The great variety of painting techniques reflects the range of surfaces that are painted on: for instance, tempera technique is used for painting on wood panels and fresco technique for painting on walls. Oil painting is done mainly on canvas, while acrylic, watercolor, gouache and pastels can all be used to paint on paper.
As early as 15000 B.C. drawings were found in the caves of Altamira I Spain and Lascaux in France. The pigments used in these prehistoric sites include burnt wood, bone, chalk and earth colours.
The first cave painters mixed pigments with animal fat to make them stick to surface. Pigments or colours can be derived from earths, natural dyes and minerals or chemically synthesized. In addition to the pigments used for the prehistoric man, verdigris or copper resinate; green, ultramarine or lapis lazuli; blue, white lead, azurite or copper carbonate; blue and many other pigments were use in the 14th century and form the basis of the painter’s palette even today.
Today in our modern technology, different tools are available to examine and care for paintings of the past. The Straus Center for Conservation at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts uses a boom stand microscope and imaging technology to care and restore paintings by easels, paints, varnishes and resin. By this mean, art and science unite in the ability that transverse between an art studio and a forensics laboratory which discover the unknown secret in the layers of paint. A boom stand microscope gives the ability to analyze paint material and painting status.
Tools like X-ray machine which can scan cracks in large art work, or a needle used in biopsy to pull tiny chips from painting to examine under a boom stand microscope and an infrared cameras which enhance night vision, help the conservators examine, understand and care for important works of art. Infrared along with boom stand microscope are also used to help detect forgeries and copies.
A boom stand microscope is mainly used to view detailed structure on a painting not only in the surface but in cross section as well. If we just look at the painting with our naked eye we can say that it’s just an old painting from the past but if we view the painting using a boom stand microscope even the smallest of details gets discovered.
Conservation and restoration of a painting takes time. To scrutinize every detail of the painting which area is really damage and need to be restored without altering its original structure or appearance.
Before using any materials to restore a painting, the original materials is first examined using technology from x-ray to a boom stand microscope to determine materials used and as much as possible exact or closest to the original materials that should be used to avoid obvious changes of the appearance. Although there are situation that can’t be avoided where there are some materials that cannot be matched to its exact appearance or structure of the painting technique are used to have a close resemblance as possible.
Although not all paintings are valuable or of interest, all paintings require the same careful approach in their conservation. Art conservation and restoration is simply a labor of love. Continue reserch on this page