Preface

Richard, Mervin

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Preface

Mervin Richard

Facture: Conservation Science Art History Volume 1: Renaissance Masterworks

The National Gallery of Art celebrates its permanent collection in the new conservation division journal, Facture. This publication will present essays that focus on conservation treatment, scientific research, and technical art history ...

Author

Mervin Richard

PublisherNational Gallery of Art

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19972

Preface

The National Gallery of Art celebrates its permanent collection in the new conservation division journal, Facture. This publication will present essays that focus on conservation treatment, scientific research, and technical art history, written for an audience of conservators, scientists, and art historians. The inaugural volume, which centers on great works of the Renaissance in the Gallery’s collection, is dedicated to Ross Merrill, chief of conservation from 1983 to 2008. Ross championed Facture’s predecessor, Conservation Research, and this new endeavor builds on his legacy of technical study of works in the collection and scientific research in support of their care.

The first essay highlights Giorgio Vasari as a collector and connoisseur by considering a rare page from his Libro de’ Disegni. The essay explores, for the first time, how Vasari developed a method for placing the drawings within a decorative framework to reflect his appreciation for the artists whose works he collected. Another paper presents a comprehensive technical study of Jan van Eyck’s Annunciation, illuminating the materials and processes that this artist used to create the remarkable visual qualities for which he is known. The complex interaction between artist and patron reveals much about how Van Eyck exploited those qualities to create rich symbolic imagery. A complementary contribution on The Annunciation, which includes its restoration history, addresses the evolution of the field of art conservation. Knowledge of Van Eyck’s working methods and an understanding of previous restorers’ decisions were vital to carrying out the sensitive conservation treatment that has recently reclaimed a masterwork. Attitudes of early twentieth-century art dealers toward Italian Renaissance paintings are considered in an essay about Duveen Brothers, Inc. Lively correspondence and ledger documents offer a glimpse of the firm’s practices — repeated restorations, transfers of paintings from panel to canvas, and transatlantic voyages — emphasizing the importance of conservation history to the understanding of works of art.

In addition to contributions on paintings and works of art on paper, four detailed technical studies, three on Italian sculptures and one on a Netherlandish tapestry, provide new insight as to how such works were made and used. An essay focusing on Neptune, by Severo da Ravenna, Renaissance Italy’s most prolific bronze sculptor, presents the first scholarly consideration of Severo’s innovations in indirect, lost-wax casting. Another important essay presents technical research and treatment on the iconic polychrome terracotta bust of Lorenzo de’ Medici, the private citizen who ruled Florence in the late fifteenth century. Results that distinguish between the artist’s original work and alterations later introduced by restorers help identify the bust as the model for Agnolo Bronzino’s portrait of Lorenzo. A less well-known Renaissance art form, cartapesta (papier-mâché) was painted to resemble polychrome sculpture and create affordable works for private devotion. A study of Jacopo Sansovino’s Madonna and Child describes the specialized fabrication methods and compares this work to twelve variants in American and European collections. Finally, an essay on a lavish, courtly tapestry, whose fabrication costs rivaled those of building a large galleon, describes an elaborate weaving process using fine silk and gilt-wrapped yarns. This novel study of The Triumph of Christ (also known as the Mazarin Tapestry) combined non-invasive imaging techniques with long-established analytical methods to identify the materials of fabrication.

With the publication of this biennial journal, the National Gallery maintains a tradition of fostering dialogue among art historians, scientists, and conservators working in the international museum community. We look forward to continuing the conversation.

Mervin Richard

Chief of Conservation

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