is needed to acquire the

spectra. Under these conditions structural dam‐

age or defect creation is minimized and IBA tech‐

niques are considered as non‐destructive, but

this consideration has to be contextualized since

the measurements are usually done in a chamber

under vacuum conditions:

‐ whatever the chamber dimensions are, there will

always be a sample size limitation, implying that

sampling may be necessary;

‐ working under vacuum conditions can induce

mechanical damage: thermal, drying or charging

effects can cause cracks or even detachment or

sample fracture;

‐ some samples have complex geometry making

them difficult to handle under these conditions.

In order to improve these conditions and avoid

the vacuum limitations, the particle beam must

leave the chamber and meet the object in open

air. That is, an external beam is required as well

as the ability to perform measurements under

atmospheric conditions. The following aspects

should also be considered when working under

these conditions:

‐ a thin window or barrier material, which can

withstand the pressure difference between atmos‐

phere and vacuum, and the buildup of radiation

damage as the beam passes through it while inter‐

fering the least with its quality (energy and col‐

limation/focusing), must be provided;

‐ air absorbs the low energy X‐rays generated, and

slows down the incident and backscattered parti‐

cles from the sample;

‐ air contains Ar that is excited by the beam origi‐

nating X‐rays within the usual energy detectable

range then interfering with the X‐rays emitted

from the sample;

‐ beam spatial resolution and detection limits will

be degraded as compared with analysis performed

under vacuum conditions.

e‐conservation 43

In the next section the solutions adopted to re‐

solve or minimize these effects will be presented

and discussed.

Generally speaking, the use of ion beam analysis

for the study of historical‐artistic objects is very

much linked to the development of the PIXE tech‐

nique in the early 1970s. Another milestone was

the implementation of the IBA techniques in air,

allowing in situ analysis of objects of large sizes or

too fragile to be in vacuum. The development of

a focusing system and the use of ultra‐thin exit

windows enabled transforming it into a real ex‐

tension of nuclear microprobes.

From the approximately 100 nuclear microprobe

facilities in the world, only a few are entirely or

partially dedicated to research in the fields of

patrimony studies. This new facility in Portugal

adds to a number of others in laboratories across

Europe where these techniques were made avail‐

able, namely the AGLAE (Accélérateur Grand Louvre

d´Analyse Elémentaire) in Paris [3], LABEC (Labo‐

ratorio di Tecniche Nucleari Applicate ai Beni Cul‐

turali) in Italy [4], or the CNA (Centro Nacional de

Aceleradores) [5] and the CMAM (Centro de Micro‐

análisis de Materiales) [6], both in Spain.

The Portuguese External Beam Facility

Assembly of the external ion beam analytical end‐

station started in 2005 under the POCI/CTM/606

85/2004 project funded by the Portuguese Foun‐

dation for Science and Technology (FCT). The first

and main objective of the project was to install

the external beam analytical end‐station at the

existing microprobe facility at Instituto Tecnoló‐

gico e Nuclear (ITN), in operation since 1999 [7].

Figure 2 shows a photograph of the microprobe

set‐up. The proton beam is generated by a 2.5 MV

singe ended Van de Graaff accelerator and directed

THE EXTERNAL ION BEAM FACILITY IN PORTUGAL

to the microprobe beam line through a 90º bend‐

ing magnet.

The microprobe collimator slits, scanning coils,

lenses and chamber are mounted on a single con‐

crete block sitting on a 1 cm thick plate of poly‐

styrene foam to minimize vibrations. An Oxford

Microbeams magnetic quadrupole triplet is used

to focus the beam. The scanning coils located

before the lenses allow to raster the beam over the

sample surface, with a maximum area of 2.6x2.6

mm2 when vacuum conditions and 2 MeV protons

are used. Figure 2 also shows the vacuum chamber

which can support up to eight different detectors

and the cryostat needed for the X‐ray detector.

The external beam set‐up photograph is shown

in figure 3. Each component will be described in

the following paragraphs taking as reference the

considerations made above in relation to the work

under atmospheric conditions:

‐ The exit nozzle assembly is composed by two

parts: one fixed to the chamber and one other,

replaceable during the experiments if needed,

having at its end a vacuum tight extraction win‐

dow made of 100 nm thick Si3N4 membrane held

in a 200 μm thick Si frame, allowing nearly 100%

transmission with negligible energy loss. The

size of this window (1x1 mm2) sets the limit of

the maximum beam scanning area.

‐ In order to reduce air interference during the

measurements, a helium rich atmosphere is set by

insufflating He gas towards the analyzed region

by means of a nylon chamber, placed around the

particles detector and connected to a He flow

controller.

‐ To reduce the degradation of beam spatial reso‐

lution the distances should be kept as small as

possible, while allowing the outgoing radiations

to reach the detectors. The distance between the

44 e‐conservation

Figure 2. Microprobe installed at the Nuclear and Technological Institute.

VICTORIA CORREGIDOR et al.

beam exit window and the object is thus set to 3

mm, being controlled by reference to two inter‐

secting laser beams. The object can be moved in

the three directions and accurately positioned by

means of a special x‐y‐z table. For assistance

during the whole sample positioning procedure a

mini‐video camera is used.

The detectors are placed around the exit nozzle in

different configurations according to the type of

radiation to detect. The X‐ray detector is a Bruker

Si SDD detector with 8 μm Be window and 145 eV

resolution at 5.9 keV. It is placed 2.8 cm from the

sample at an angle of 45º to the beam direction.

The backscattered protons are detected with a Si

surface barrier detector placed at an angle of 47º

to the beam direction, 2.2 cm away from the sam‐

ple. When necessary, the gamma rays are detected

with a large volume ORTEC HPGe detector with 45%

efficiency and 1.9 keV energy resolution, placed

at 45° to the beam direction.

Figure 4 shows images of a 2000 and a 50 mesh

copper grids recorded under vacuum and external

conditions, respectively, and under identical

45e‐conservation

THE EXTERNAL ION BEAM FACILITY IN PORTUGAL

Figure 3. External beam set‐up: 1. X ray detector; 2. mini‐camera;3. exit nozzle with a 100 nm thick Si3N4 window; 4. particle detectorwith He flux; 5. Positioning lasers.

Figure 4. Images for a 2000 mesh and 50 mesh copper grid recorded under vacuum and external ion beam set‐up under identicalexperimental conditions.

experimental conditions (proton beams of 2 MeV

energy and 1 nA current). For the former, the

spatial resolution is 2x3 μm2 while for the latter

external conditions the best spatial resolution is

60x60 μm2 when working under helium rich at‐

mosphere.

In what concerns the analysis of the data gener‐

ated by the techniques, there is specific software

to analyze the different types of spectra and ex‐

tract the required information. In the case of PIXE,

the AXIL/QXAS [8] program is extensively used for

X‐ray lines deconvolution and peak areas extrac‐

tion, and DATTPIXE [9] for quantification. GUPIX

[10] software was also used for X‐ray spectra de‐

convolution and quantification, and its results

were compared with the ones obtained using AX‐

IL+DATTPIXE showing a good correlation. As PIXE

is not efficient for the detection and quantifica‐

tion of elements with low atomic numbers, namely

for Na and Mg, these elements are detected and

quantified by PIGE, in proton capture nuclear re‐

actions, by considering the yields of the 440 keV

and 585 keV gamma lines respectively in the gam‐

ma spectra of the daughter nuclei. Information

on layered targets is gathered by means of the

elemental depth distributions extracted from the

recorded RBS spectra. The NDF code [11] is used

for RBS spectra fitting and sample composition

determined in a self‐consisting way with PIXE

data simulated by means of LibCPIXE code [12],

an open‐source library for multilayered samples

that can work jointly with the NDF code.

Applications

The applications of IBA techniques to the study

of Cultural Heritage objects are as varied as the

objects themselves. Different objects were studied

using the microprobe (under vacuum and also in

external conditions) located at ITN. Some examples

are Arraiolos tapestries [13], stained glasses [14],

jewellery [15], and ceramics [16].

In this section two case studies selected among

the works performed are presented. They show

the versatility of the set‐up since different detec‐

tors, software and experimental conditions were

used to study each specific case.

The case studies refer to Roman glasses from

Museu Municipal de Arqueologia da Amadora

(MMAR), and religious gilt objects dated from the

XVI to the XVIII centuries belonging to Casa‐Museu

Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves (CMAG). Both museums

are located in Portugal.

Roman Glasses

The Roman glasses from MMAR are referred to

different occupation times of a Roman villa during

the III and IV centuries A.D. at Quinta da Bolacha,

Portugal. This Roman villa was discovered in 1979

during the prospection of a Roman aqueduct in

Amadora.

The archaeological works made possible identi‐

fying sealed contexts that are attributed to the

III and IV centuries A.D., together with revolved

contexts of uncertain dating. The study intended

to materially characterize the occupation periods,

resorting to analyzes of glass fragments, as well

as to associate the fragments from revolved con‐

texts with those from other contexts, trying to

determine its possible chronological attribution.

The poor state of preservation of these glasses

strongly advised against analysis in vacuum,

leaving the external beam as the only suitable

alternative option.

Results were obtained with the use of a proton

beam of 2 MeV of energy and 1 nA of current.

46 e‐conservation

VICTORIA CORREGIDOR et al.

Results were constantly compared for each sample

with those obtained using Corning standard

reference glasses with well known composition.

Figure 5 shows two fragments that were attributed

to the first occupation period (III and IV centuries

A.D.) of the Roman villa, and considered by

archaeologists as belonging to the same object.

The analysis performed using the external micro‐

probe set‐up showed different compositions for

both fragments. The larger fragment is abnormally

rich in K, as compared to other samples, while

being low in Na, contrarily to the smaller one [17].

Therefore these two fragments should not be con‐

sidered as belonging to the same original object

(as opposed to what was initially thought).

A very interesting capability of the external micro‐

probe applied to the study of these objects is the

possibility to perform scan analysis. Elemental

scans are presented in figure 6 that show the

distribution of Si, Ca and Mn in a region of a glass

fragment partially covered by an evident corrosion

over layer. The corrosion region correlates to a

higher content of Mn due to leaching and surface

redeposition, and also Fe, probably from the soil

contamination. There is also anti‐correlation to

the contents of Si and Ca, probably due to the

leaching of these elements from the glass matrix.

Contrary to the glass fragment referred to above,

analysis of the remaining selected glasses from

the different contexts showed moderate to high

Figure 5. Fragments recovered from excavation site in Amadora,Portugal, attributed to the first occupation period of the Romanvilla (III‐IV centuries A.D.).

contents of Na, together with reduced contents

of K and Mg, which are typical of soda‐lime‐silica

glasses produced by resorting to natron as a

source of alkali. Specific contents of Sr and Mg,

along with absence of Zr, indicate the use of

coastal Mediterranean sands as raw material.

It was also possible to determine from the X‐ray

spectrum (Figure 7a) significant levels of Sb and

Pb in one fragment, a deep blue tessera shown in

Figure 7b, indicating the use of opacifying agents

which were in use until the IV century A.D., con‐

firming the time interval of the villa’s occupation.

Gilt Objects

Another interesting example is the study of reli‐

gious gilt objects belonging to the CMAG Collection:

47e‐conservation

Figure 6. Elemental distribution of Si, Ca and Mn. On the corroded areas there is a higher concentration of Mn and Fe.

THE EXTERNAL ION BEAM FACILITY IN PORTUGAL

a reliquary (CMAG 1194) from the XVI century,

which has two visible hallmarks (AR SII) on the

base and on the lid, and it is believed to be of

Spanish origin; an ostensorium (CMAG 1164) from

the mid‐XVIII century with a visible hallmark indi‐

cating the goldsmith (J.P./C.) and Portuguese

origin (a crown L, from Lisbon); a ciborium (CMAG

1180) with an oval base and partially gilt with

several religious motifs.

Regarding the experimental conditions, the X‐ray

spectra were acquired with a 350 μm thick Mylar

foil in order to filter the Au and Hg M‐lines and a

He flow was used to improve the resolution. Two

reference samples with known composition, brass

NBS 1105 and Ag–Cu (80–20) alloy were analyzed

throughout the measurements.

The gilt method has been used since ancient times

to make an object look like cast gold and at the

same time to improve the surface of the object for

corrosion resistance. The technique has been

developed and improved along the centuries. The

method used for these objects is the mercury gilt,

also known as fire gilding. It is based on the ap‐

plication of an amalgam composed of gold and

mercury onto a metal surface [18], then heating

it to 250‐300 ºC for a short time (few minutes),

and cooling down, followed by polishing until the

object shows a smooth and brilliant surface.

As it is expected, differences in composition in

the object were found according to the different

provenances and manufacturing dates. The gilt

results were very dependent on the goldsmith

experience, since the temperature and times were

“visually controlled” and at the same time they are

crucial on this process. For example, the time was

controlled as “when the amalgam changes colour

from grey to dull yellow” [19]. Because of that it

was not surprising finding different Hg and Au/Ag

concentration ratios for each piece, as is shown in

table I [20].

48 e‐conservation

Figure 7. a) Normalized PIXE spectrum recorded under atmospheric conditions; b) Blue tessera glass.

Figure 8. Normalized PIXE spectra from inside the cup (red) andan external gilt motif (black) of the ciborium (CMAG 1180Collection).

VICTORIA CORREGIDOR et al.

49e‐conservation

These differences in concentration were found not

only between objects, but also in different parts

of an object. One clear example of this is the cibo‐

rium. Figure 8 represents the X‐ray spectra recor‐

ded in two different parts of the ciborium which

corresponds to the inside of the cup and to one of

the gilt external motifs, respectively. Both areas

are gilt with homogeneous distribution but with

different composition: the inner part shows an

average composition of 25% Ag, 60% Au and 15%

Hg while the external motif has an average com‐

position of 9% Ag, 84% Au and only 5% Hg. This

difference in concentration can be attributed to

the different temperatures achieved during the

gilt process according with the Au‐Hg phase dia‐

gram [21], or to the Au layer thickness, being

lower inside the ciborium. Another possibility is

the handling of the piece once the external parts

are more predisposed to handling that the inner

parts, or to the cleaning process with different

products.

In figure 9a, the elemental distribution of Hg, Au,

Ag and Cu is presented, covering a 800x800 μm2

area corresponding to the fastener of the reli‐

quary (figure 9b). In fact, it was found that not

only the fastener, but also the hinge show a quite

similar elemental distribution as the one shown

in figure 9a.

From these elemental distribution maps the rela‐

tionship between the Hg/Au and the Ag/Cu atoms

can be extracted. The Au and Hg elements are

associated and they follow the same pattern in

the studied region. On the other hand, the copper

follows the silver distribution. The addition of Cu

to Ag was used to improve the hardness of the

silver, a method that is still used nowadays.

Conclusions

The external ion beam analytical end‐station at

ITN, Portugal, is a valuable facility for studying a

Figure 9. a) Elemental distribution of Ag, Cu, Hg and Au; b) Viewof the exit nozzle and the object to be analyzed (the fastener ofthe reliquary (GMAG 1194).

THE EXTERNAL ION BEAM FACILITY IN PORTUGAL

Reliquary

Ostentorium

Ciborium

Ag (%) Au (%) Hg (%)

10 75 10

12

8

10 77

12 78

Impurities

Cu, Ca,

Fe, Pb,

Zn

Table I. Results of X–ray diffraction analysis of greywackerocks from Wadi Hammamat.

wide variety of objects related to our common

Cultural Heritage and History. The technique it‐

self is non‐invasive and it is expected to become

a standard tool available to the conservator and

conservation‐scientists. Different examples of

applications have been shown in order to illustrate

the versatility of the Portuguese set‐up. It is ex‐

pected that in a near future the techniques it

provides can be increasingly used as standard

tool accessible for the cultural heritage profes‐

sionals community.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Fundação para a

Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) under the POCI/CTM/60

685/2004 project. V. Corregidor acknowledges

the program Ciência 2008 of FCT Portugal. We also

would like to thank Museu Municipal de Arqueo‐

logia da Amadora, Casa‐Museu Dr. Anastácio Gon‐

çalves and I.M.C. for allowing us to analyze their

objects.

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51e‐conservation

THE EXTERNAL ION BEAM FACILITY IN PORTUGAL

VICTORIA CORREGIDORResearcher

vicky.corregidor@itn.pt

Victoria Corregidor is a researcher at Instituto

Tecnológico e Nuclear since 2009, where she is

involved in the application of Ion Beam Techniques

to the study of Cultural Heritage. She received

her higher education in Physics at the Universidad

Autónoma de Madrid, where she obtained her PhD

in Physics and Materials Science in 2003. She is

also member of Centro de Física Nuclear da Univer‐

sidade de Lisboa. Her other research fields are

growth and characterization of semiconductors

and materials for photovoltaic applications.

LUÍS CERQUEIRA ALVESResearcher

lcalves@itn.pt

Luís Cerqueira Alves is a researcher at Instituto

Tecnológico e Nuclear. He has been working in the

development and application of ion beam analy‐

tical techniques with the 2.5 MV Van de Graaff

accelerator installed at ITN, in particular using a

Nuclear Microprobe. The main applications of the

implemented techniques have been performed in

the material science, mineralogy, archaeometry

and cultural heritage fields. He obtained his MSc

(1993) and PhD (2004) in Physics from Faculdade

de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa.

ALEXANDRA RODRIGUESConservator‐restorer

alexandra.rodrigues@itn.pt

Alexandra Rodrigues graduated in Conservation

and Restoration from Faculdade de Ciências e

Tecnologia of Universidade Nova de Lisboa in 2003.

She obtained her MSc in Archaeological Roman

Glasses in 2011 also at FCT‐UNL. Since 2005 she

has been a collaborator with ITN, where she was

involved with the development of the external ion

beam analyses setup.

MÁRCIA VILARIGUESConservation‐Scientist

mgv@fct.unl.pt

Márcia Vilarigues is a professor at the Conserva‐

tion Department of Faculdade de Ciências e Tecno‐

logia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (FCT‐UNL). She

is also the director at the Research Unit VICARTE

(Glass and Ceramics for the Arts). She obtained

her PhD in Conservation Science at the Conserva‐

tion Department of FCT‐UNL on the subject of

stained glass corrosion under the supervision of

Professors Rui Silva and António Pires de Matos.

She graduated in Physics at FCT‐UNL and did her

Master is Surface Science and Technology at the

Faculdade de Ciências of Universidade de Lisboa.

Since 2001 she works on the characterization of

historical materials, mainly of glass.

RUI SILVAResearcher

rmcs@itn.pt

Rui Silva is member of Centro de Física Nuclear

da Universidade de Lisboa and Senior Research

Officer at Instituto Tecnológico e Nuclear where

he conducts research activities in materials

science using Ion Beam Analyses. Since 2001 he

is collaborating in the implementation of the IBA

techniques for characterization of historical

materials. He also collaborates with the Research

Unit VICARTE (Glass and Ceramics for the Arts)

through usage of IBA as a characterization tool

helpful in the development and understanding of

colour giving mechanisms in glasses.

52 e‐conservation

VICTORIA CORREGIDOR et al.

THE CONTRIBUTION OFTRANSMITTED INFRARED IMAGING

TO NON‐INVASIVE STUDY OFCANVAS PAINTINGS AT THE

NATIONAL GALLERY – ALEXANDROSSOUTZOS MUSEUM, GREECE

ByAnna MoutsatsouDimitra Skapoula

Michael Doulgeridis

Introduction

Non‐invasive imaging techniques have a promi‐

nent position in the study and conservation of

easel paintings since decades. The production of

infrared (IR) images is especially appreciated

because it reveals features under the pictorial

layer such as underdrawings, pentimenti, etc. [1].

Based on the extensive use of IR Reflectography

since the 1960s [2], multispectral imaging has

largely widened the application possibilities of

non‐invasive techniques in IR spectral regions.

Nowadays, it is considered a particularly useful

technique for the study of materials and painting

techniques and assessment of the conservation

state of paintings in various substrates, as well

as archival material [3].

The literature concerning the study of canvas

paintings refers almost exclusively to the imaging

of the reflection of IR radiation in wavelengths in

the near‐infrared (NIR) region (760‐2500 nm) [4].

On the contrary, works that include reference to

information of transmitted IR imaging are very

limited [5‐7]. Suggestively, Kushel [5] had men‐

tioned already in 1985 that the mapping of the

transmitted IR radiation was able to reveal, often

with extreme accuracy, whole underlying painting

compositions. In that paper, a vidicon detector

with a spectral response up to 1800 nm, an infrared

image converter unit and standard infrared photo‐

graphic materials such as external Kodak cut‐off

filters and infrared films were used. Gavrilov et

al. [6], in one of the most recent papers available,

presents an observation scheme under transmitted

lighting using a CCD detector with spectral sensi‐

tivity up to 1100 nm equipped with cut‐off filters.

The authors mentioned that many underlying

data of the painting composition were revealed,

as well as an underlying original signature.

Transmitted infrared imaging is a neglected technique for the study of canvas paintings, having only

some few relevant references. The present paper documents the use of transmitted infrared imaging in a

non‐invasive study of canvas paintings from the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutzos Museum in

Athens, Greece. It is shown that even low resolution images in a narrow spectral region (up to 1150 nm)

may reveal valuable information regarding the underdrawing and underpainting, in cases where

transmitted visible and reflected infrared imaging with the same device provided limited information.

Figure 1. Reflectography (left) and transillumination (right) set‐ups.

54 e‐conservation

ANNA MOUTSATSOU et al.

Experimental

The canvas paintings presented in this paper

belong to the collection of the National Gallery ‐

Alexandros Soutzos Museum in Athens, Greece.

For the capture of IR images, a MuSISTM 2007

multispectral imager was used [8]. This camera

was developed in the late 1990s and offers a

series of imaging choices (NIR reflection in two

spectral bands (750‐950 nm and 950‐1150 nm),

infrared false‐color, visible reflection, visible

fluorescence and ultraviolet reflectance (320‐

400 nm)) although it does not provide any spec‐

Figure 2. Visible image before restoration of Head of a girl (s.d.)by I. Rizos, oil painting on canvas, 35x27 cm, inventory numberP.682. Reflected (right above) and transmitted (right below)IR detail of the painting (spectral range 950‐1150 nm).

Nonetheless, that was not the main subject of the

paper, and no emphasis was given on the advan‐

tages of the technique.

At the Laboratory of Physicochemical Research of

the Conservation Department of the National

Gallery ‐ Alexandros Soutzos Museum, transmitted

NIR imaging constitutes an inseparable part of

the daily diagnostic work. The cases presented in

this study suggest that even the use of an imaging

device with limited spectral sensitivity and low

resolution may provide significant information

regarding the underdrawing and underpainting

in canvas paintings, in cases where reflected IR

images of the same spectral band captured by the

same imaging device present constraints. More‐

over, it is a non‐invasive technique that does not

require extra cost or time and can be included in

the standard examination procedure of a museum

laboratory with limited imaging equipment.

TRANSMITTED INFRARED IMAGING OF PAINTINGS

55e‐conservation

trometric capabilities as newer models do. The

CCD detector operates in the spectral region of

320‐1150 nm and provides a spatial analysis of

734x559 pixels.

The images presented below were captured in the

imaging mode of IR reflection in the 950‐1150 nm

wavelength band. For the IR reflectograms, two

OSRAM Halogen Display/Optic Lamps (color tem‐

perature of 3400 K) are symmetrically placed in

front of the painting. In order to record the trans‐

mitted IR radiation, one light source is placed in

the back side of the painting at a safe distance to

avoid heating and in such a position where the

lighting would be constricted into the bounds

of the canvas substrate. The reflectography and

transillumination set‐ups are comparatively pre‐

sented in Figure 1.

ANNA MOUTSATSOU et al.

Results and Discussion

Some representative examples of numerous case

studies where transmitted IR images have provided

valuable information are presented here. In these,

the comparison between reflection and transmis‐

sion images refers to the visualization of the un‐

derdrawing and underpaintings.

The painting Head of a girl (s.d.) by Iakovos Rizos

(1849‐1926), a famous 19th century Greek painter,

was examined using the MuSISTM 2007 system

prior to conservation treatment. In the visible

image (Figure 2a), a shadow in the background

from the nose to the bottom right corner is discer‐

ned. The IR reflection image (Figure 2b) does not

provide any further information about any under‐

lying form. On the contrary, the image of trans‐

57e‐conservation

mitted IR of the same wavelength reveals a man’s

head looking towards the opposite direction, which

was later overpainted by the visible head of the

girl (Figure 2c).

In the case of Psyche (1880‐1882) by G.F. Watts

(Figure 3a), the transmitted IR images revealed a

spontaneous and high quality underdrawing

(Figure 3b), while the corresponding reflection

images of the reflected radiation in the same

spectral region did not provide any relevant infor‐

mation (Figure 3c).

Finally, one of the most complete examples of the

contribution of transmitted IR imaging to the

Figure 3. Psyche (1880‐1882) by G. F. Watts, oil painting on can‐vas, 190x60 cm, inventory number P.258. Visible image (left) be‐fore restoration, transmitted (above) and reflected (below) IRdetails of the painting (spectral range 950‐1150nm).

TRANSMITTED INFRARED IMAGING OF PAINTINGS

58 e‐conservation

multispectral study and documentation of the

canvas paintings is the examination of the

painting entitled Return to the Village (1952) by

Greek painter Theofrastos Triantafyllides (Figure

4a). The reflected IR image in the 950‐1150 nm

region (Figure 4b) provides information only

related to an underlying image playing a guitar

on the right, while the imaging of the transmit‐

ted IR radiation of the same spectral region de‐

picts more underlying forms such as two more

human figures, architectural elements, and a

glass or jug, as well as extensive underdrawing

executed by both dry and wet media (Figure 4c).

Figure 4. Return to the Village (1952) by Theofrastos Triantafyllides, oil on canvas,106x156 cm, inventory number P.2640. Visible imagebefore restoration (above left), mosaic of the IR reflection (above right) and transmission (below) images (spectral range 950‐1150 nm).

ANNA MOUTSATSOU et al.

59e‐conservation

Conclusions

Using the same imaging device, transmitted IR

imaging may provide more information regard‐

ing the underdrawing and underpainting than

reflectograms of the same spectral region, in

cases where the structure of the canvas paintings

and the imaging performance factors (spectral

sensitivity, spatial analysis, etc.) allow so.

The information obtained by transmitted IR ima‐

ging can also be provided by other imaging tech‐

niques such as IR imaging at longer wavelengths

and X‐Ray radiography. However, transmitted NIR

imaging is a non‐invasive technique that does

not require extra cost or time and can be easily

included in the standard examination procedure

even with limited imaging equipment. The great

usefulness of this technique was here briefly ex‐

emplified with three canvas paintings from the

National Gallery ‐ Alexandros Soutzos Museum

collection.

In order to fully understand the theoretical

background of transmitted IR imaging and the

correlation of its results with the physicochemical

parameters that form the imaging result, such as

internal scattering, it is necessary to examine a

set of reference samples based on an integrated

standardized methodology. In addition, the pre‐

paration and examination of such samples would

further contribute to making the most of the

technique’s potential.

Acknowledgments

Warm thanks are due to conservator Panayiotis

Rompakis for his contribution to the production

of visible images, to conservator Christina Kara‐

dima for her cooperation on the study of Head of

a Girl (No. P.682), to curator Eftychia Agathonikou

for collaboration on the study of Psyche (No.

P.258), which is still in progress, and to curator

Zina Kaloudi and conservator Christina Karadima

for their cooperation on the study of Return to the

Village (No. P.2640).

References

[1] C. Daffara, R. Fontana and L. Pezzati, “Infrared

Reflectography”, in D. Pinna, M. Galeotti, R.

Mazzeo (eds.), Scientific Examination for the Inves‐

tigation of Paintings. A Handbook for Conservator‐

restorers, Centro Di della Edifimi srl, Florence,

2009, p. 172

[2] J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer, “Reflectography

of Paintings Using an Infrared Vidicon Television

System”, Studies in Conservation 14(3), 1969, pp.

96‐118

[3] C. Fisher and I. Kakoulli, “Multispectral and

Hyperspectral Imaging Technologies in Conser‐

vation: Current Research and Potential Applica‐

tions”, Reviews in Conservation 7, 2006, pp. 3–16,

available at URL [pdf]

[4] D. Bomford (ed.), Art in the Making: Under‐

drawings in Renaissance Paintings, National Gal‐

lery Publications, London, 2002

[5] D. A. Kushel, “Applications of Transmitted In‐

frared Radiation to the Examination of Artifacts”,

Studies in Conservation 30(1), 1985, pp. 1‐10

[6] D. Gavrilov, C. Ibarra‐Castanedo, E. Maeva, O.

Crube, X. Maldague and R. Maev, “Infrared Methods

in Noninvasive Inspection of Artwork”, Proceed‐

ings of Art’08 – 9th International Conference on

Non Destructive Investigations and Microanalysis

for the Non Destructive Investigations and Micro‐

TRANSMITTED INFRARED IMAGING OF PAINTINGS

60 e‐conservation

analysis for the Diagnostics and Conservation of

the Cultural and Environmental Heritage, Jerusalem,

May 2008, 2008, CD‐ROM, available at URL [pdf]

[7] P. Spezzani, Reflettoscopia e Indagini Non

Distruttive: Pittura e Grafica, Olivetti, Milano, 1992,

pp. 26‐27

[8] C. Balas, V. Papadakis, N. Papadakis, A. Papa‐

dakis, E. Vazgiouraki, G. Themelis, “A novel hyper‐

spectral imaging apparatus for the non‐destructive

analysis of artistic and historic value”, Journal of

Cultural Heritage 4, 2003, pp. 330‐337,

doi:10.1016/ S1296‐2074(02)01216‐5

ANNA MOUTSATOUConservation ScientistContact: annamoutsatsou@nationalgallery.gr

Anna Moutsatsou is a chemical engineer and art

conservator with a Master degree in Conservation

Science. Since 2005 she works at the National Gal‐

lery ‐ Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Athens, Greece.

The role of the chemist of the museum includes a

wide range of research activities in the field of physi‐

cochemical study of artworks with the main field

of interest being the application of non‐invasive

techniques and especially MultiSpectral Imaging for

diagnosis and documentation of paintings. She has

taken part in several research programmes in colla‐

boration with laboratories at the National Technical

University of Athens, the Technological Education

Institution of Athens and Lavrion Technological and

Cultural Park. Her published work (20 papers in

scientific journals and congresses) concerns docu‐

mentation of easel paintings, determination of

painting materials and techniques, visualization of

underlying elements (under‐drawings, signatures,

etc.), mapping of past conservation treatments, etc.

Furthermore, her PhD research focuses on the multi‐

variate analysis of cellulosic substrates applied on

Greek watercolour paintings.

DIMITRA SKAPOULAConservator‐restorerContact: dskapoula@gmail.com

Dimitra Skapoula is an art conservator and co‐

operates as an external partner with the Easel

Paintings Conservation Studio of the Conservation

Department, National Gallery‐Alexandros Soutzos

Museum, Athens, Greece. She has a long experi‐

ence in preventive and invasive conservation as

well as in application of imaging techniques for

the diagnosis of easel paintings.

ANNA MOUTSATSOU et al.

61e‐conservation

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

e‐conservation magazine is open to submission

of articles on a wide range of relevant topics

for the cultural heritage sector.

Next deadlines for article submission are:

for Issue 23, February 2012 – submissions

due 15th December 2011

for Issue 24, April 2012 – submissions due

15th February 2012

Nevertheless, you can always submit your

manuscript when it is ready. Between the

receival of the manuscript until the final

publication may pass up to 3 months

according with:

‐ the number of the manuscripts on hold,

submitted earlier by other authors

‐ the release date of the upcoming issue

‐ the pre‐allocated space in the magazine

to each section

Please check our publication guidelines

for more information.

MICHAEL DOULGERIDISConservator‐restorer

Contact: michaildoulgeridis@nationalgallery.gr

Dr. Michael Doulgeridis is head of the Conserva‐

tion Department of the National Gallery – Alex‐

andros Soutzos Museum, Athens, Greece. He has

an extensive knowledge of the preservation and

conservation of Cultural Heritage as well as of

the artworks’ construction techniques. The latter

is also the subject of his PhD at the Faculty of

History and Archaeology, National and Kapodis‐

trian University of Athens. Apart from his long

experience in conservation, he is considered to be

as one of the pioneers in the application of new

technologies on the study and analysis of paint‐

ings in Greece. This is also certified by his parti‐

cipation in numerous research programmes in

continuous collaboration with several laboratories

in Greece and abroad. His research work is

presented in more than 30 published papers.

Furthermore, he has published extensively on

museological and art interpretation issues.

TRANSMITTED INFRARED IMAGING OF PAINTINGS

CHINESE ISLAMIC SCROLLS:A CONSERVATION CASE STUDY

ByAristoteles G. Sakellariou

Lalit Kumar PathakSiti Yuhainizar

CHINESE ISLAMIC SCROLLS

e‐conservation 63

This article presents a case study from the Islamic Arts Museum of Malaysia’s experience with Chinese

Islamic Scrolls. What makes Chinese Islamic scrolls so unique is the combination of Arabic script applied

on a scroll with the principles of Chinese brush painting. The conservation team started with historic

research, then examined the scroll and decided for the best treatment in respect of Eastern and Islamic

disciplines. The conservation stages were documentation, removal of the old backing, cleaning, relining,

drying, repairs and retouching. Once the treatment was performed, the storage had also to be

considered. The parameters affecting both the treatment and storage are based on the staff experience

with similar scrolls, the environment and the restrictions relating to the museum’s geographic location.

Through this treatment, the conservators discovered more about the history of the artistic movement

that produced, and still produces, these scrolls. This article is the outcome of observations and decisions

that were made for this rather unusual object, that the IAMM conservation team wishes to share.

CHINESE ISLAMIC SCROLLS:A CONSERVATION CASE STUDY

Introduction

The Islamic Arts Museum of Malaysia (IAMM) is

located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital city. At

just 3° north of the equator, its climate has all the

characteristics of a tropical equatorial region. It

is hot and humid all year round, with lot of rain [1].

The IAMM’s collections currently consist of more

than eight thousand artefacts. Moreover, the IAMM

is the custodian of the historic collections of JAKIM

(Department of Islamic Affairs of Malaysia). Some

of the most spectacular objects in display there

are the large model of Mashjid Alharram in Makah

and a complete ottoman period reception room

from Damascus. In comparison with most of the

Islamic Art museums around the world, the IAMM

gives equal attention to the art from the Mogul

India, the South East Asia and the Muslim Commu‐

nities of China. The last ones are well represented

in IAMM [2].

The Islamic Chinese scrolls collection is one of the

museum’s most unusual (Figure 1). This article

explains briefly the technology of these objects

and discusses a case study of a scroll, including

observations and the practical solutions found for

its treatment.

What makes Chinese Islamic scrolls so unique is

the combination of Arabic script applied to a scroll

with the principles of Chinese brush painting.

Literature on the subject is rather limited and

the majority consists of artistic references and

photographic depictions, rather than its tech‐

nology or history. A recent bibliographic search

by the authors to find any similar case studies

proved unfruitful.

The 1300‐year history of Islam in China began at

the end of the VIII century with the arrival of the

first Muslims. Since that time, Muslim merchants

followed the back and forth movement of caravans

on the Silk Road [3]. There are ten official Muslim

minorities in China, but not all of them would

produce this kind of artwork. Members of the Hui

ethnic group (with the greatest population) and

the Dongxiang are more likely to make these scrolls

than other ethnic groups, such as the Tajiks or

the Uyghurs [4].

In contrast with other Arabic scripts such as Naskh

or Thuluth, which are written by calligraphers

throughout the Muslim world, the Chinese Islamic

scrolls bare inscriptions in the Arabic‐Chinese

script or Khat Sinni. It is commonly used to refer

to one with thick and tapered effects, much like

64 e‐conservation

Figure 1. General view of the China Gallery of the Islamic Arts Museum of Malaysia where the scrolls can be seen at the rear.

Chinese calligraphy. It is used extensively in

mosques and houses in north eastern China.

According to Liu Baojun [5], the imam of the

Habrin mosque Jing Zhai (1879‐1949) has

produced marvellous pieces of this particular

artwork.

The Chinese Islamic scrolls are produced mainly

on paper. The Chinese Shaun paper, popularly

known as rice paper, has been extensively used

to create these artworks [6]. Shaun paper has

good absorbance of inks and colours, even though

it is rather weak and fragile. In most cases, black

Chinese carbon‐based ink, made of carbon soot

or lamp black (pigments) and mixed with animal

glue (binder), is used for calligraphy. The Chinese

carbon ink is very durable and does not fade in

time; this is perhaps one of the reasons that this

ink was preferred. After completing his writing,

the calligrapher would stamp one or two seals in

red colour. Generally, the shape of most of these

stamps is square. The seal may contain the artist

name, wishes, his logotype, a date or studio name.

This tradition continues until our days. Hanging

scrolls appear mostly in vertical format, while

horizontal format of the calligraphy is usually

meant for framing. After its composition, the

paper artwork is either mounted or framed or

sometimes simply placed on the wall as it is.

Traditionally, these scrolls are framed or mounted

on paper rather than on silk, like ordinary Chinese

scrolls. Two or three layers of paper lining are used

to give the scroll shape. The scrolls are lined with

dyed dan yuan zhi paper and mian lian paper and

dried over a flat wooden drying board for several

weeks. Traditionally, various types of adhesives,

papers and brushes could be used for each dif‐

ferent stage of mounting process. However, unlike

the traditional ways, the commercial mounting in

Malaysian contemporary workshops (with limited

knowledge to the subject) uses rice starch paste

and only one type of Chinese paper (commercially

known as rice paper) for all purposes.

ARISTOTELES SAKELLARIOU et al.

e‐conservation 65

CHINESE ISLAMIC SCROLLS

Islamic Chinese scrolls are sometimes mounted

on silk, particularly since the 1990’s. In silk

mounting, the silk is lined on paper with an

aqueous adhesive. After drying, it is cut into

several pieces (e.g. for side strips, top and lower

panels). Chinese silk is available in different

colours. In fact, its considerable index of trans‐

parency makes the colour of the lining paper an

important factor to the final hue. The anticipated

result can vary in colour and motives. Flying

birds on white silk is a typical motif widely used.

The typical relining procedure is as follows. After

attaching various pieces of lined silk to the callig‐

raphy piece using slightly thicker paste, the object

is left to dry. In order to ensure a nice and regular

shape, the mounting craftsman folded the compo‐

sition half way bringing the one end over the

other, and then a hole was pierced on every corner

with a needle. The composition was opened flat

again and by using a ruler and a knife, guided by

the newly pierced holes, the edges were trimmed.

At that point, the paper and silk fibres of the trim‐

med edges were exposed. The mounting crafts‐

man folded a millimetre at the back in order to

secure the edges. Pockets are provided on top for

the wooden stick and at the bottom for the roller

by using thick paper. The scroll is then lined with

mulberry paper and left to dry over a drying board.

The IAMM Scroll

History of the Scroll

The object of this case study was most certainly

used for decoration. This opinion can be sup‐

ported by the Malaysian Ministry of Culture, Arts &

Tourism research on Muslim communities of China,

on similar artworks [7]. It is composed of several

pieces of different types of paper, including a

central one which bears the calligraphy (Figure 2).

The scroll dimensions before treatment were

161.8 x 68.9 cm. The paper pieces are white, or

off‐white, and the inks are predominantly black

and red for the two seals. The decorated surface

may be divided in three sections. The first is the

main calligraphy part, which reads Basmallah (or

Bismillah, which means ‘in the name of God, the

most Graceful and most Merciful’, Figure 2d),

written with black ink, and shapes a motif that

could be considered to be inspired by a dragon.

The second is the two red seals, one of which is

square (figure 2b) and mentions the name of the

artist (Kuai Qing), while the other is oval (Figure

2c) and presents a wish (Wan Gu Chang Chun, which

literally means ‘living till thousands of ages as

long as a forever spring season’ and can be inter‐

preted as ‘forever young’ or ‘ever‐lasting to a long

life’). The third section of the decorated surface

is a roughly written Arabic inscription, above the

seal of the artist: “Written [by] Abd Eldhayeq [who

was or which was] found at the sea” (Figure 2e).

The scroll presented in this case study is a piece

of a wider collection of Chinese Islamic scrolls

belonging to the IAMM. This collection was kindly

donated by Puan Sri Sharifah Zarah Al‐Bukhary,

member of the board of directors of the Albukhary

Foundation which funds the museum. Our infor‐

mation regarding the history of this particular

collection is limited to some names of the artists

and the date of their production (around 1950).

Once the scroll came under IAMM’s custody in

1998, it went through the standard procedure

that applies to all new acquisitions. First, it was

taken to a special quarantine room, known as the

Handling Room, for observation. The time for this

process differs, depending on the nature of the

object. In this particular case, the scroll was

examined for less than a week.

The scroll was taken from the Handling Room

directly to the museum exhibition halls as there

66 e‐conservation

Figure 2. The scroll before treatment: a) general view; b,c) red stamps with Chinese characters; d) crown shaped Basmallah(or Bismillah); e) rough Arabic inscription.

was no Conservation Department at that time. It

was exhibited until the year 2000 at the China

Gallery. This gallery was redesigned in 2003 which

involved the rotation of some objects, including

this scroll. The scroll remained in storage for more

than nine years, when finally the conservation

staff took the initiative to treat it. One of the

reasons for choosing it was the availability of

restoration materials at the laboratories, which

matched the estimated needs of this particular

object.

Examination

When observing the condition of the scroll (Figure

2), it is easily assumed that the object was not

given the appropriate attention when handled in

the past, before it arrived to the museum. More‐

over, it was obvious that it was not kept under

adequate conditions. The scroll was examined

thoroughly and it was found that it was trimmed

in the past, perhaps due to lack of storage space.

The object suffered a number of tears and loose

ARISTOTELES SAKELLARIOU et al.

e‐conservation 67

CHINESE ISLAMIC SCROLLS

areas. The left and right edges and corners were

weak and damaged. A blue strip of machine‐made

paper applied along the edges was detached on

several parts. A possible reason for attaching the

blue paper could be for protecting the scroll edges.

The scroll had two lining layers, one made of thin

and the other of thick handmade paper. The thick

one has long fibres. There was no indication of

using silk for either layer. The object had lost its

elasticity due to the paper fibres aging, which was

accelerated by the lining paste. Dust and dirt

embedded on the lining paper affected further

the physical properties of the artefact. The lining

quality is not excellent, which is the reason that

it is assumed that the object was made at a work‐

shop with poor experience.

Works of art on paper become more fragile with

aging. Once the paper degrades it is difficult to

restore back its flexibility by chemical treatment.

In order to prevent the artwork from breaking into

pieces, aqueous treatment and relining with more

appropriate materials is usually recommended.

One of the major aesthetic problems of the scroll

is the extensive water stains. These stains ‘run’

all along from the top left to the lower left side.

Its pattern leads us to the assumption that they

might have occurred when the scroll was rolled.

The most likely scenario is that water came in

contact with one side of the object (either acci‐

dently or deliberately) and penetrated it forming

a repetitive design of stains after a regular inter‐

val. Additional water stains were found as well at

other places. There were also some stains of red

ink. The paper was slightly acidic, with pH 6. Brown

spots and other forms of discoloration, present

on the centre left side of the Arabic characters,

may have been caused by acidic activity. A solubi‐

lity spot test proved that the black ink was inso‐

luble in water while red ink was slightly soluble.

Intervention

Documentation

The object was thoroughly documented before

any action was taken. The IAMM standard docu‐

mentation form was completed and photographs

were taken before, during, and after every

treatment.

Removal of the Old Backing

Before the intervention, attention was given to

the selection of the most appropriate materials

for the treatment and the final display of the

object. As this scroll was not originally mounted

with silk, it was not considered to add it now.

A thin sheet of polyethylene was adhered to the

cleaned table top using water. The areas that

contained red ink were fixed with 1% Paraloid B‐72

in acetone. The object was humidified carefully

from both sides with a water sprayer and placed

facing up. As the object was thin and fragile there

was a risk that it would be torn if the thick backing

paper was removed at this stage. For this reason,

it was decided to provide a temporary lining to

the entire surface with lens tissue paper (facing),

using a weak solution of methyl cellulose (Figure

3). Afterwards, it was left to dry.

The scroll was humidified from both sides by

spraying it gently with distilled water and kept

over a polyethylene sheet. Then, it was covered

with another polythene sheet. Air bubbles and

creases were removed using a sponge, which was

slightly moisturized to slip with ease on the poly‐

ethylene. After some minutes, a small part of the

object was exposed uncovering the polyethylene

sheet. An attempt was made to remove the backing

paper with forceps but without success. Therefore

some more water was sprayed over the object and

68 e‐conservation

Figure 3. During the removal of the backing.

it was left for more time to soften the old adhesive.

At the same time, the condition of inks was exami‐

ned by lifting the lowermost polyethylene sheet.

Two layers of backing were removed carefully with

a tweezers and a scalpel (Figure 3).

Cleaning

The scroll was placed over the washing table in a

supine position. A solution was prepared with 80

parts of deionized water and 20 parts ethanol with

a few drops of hydrogen peroxide and a few drops

of ammonia (Figure 4). Hydrogen peroxide worked

as a bleaching agent for the stains and was used

ammonia to neutralize it [8]. The solution was

applied on the paper and blotted after some time.

This process was repeated twice until the stains

were hardly visible. The object was rinsed with

deionised water. In order to make the object more

durable its acidity was counterbalanced with

calcium hydroxide solution (pH 8) resulting in a

final pH was almost neutral.

The scroll border was treated separately in a

similar manner. To dry, it was kept between

blotters in semi‐dry conditions, pressed under

light weight.

Relining

Parts of the scroll borders were lined over the Japa‐

nese machine‐made tissue (9 g/m2) yellowish in

colour using diluted Japanese wheat starch paste

in order to give some strength. Japanese wheat

starch paste is preferred due to its good physical

properties and mould growth resistance. Follow‐

ARISTOTELES SAKELLARIOU et al.

Figure 4. Application of solution during the cleaning procedure.

e‐conservation 69

CHINESE ISLAMIC SCROLLS

ing the classic preparation technique, after

cooking the paste was passed through a strainer

to eliminate lumps and create a homogenous

texture [9, 10].

After relining, the scroll and its borders could be

handled safely. To give the hanging scroll the

desired length, a final lining of Japanese machine‐

made tissue (19 g/m2) was added. Thus, the scroll

was lined on a long, single sheet of that tissue

over the terylene cloth which was fixed over the

working table. Japanese wheat starch paste was

diluted with water to get the desired viscosity,

and was used for relining (Figure 5). The facing

tissue papers were then removed carefully. After

drying, the pieces of the border were pasted back

to their original place. A thin cream‐coloured

Chinese paper was placed all around the object in

order to provide equal thickness to the entire

surface and to tone down the frame’s brightness.

The blue strip was placed at its original place as

it is considered part of the object’s history.

Drying

The lined scroll was placed over a table for a total

period of two months in order to allow all its

components to set together in relation with the

surrounding atmosphere. This period was required

because of the different drying times of each

type of paper and also the prevailing conditions.

Repairing and Retouching

The scroll’s missing parts were patched up using

thin Japanese paper of a matching colour. Minor

Figure 5. Removal of the polyethylene sheet after lining the scroll.

70 e‐conservation

retouching was done on spots of missing ink

with coloured pencils. Certain stains were also

retouched for aesthetic improvement. The

materials used to repair and to retouch the

scroll can be easily removed with safety or even

retreated.

Finishing Touches

A wooden stick was added to the top of the scroll

and a roller with two wooden knobs at the lower

part. The stick was flat at the front and semi‐circu‐

lar at the back. This is to make a small gap between

the scroll and the wall allowing the air to circulate

freely.

Storage

The final step would be to exhibit the scroll

(Figure 6) in IAMM’s China Gallery. However, that

was not feasible at the moment since the exhibi‐

tion space devoted to Chinese Islamic scrolls is

full. Therefore, the scroll will be exhibited when

the gallery will be rearranged, or perhaps when

the objects will be rotated.

Until this decision is to be taken by the curatorial

and display staff, the scroll should remain in

storage. One of the most common forms of dete‐

rioration for Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan scrolls

is creases or cracks from rolling [11], which meant

ARISTOTELES SAKELLARIOU et al.

e‐conservation 71

Figure 6. General view of the scroll after treatment.

CHINESE ISLAMIC SCROLLS

that a suitable solution had to be found. Our

preference was to place it flat on a mount. Never‐

theless, this solution proved to be unpractical

due to the large size of the object and also the

lack of storage space.

The best system for storing rolled scrolls is the

Japanese system: it consists of a box and a rolling

cylinder made of a seasoned, light and durable

wood such as paulownia or kiri. The scroll’s edge

is fixed in an ajar gap alongside the cylinder, and

then it is rolled around it. The box includes two

hollow semicircle ‘stands’ on its two interior sides.

This is where the cylinder sides are fixed prevent‐

ing the scroll from laying on its own weight.

Even though this method seems to be the most

suitable, it proved to be economically unafford‐

able for the amount of Chinese Islamic scrolls

there are in the collection. This includes the costs

of buying and shipping the materials from Japan

to Malaysia, plus potential implications at the

customs office.

Thus, an alternative solution had to be found. The

solution came from our experienced box making

staff. We would try to imitate the Japanese scroll

boxes, making one from paper and cardboard

(Figure 7). Our box had similar properties to the

Japanese system in that it held the scroll safe from

handling, light and vibrations. However, there

is a possibility that our box does not meet the

humidity buffering properties of the Japanese

wooden boxes. This is a subject that must be inves‐

tigated in the near future.

Conclusions

Planning for conserving this object triggered the

conservation staff to search more about the Chi‐

nese Islamic Scrolls’ history. This research provided

a fascinating insight to their rather obscure past.

This article shows some of the scarce bibliogra‐

phical resources in English.

Almost ten years ago, the museum followed the

trend of ‘sandwiching’ the scrolls between two

sheets of Perspex. However, when the conserva‐

tion department was established not only focused

on their conservation, but also to their historical

context. Therefore, the ‘scroll’ had to be on a

scroll form for a better historical interpretation.

This object was exceptional challenging for the

conservation staff due to its dimensions. The

72 e‐conservation

Figure 7. The concept (above) and implementation of thestorage box.

conservation staff handling skills were tested,

especially when the scroll was wet. The object had

been quite acidic, weak and fragile. Particular

attention had to be addressed to remove the hard

‘glue dipped’ backing without damaging the

painted surface. A temporary lining from the front

side with lens tissue paper (facing) protected the

painted paper. Finally, the choice of materials and

methods was also tested and proven suitable after

observing it for 4 months.

Generally, there has been little attention given to

Islamic Chinese scrolls by conservation experts

and researchers. With this article, we hope to

contribute to a corpus of understanding for this

distinctive artistic expression which brings

together the Art from East and West.

Acknowledgments

The authors of this article would like to thank to

Mrs. Britt Spyrou for the English editing, curator

Rosmawati Ahmad Zakharia for the archival infor‐

mation, researcher Assim Quisho for reading the

Arabic inscription, and the Deputy director of

Centre for Malaysian‐Chinese Studies Chiam Yan

Tuan for reading the Chinese seals. We acknowl‐

edge Pauline Webber for providing notes on re‐

mounting and restoration of Chinese paintings.

We also thank the Director of IAMM, Tuan Syed

Mohammad Albukhary, for his ample support.

References

[1] A. G. Sakellariou, “The Fungus Trolley”, News

in Conservation 18, IIC, June 2010, p. 3

[2] L. De Guise, Introduction, IAMM website, 2009,

URL (accessed 05.06.2011)

[3] J. Berlie, Islam in China: Hui and Uyghurs,

Lotus, Bangkok, 2004, p. 1

[4] M. Dillon, ”Language and the Hui”, The Hui of

China, Curzon, Richmond Surrey, 1999, pp. 153‐

161

[5] Y. Liu Baojun, A Glance at the Chinese Muslims,

Malaysian Encyclopedia Centre, Kuala Lumpur, 1998

[6] J. Hough, Chinese Calligraphy and Painting

Scrolls and Mounting: Introduction to Chinese

Mounting & Scrolls, URL (accessed 06.10.2008)

[7] “Chinese Muslim Calligraphy”, Muslim in China

(English‐Malay version), The Malaysian Ministry

of Culture, Kuala Lumpur, 2003, pp. 33‐37

[8] O. P. Agrawal, M. Barkeshli, “5.2.3 Aqueous

Cleaning”, Conservation of Books, Manuscripts and

Paper Documents, INTACH, Lucknow, 1997

[9] G. Harrison, Wheat Starch Paste, Indiana Uni‐

versity Libraries Preservation Department, URL

(accessed 20.06.2011)

[10] N. Ash, “A Note on the Use of Magnesium Bi‐

carbonate in Hydrogen Peroxide Solutions”, The

Book and Paper Group Annual 2, AIC, 1983, URL

(accessed 08.06.2011)

[11] N. Yosiyuki, “Maintenance of East Asian

Painting”, The Book and Paper Group Annual 12,

AIC, 1993, p. 3, URL (accessed 08.06.2011)

ARISTOTELES SAKELLARIOU et al.

e‐conservation 73

CHINESE ISLAMIC SCROLLS

ARISTOTELES SAKELLARIOUSenior Preventive ConservatorContact: a.g.sakellariou@gmail.com

Aristoteles Georgios Sakellariou has been Head of

Conservation at the Islamic Arts Museum of Malay‐

sia for the past two years. He has an MA in Preven‐

tive Conservation from Northumbria University, UK

and a BA Hons in Conservation and Restoration

from the University of Lincoln, UK. He worked as

site conservator and as freelance conservation con‐

sultant for the University of Athens, the Hellenic

Museum of Folklore Art and the Hellenic Society

of Near Eastern Studies. He managed large projects

for the Jordanian Ministry of Culture, and the Minis‐

try of Tourism of Oman. His interest and research

include strategies for the storage and display of

objects in their original or historic context.

LALIT KUMAR PATHAKSenior ConservatorContact: lalit@iamm.org.my

Lalit Kumar Pathak holds a BSc in Chemistry, a

MSc in Geology and a Diploma in Museology. He

trained in Paper conservation at India and abroad.

Previously, he worked for several years as a senior

paper conservator and project coordinator at the

conservation laboratory of Rampur Raza Library,

Rampur (India) under INTACH ICI project. His past

experience includes working as a Senior Paper

Conservator for Ossian’s Connoisseurs of Art, New

Delhi. He joined the Conservation and Research

Laboratories of IAMM, Malaysia in 2003. He has

restored several Chinese scrolls, Quran Manu‐

scripts, Miniature Paintings. One of his most chal‐

lenging projects was the treatment of a 700 pages

‘Shahnameh’, an illustrated Persian manuscript by

Firdaus. During his 18 years long carrier in paper

conservation he had restored hundreds of arti‐

facts on paper.

SITI YUHAINIZARConservatorContact: yuhainizar@iamm.org.my

Siti Yuhainizar Mohd Ismail received her BSc

Science in Information Management (Hons)

specialised in Record Management, in University

Technology MARA Malaysia (2005). In her studies,

she focused on Preservation of Archival Materials.

She has received extensive training in paper con‐

servation from conservation masters at the Con‐

servation and Research Laboratories, Islamic Art

Museum, Malaysia, where she currently works. In

2005 she was hired as a trainee conservator and

then promoted to Assistant Paper Conservator.

ByAlessia Bianco

CONSERVATION INTERVENTIONOF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURES:

TWO CASE STUDIES IN CALABRIA, ITALY

A Theoretical Approach on “InnovativeRestoration” and “Conservative Preservation”

Without wanting to go into the difficult and spe‐

cialized topic of restoration theory, the article

proposes two different approaches to restoration

matter, with a reflection in terms of balancing

the theoretical and pragmatic judgments [1‐2].

The first applicative case regards Calanna and it

represents a type of restoration that can be called

"case‐by‐case restoration", which is implemented

according to previously established guidelines with‐

out following a certain methodological approach,

but choosing reasonably adequate solutions to spe‐

cific needs. This approach is valuable in its ability

overcome ideological approaches although has

the risk of devaluing the restoration, depriving it

of its intellectual and technical character.

Hence, the difficult choices of the Calanna project

(Figure 1) initially met some planner’s resistance

who, due to their training and professional

practice, in a first phase of preliminary project

purposed to use modern restoration solution than

traditional ones, who instead were considered

better by me thanks their capability to respect the

structural and technologic identity of buildings.

The second case, in Scilla, led to an approach that

developed an intervention proposal that can be

roughly defined as “innovative restoration”

because it sought to follow a methodological

preference for the use of structural and technical

solutions related to the vocabulary of contempo‐

rary planning rather than founding solutions

similar to the building historical specificities [3].

Thus, “innovative restoration” may be defined as

a theoretical and practical approach that prefers

the use of materials and technologies homologous

to those in use in new buildings.

The proposed project was significantly reformu‐

lated according to a cultural orientation called

“conservative preservation” and based on the

teachings of Professor Antonino Giuffré [4]. This

has been commonly practiced in the last two

decades and turned to combination and satisfac‐

tion of safety, especially in terms of performance

in case of earthquake, and preservation of the

characteristics of historical buildings. Here,

“conservative preservation” can be defined as a

theoretical and practical approach that prefers

using materials and technologies homologous to

those in use in the specific building or monument

in intervention.

The paper presents a reflection on the relationship between “innovative restoration” and “conservative

preservation” regarding two cases of vernacular buildings in Calabria, southern Italy. The first case

concerns the supervision of planning activities related to the restoration, reuse and development project

of the historic center of Calanna. The variety and articulation of buildings undergoing restoration was

an opportunity for a reflection about decision making concerning technical decisions of restoration and

it has highlighted how often it is not possible to purpose interventions inspired by an unique theoretical

approach (using traditional technics or using innovative materials and so on), but sometimes it is

needed to prefer an pragmatic mediation, free by cultural ties. The second case pertains to an

experience of the participating planning of a restoration intervention of Church of St. John the Baptist

in Scilla, a prefabricated wooden building, built after the 1908 earthquake. The project’s preliminary

draft proposed a substantial change of its technical and structural characteristics, although a second

version was prepared to pursue several primary conservative instances.

e‐conservation 75

VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURES IN CALABRIA

Case I: The Historic Centre of Calanna

The project for the architectural restoration of the

historic centre of Calanna included a reconversion

of four buildings for touristic use, selected on

bureaucratic and administrative basis such as the

centre commercial perspectives and development

strategy [5]. Following these criteria, the buildings

were selected regardless of their architectural or

conservation state similarities. Due to this type of

heterogeneous selection, the strategies for their

restoration were also adjusted to their necessity

following a "case‐by‐case restoration".

The first two buildings, the Lazzaro‐Romeo house

and Musicò house, were not so relevant from the

architectural point of view or conservation state.

In this cases, the restoration solutions were equi‐

valent to those related to the specific local tech‐

nology such as, for example the replacement of

deteriorated brick‐cement floors with wooden ones

and re‐roofing. A more complex and hard‐fought

task was the choice of solutions for the Barillà‐

Provenzano house (Figure 2), which showed some

architectural interests and the worst conservation

state, largely due to material decay problems

caused by the lack of maintenance and inadequacy

of certain interventions made after the 1908

earthquake. An initial project included abusive

interventions such as a concrete curb at the top,

armed walls, large reconstructions of masonry,

completely ignoring the building intrinsic structu‐

ral value. This treatment could have led not only

to behavioural and structural damages that are

typical of this type of solution but also to an

increase of the hygrothermal discomfort condi‐

tions, specifically considering Calanna’s climatic

context characterized by hard winters.

Therefore, it was necessary to prove throughout an

exhaustive study the inadequacy of this approach.

A significant support for this assessment, meant

to point out the structural resources of this house,

came from the Municipality of Calanna, which

commissioned a rigorous in situ diagnosis and

testing.

The aim of the investigations was to collect scien‐

tific data for understanding the conservation

state and the structural technology, especially

concerning the masonry in order to change the

previous inadequate intervention proposal of

using detrimental cement injections in favour of

traditional interventions with diatonics. Therefore,

a protocol for extensive investigations, such as

passive thermograms, sonic and ultrasonic tests,

was prepared. A general and detailed thermogra‐

phic analysis (Figure 3) was performed only on two

accessible sides of the building and did not show

any specific thermal anomalies. In fact, it was

detected no particular material decay of stones,

bricks or mortars, but a significant presence of

rising damp (within 1 m in the lower part), capil‐

lary (in walls in contact with the ground) and water

infiltration (at the top).

After the first investigations, a simple restoration

treatment had already been justified. Remaking

Figure 1. General view of Calanna.

ALESSIA BIANCO

76 e‐conservation

the mortar from the masonry joints, which was

friable as a result of high humidity, creating an

air space and insulation of walls at the ground

level, re‐roofing and rainwater regimentation

system were the final proposed interventions.

The sonic and ultrasonic tests, located in different

and representative points of the building (angled

wall tracks near the openings), showed no signi‐

ficant anormalities or the presence of inconsisten‐

cies between the paramental walls and the inner

organization; moreover the endoscopic investiga‐

tion did not show cavity and inner cores. In this

way we concluded that the masonry have not spe‐

cific and relevant problems, in terms of techno‐

logical characteristic and of conservative condi‐

tions; so it was possible to exclude the hypothesis

to have to realization of expensive interventions

as concrete injections and reinforced plasters.

Furthermore, sonic and ultrasonic analysis carried

out on the wall corners confirmed the existence

of cracks, highlighting the lack of angle connec‐

tions. For further confirmation of the non‐invasive

analysis results, some few specific endoscopies

(Figure 4) were performed, which confirmed the

corners structural problems. So, to solve this weak‐

ness, it was suggested the creation of a brick diato‐

nic in breach, affixing a system of chaining and

disassembly and reassembly of two corners of walls.

Finally, SONREB tests performed on concrete ele‐

ments made after the 1908 earthquake (Figure 5)

[6] highlighted for windows a particular technolo‐

gical constructive problem of reinforced concrete

lintels and balconies (consisting in a not adequate

disposition of principal iron bars) and a serious

deterioration by oxidation. The complete replace‐

ment of these concrete elements (lintels, balco‐

nies, etc.) was recommended.

77e‐conservation

VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURES IN CALABRIA

Figure 2. Barillà‐Provenzano house, Calanna.

In conclusion, the analysis of the structural beha‐

vioural of the Barillà‐Provenzano house, which

resulted in a series of qualitative and quantitative

data, allowed the choice of the most appropriate

conservative measures instead of other more

innovative or abusive ones, with a clear advantage

in terms of conservation and in reducing time,

risks and costs of intervention.

In this regard, it is interesting to note that making

that simple diagnostic investigation (thermogra‐

phy‐SONREB‐endoscopy), with an investment of

only €1.000, allowed a deduction of €20.000,

which is about 40% of the intervention total cost

and in a first phase assigned to realize interven‐

tions as cement injections and reinforced plasters,

but after avoided thank the good results of diag‐

nostic investigation about the material and

technological characteristics of masonry. So it

was possible also to assign this saving for reuse

activities, as furniture, equipment and so on.

The Barillà house (Figure 2) presents a certain

importance in terms of construction technologies

and typology, namely an arcade built with bricks

and limestone, a wooden roof realized with two

crossed layers, peculiar for this area. The house

was in a poor conservation state induced by exten‐

sive demolition after the 1908 earthquake, followed

by an incapable intervention and ultimately by a

long abandonment. For these reasons, the material

point of the Barillà house is so compromised that

a project aimed to propose its reconfiguration

risks to produce an alteration of its identity and

to realize a false. So, after a long consideration

of different design options the planning group

decided to proceed with the demolition and

reconstruction with the suggestion to use new

building elements largely inspired by the Barilla

house, in terms of functional design, formal

distribution, and volumetric proportion, and to

ensure good compatibility with the traditional

architectures from its surroundings.

78 e‐conservation

Figure 3. Instrumental diagnostic investigation, thermography.

ALESSIA BIANCO

This choice produced an advantage in terms of

costs, with 15% savings. However, it must be said

that this case is rather unusual and attributable to

the very bad conservation and structural condition

of the building. In fact, from the economic point

of view the conservation is usually presents more

advantages than the demolition‐reconstruction [7].

Case II: The Wooden Church of St. John theBaptist in Scilla

The restoration project of the Church of St. John

the Baptist in the district of San Giorgio in Scilla is

part of a wider research and scientific consulting

project that the PAU (Patrimonio Architettonico

ed Urbanistico) Department of the Mediterranea

University of Reggio Calabria is making for the

Mary Immaculate’s Parish of Scilla, for the conser‐

vation, protection and enhancement of the cultural

and historical heritage of Scilla.

The wooden Church of St. John the Baptist belongs

to a set of British prefabricated wooden churches,

donated in occasion of the 1908 earthquake by

Pope Pius X in July 1909 and assembled in site by

local workers [8]. The Church, however, has some

distinctive features from the others: first, because

assuming a planimetric shape, both the body and

Latin cross are characterized by a significant size

and form, and second because having been made

to replace the baroque Church of St. John, which

was severely damaged by the earthquake, has

inherited a part of its artistic heritage, such as

a wooden statue and a painting of St. John, an

altarpiece, and a wooden statue of St. Anthony

of Padua (Figures 6‐8).

The church did not suffer significant functional

changes and represents an interesting testimony

of the post‐1908 wooden church typology. How‐

ever, the Church was built according to a braced

wooden framed, internally coated with wood and

externally with British sheet (manufactured by

Ewart & Son , London 1834), as proved by the

stamps still existing in the metal sheet covers

and labelled rivets from a metal chimney roof

ventilation. Nevertheless, the building suffered

some interventions in the early 70s, such as the

renovation of the facade, demolition of the wooden

coat, reconstruction of a side access, and some

internal changes following the requirements of

Vatican II to move the altar piece from its existing

position at the left wall to the centre of the apse.

The conservation state of the Church was good

enough to be still functional. The building presented

material decay due to the rotting of the wooden

frame elements, particularly in the more exposed

portions, such as the feet, which being in contact

with the foundation presented a high percentage

79e‐conservation

Figure 4. Instrumental diagnostic investigation, endoscopy.

VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURES IN CALABRIA

of rising damp. At the upper level, improper regi‐

mentation of rainwater led to a spread deterio‐

ration of the roof and cornices. These moisture

conditions together with the poor maintenance

of the Church favoured xylophagous attack making

necessary the conservation interventions for re‐

establishing the building structural security.

The preliminary project draft suggested the re‐

building of the whole wooden frame structure

with a laminated timber frame, consolidation of

the foundation with reinforced concrete, overlap‐

ping the original masonry foundation and roofing

with laminated wooden trusses, preserving the

wooden flooring planks, wooden lining and exte‐

rior metal sheet (Figure 7). The estimated cost,

including the works, inspections and investiga‐

tions, technical and administrative costs, and VAT

led to a quantification of just under €113.000.

The involvement of the PAU (Patrimonio Architet‐

tonico ed Urbanistico) Department offered the

consultancy to prepare a project not to replace the

planners but to help finding the best solutions.

This approach has two goals: diffusing in profes‐

sionals and technicians the culture of “conser‐

vative preservation” against an aprioristic “inno‐

vative restoration”; improving capability of

80 e‐conservation

Figure 5. Instrumental diagnostic investigation, Schmidthammer.

scientific and academic world to dialogue with

professional one.

The final project presented a possibility of explo‐

ring a different option aimed to the conservation

of the technical construction and preservation of

the building’s original materials, recognizing the

value of the original wooden framed system con‐

struction. The project planned the replacement of

significantly deteriorated that affected the struc‐

tural and functional performance of the structure, as

well as proposed small local improvements (Fig. 9).

The calculation of the project budget involved

some effort considering the fact that given the

specific technology of this Church, many of the

processes envisaged do not include restoration

works, and thus the need for new opinions to

articulate and define the associated costs [9]. The

budget calculation forecast that followed, even

including works, inspections and investigations,

technical and administrative costs, and VAT, lead

to a quantification of just under €90.000, with a

cost deduction of approximately more than 20%

when compared to the preliminary design solution.

In this specific case, it also was realized a para‐

metric cost analysis, concerning only a selection

Figure 6. Outside view of the Church of St. John the Baptist.

ALESSIA BIANCO

81e‐conservation

of structural interventions (masonry consolida‐

tions, new roof and repairs of cracks), comparing

the traditional solutions with the innovative

solutions. We obtained the determination of the

economic convenience of the first kind of inter‐

ventions, in accordance with a perception already

gained in field of scientific research, but most

common in the professional field, where it is

still unjustifiably widespread the notion that

restoration is more expensive in terms of costs,

but also risks, execution time, etc., than conserva‐

tion [10]. Furthermore, a possibility of providing

a debate between “conservative preservation”

and “innovative restoration”, as well as qualitative

aspects such as security and storage, compatibility

and reversibility, which calculation of budget of a

purely quantity is an element of great interest, as

well as a decisive contribution in decision making.

For this reason, it is determined to implement a

participatory planning process for the conserva‐

tion of St. John the Baptist’s Church in Scilla,

which involves a commission and the local com‐

munity that had already considered and accepted

the first proposal project. However, the proposal

for a conservative intervention has found an

unexpected agreement among parties, a sign of

consolidation of sensitivity to conservation, which

finally seems to start coming in usual sense of

community, perhaps more that in planners.

Conclusions

The case study of Calanna presented the connection

between the diversity of the buildings undergoing

conservation, and the decision making related to

each technical choice. It has been highlighted

how often a pragmatic approach to problems may

reduce the risk of a poor approach to value the

method, and can help in finding flexible solutions

to overcame aprioristic ideological positions. In

fact, although planning choice for the Barillà

house may seem at odds, even jarring, with field

Figure 7. First restoration project of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Scilla by arch. Domenica Currò, September 2010.

VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURES IN CALABRIA

82 e‐conservation

ALESSIA BIANCO

efforts for other three buildings, a pragmatic and

no ideological approach has led to opt for a solu‐

tion of demolition‐reconstruction, based on the

“case–by‐case” principle. In this, decision‐making

has played a key role for careful analysis of costs,

associated with different intervention scenarios.

This, even if it may not appear in first instance in

accordance with orientation that preservation has

primarily a cultural value, shows, that a theoretical

approach may involve risk to disconnect with the

world of planners, clients and administrative and

technical institutions interested to value interven‐

tions on classified buildings, as in these cases,

national heritage.

In conclusion, both cases of Scilla and Calanna

show how it is possible to pursue an ambition of

collimation between conservative instances and

professional ones, through an integrative approach

of two aspects: critical analysis of real technolo‐

gical and conservative conditions of buildings;

introduction of estimative economic evaluation

as preliminary factor of choice.

Acknowledgments

LaborEst, the Laboratorio di Estimo e valutazione

dei piani e dei progetti of PAU (Patrimonio Architet‐

tonico ed Urbanistico) Department from Mediter‐

ranea University of Reggio Calabria, is conducting

the consultancy projects of ‘Calanna’ case for the

Municipality of Calanna and ‘Scilla’ for the Saint

Mary Immaculate’s Parish of Scilla. The author

thanks the Municipality of Calanna for its authori‐

zation to publish the image from figure 1. Figures

3 to 5 belong to the diagnostic research planned,

conducted and validated by the SIS Section (Sezione

Indagini in Situ) of MARe (Materiali ed Analisi per

il Restauro) Laboratory of PAU Department from

Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria. Finally,

the author acknowledges arch. Domenica Currò for

her authorization to publish figure 7.

References

[1] M. Andaloro, La teoria del restauro nel Novecento

da Riegl a Brandi, International Conference, Viterbo,

12‐15 November 2003, Nardini, Firenze, 2006

[2] C. Brandi, Il restauro: teoria e pratica 1939‐1986,

Editori Riuniti, Roma,2005

[3] A. M. Racheli, Restauro e architettura : teoria e

critica del restauro architettonico e urbano dal XVIII

al XXI secolo, Gangemi, Roma, 2007

[4] C. F. Carocci, C. Tocci, Leggendo il libro delle

antiche architetture: aspetti statici del restauro.

Saggi 1985‐1997 / Antonino Giuffre, Gangemi,

Roma, 2010

[5] P. Cimino Ranieri, Calanna e la sua pretura,

Ceruso, Reggio Calabria, 1891

Figure 8. Inside view of the Church of St. John the Baptist.

83e‐conservation

[6] S. Valtieri (ed.), 28 dicembre 1908. La

Grande Ricostruzione dopo il terremoto del

1908 nell'area dello Stretto, CLEAR, Roma,

2008

[7] L'innovazione per il restauro sostenibile [Mi‐

nistero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Direzione

Generale per il bilancio e la programmazione

economica, la promozione, la qualità e la stan‐

dardizzazione delle procedure], Edizioni MP

Mirabilia, Roma, 2009

[8] A. Bianco, La casa baraccata: guida al pro‐

getto e al cantiere di restauro, Ginevra Bentivo‐

glio EditoriA, Roma, 2010

[9] La conservazione del patrimonio storico ed

architettonico, metodi e strumenti: strategie

di raccordo tra innovazione e tradizione delle

tecniche sostenibili per il restauro ed il recupero

degli edifici e della citta storica, Adda, Bari,

2007

[10] V. Ceradini, "Dalla ricostruzione breve di

Reggio Calabria alla lunga distruzione della

Reggio ricostruita", in VARIA, Il Secolo Breve

Rovine e Ricostruzione, CsA, Reggio Calabria,

2009, pp. 30‐31

ALESSIA BIANCOArchitect

Contact: alessia.bianco@unric.it

Alessia Bianco holds a degree in Conservation

of Architecture and a PhD in Architectural

Conservation. She is a research fellow at the

Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria,

Italy.Figure 9. Some drawings of the final project.

VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURES IN CALABRIA

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No. 22, November 2011

ISSN: 1646‐9283

Registration Number125248

Entidade Reguladorapara a Comunicação Social

Propertye‐conservationline, Teodora Poiata

PeriodicityBimonthly

CoverChinese Islamic Scroll

Islamic Arts Museum of Malaysia

Executive EditorRui Bordalo

EditorsTeodora Poiata, Anca Nicolaescu

CollaboratorsAna Bidarra

Daniel Cull

Graphic Design and PhotographyAnca Poiata, Radu Matase

ExecutionTeodora Poiata

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