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This paper shows methods and results of conservation-restoration treatments on the 18th century commode. The process at its very beginning brought out to light numerous questions and dilemmas. One of the most important issues was whether to conserve the existing condition or to try to find out what the commode looked like when it was built. The chronology of investigation, scientific and practical activities presented in this paper are the result of a ten-month effort; from the preliminary tests and preventive conservation actions, including material identification, disinfestation, structure stabilization, consolidation, cleaning protocols for removing accumulated dirt and removal of overpainting, continuing with reconstruction of missing carved, profiled and woodturned elements, retouching, varnishing, and ending with the final presentation of results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Filanthropinon monastery church is regarded the birthplace of the "Epirus/NW Greece School" of painting as it bears the oldest wall paintings of this very school. Surviving inscriptions bear no painter name(s), yet they testify that the murals were executed in three phases between 1531/2 and 1560. The bulk of the technical and typological characteristics of the latter paintings are typical of post-Byzantine religious art, while OM, SEM-EDX, and micro-Raman probing reveals the existence of a number of idiomorphic characteristics that might be viewed as part of the microscopic fingerprint of the "Epirus school." A microscopic fingerprint of the school is important because current attributions of relevant works to specific painters are mostly stylistic ones, as pertinent signatures are rare. The latter characteristics include the application of a "charcoal plus blue smalt" substrate in the paintings' background and the employment of a possibly local (: Epirus), unusual ochre pigment. Sophisticated segregation of pigment grains, employment of glauconite, and the extensive use of San Giovanni white were also documented. Analytical data support the following scheme as regards artistic identities: the 1531/2 nave paintings were executed by a single painter, possibly assisted by a pupil who also contributed to the 1542 paintings. The paintings of the 1542 and 1560 phases are apparently the outcome of another—yet related to the nave painter—workshop; there are clues which indicate employment of Georgios and Frangos Kontaris in both of these commissions. Finally, remnants of four different overpaintings were also revealed: pertinent pigments indicate successive interventions during an extended period of time, which reflect the will of Filanthropinon votaries to retain the murals vivid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Saint Demetrius of Stomion is a historical monastery placed in the geographical area of Larissa town, Greece, with a remarkable presence from its founding until nowadays. The monastery's present catholicon (main church) has been dated in the 16th century and its surviving wall paintings were constructed in 1758. In addition to the characterization of the materials applied, the purpose of this study is to determine the existence of a sole pictorial phase, that of the mid-18th century, or the occurrence of overpaintings. Additionally, the present study aims to begin the establishment of the documentation of materials and techniques of the late post-Byzantine iconographic guilds, which acted in Central and Northern Greece. The collected samples were analyzed by means of microscopic, spectroscopic and thermogravimetric methods. The use of fresco technique is implied by the major participation of calcium carbonate in all of the painting layers, its main contribution in the plaster layers and the microstratigraphic analysis of the samples' cross-sections, while the scarce and local presence of a proteinaceous material implies the limited use of egg-tempera technique for the highlights. The pigment analysis shows that mostly traditional pigments were used, including cinnabar, ferrous pigments (ochre, sienna, umber), minium, Naples yellow, massicot/litharge, green earth (celadonite), malachite, carbon and bone black, calcite, kaolinite and lead white. The absence of modern pigments, the consistency of all samples regarding microstratigraphy and applied materials, and the lack of the extensive use of an organic medium, strongly suggest the lack of overpaintings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the results of a multi-analytical research carried out on the mural paintings from Évora Cathedral, one of the oldest and most prominent monuments of Évora city. The paintings were a late 16th Century addition to the cathedral's northern transept chapel and are attributed to the painter José de Escovar, whose painting workshop was remarkably active in the so-called golden age of mural paintings in southern Portugal. The aim of the study was to reconstruct the paintings' life story through a materials science perspective by discerning the material characteristics of the original and overpaint campaigns. The analytical setup comprised technical photography (TP) in the visible and UV light, Vis-Spectrophotometry, optical microscopy (OM) complemented with scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS), micro Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (µFT-IR) and pyrolysis-gas chromatography (Py-GC/MS) analyses of the collected samples. Results show that the original paint layers were executed with a combination of fresco and secco techniques, using a very simple chromatic palette composed of earth pigments, mercury sulphide, calcium carbonate and green copper based pigments. The paintings were heavily retouched and overpainted using earth pigments, smalt, Prussian blue, zinc white and lead white. Furthermore, the analyses of the cross-sections taken from the stuccoed frames revealed a first decorative campaign made with gold and silver alloy. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 41, 276-282, 2016 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, laser ablation has been applied for removing overpaint found on the reverse of a signed easel painting by Giacomo Balla, one of the founding members of the Futurist movement. After unsuccessful attempts to remove the overpaint layers selectively using organic solvents, a long Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm, 120 ns) ablation was successfully trialled, enabling the planning of complete uncovering of a hidden artwork by laser treatment. Laser cleaning was accompanied with a thorough characterisation of the original pigments, binders, and overpaint using Raman and FTIR spectroscopy, along with stratigraphic examination combined with optical and ESEM-EDX analysis. In parallel systematic experimentation on samples simulating the layers to be removed was carried out to interpret the laser removal processes being exploited and fine-tune the treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The methods that Iranian experts used to restore murals before the 60s were not based on the methods introduced by Italy's Council of Experts (IsMEO). Examples of such methods included removing the overpaint as well as putting plaster on the murals. Hossein Aqajani-Esfahani, an Iranian expert who worked with IsMEO over the restoration of historical sites in Isfahan, says using plaster and removing the overpaint were common methods to restore murals in Iran in the early years that experts started to restore the murals in the country. However, he says, such methods ignore the value of the originality of murals as well as their intended functions. Aqajani-Esfahani has emphasized that the murals could have been better restored because they needed a special treatment specifically considering that many of them like the ones by masters such as Mosavvar-ol-Maleki, Javad Rostam Shirazi and others which were used in historical sites in Isfahan and Shiraz contained several layers of paint. The present research is meant to shed light on the researches that have been carried out into the restoration of murals in Iran. A main target has also been to find out whether there were any researchers over this subject before the 60s. The ultimate objective is to emphasize the need for such researches in order to promote the expertise of restoration of murals in Iran. All these made the researchers of the present article to have a close look at the traditional methods of restoration of murals in Iran before the 60s. By considering the above, the most important question now is whether the methods used for restoration of murals very really effective or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiography in transmission mode is a well-established technique to visualize the internal structure of paintings. However, for many paintings the pictorial layer cannot be clearly visualized with conventional radiography because of interference from paint on the reverse, the material composition or the regular structure of supports or subsurface layers. Traditional lead white grounds in particular cause specific imaging problems not encountered with more modern white pigments such as zinc and titanium whites. A solution to this problem is radiography in emission mode. This study demonstrates and articulates those factors that can interfere with visualization of a painting's pictorial layer using transmission radiography as well as those that contribute to the effectiveness of emission radiography in visualizing such information. While emission radiography has been applied to the examination of paintings for over half a century, it is a cumbersome technique that is further complicated by the need to work under dim safelight illumination when X-radiographic film is used. Therefore, the use of computed radiography using storage phosphor imaging plates for emission radiography was also investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article reviews the studies of Mai Lumiste of the Netherlandish Passion Altarpiece in Tallinn. Then the social and liturgical context of the altarpiece is discussed, with a special focus on the commissioners of later overpaintings. The questions to be addressed are: Would the original iconographic programme with four Franciscan saints have suited the context of late medieval Tallinn? Which altar in Tallinn was the overpainted altarpiece meant for? Who were Lippe and Grest, and what was the connection between them? How did the altarpiece become a possession of Urban Dene? What was the connection between Dene and Bock? When and why were their figures overpainted? What can recent technical studies reveal about the coats of arms and donors found beneath the visible ones? All this is relevant for an understanding of the role of family ties and personal networks in the commissioning of art in the late medieval and the early modern eras, as well as for a better understanding of the nature of changes made to this altarpiece over the centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores an unusual case of overpainting in a rock art site in South Africa. Archaeologists conducted superpositioning of an image of overpainting. They examined the relationship between the overpainted images and other paintings in a panel. They also analyzed the specifics of the relationships between the paintings and the painters.

The reasons for the often poor condition of Viceregal paintings and sculptures are examined. The conservation of four works is described, chosen largely because they had typical problems and would benefit from recently developed techniques. The treatments were: the preliminary lining of very cupped paintings, before using moisture to stretch the original canvas and allow the paint layer to lie flat again; lining badly torn paintings on a thin, semi-rigid, transparent support and using the old stretcher, in order to preserve the structure and aesthetic impression of the painting as much as possible; masking to protect susceptible fine lines against solvent action during cleaning; blending disturbing passages of the paint layer like blanching, irreducible stains, singeing and pentimenti into the colour scheme without overpainting; repairing broken pieces of sculpture with bamboo dowels. The study is accompanied by an iconographical discussion of colonial works of art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay demonstrates that Gerhard Richter’s overpainted photographs make a critical intervention within the context of a return to figuration and the landscape genre in West German painting of the 1980s. It situates the overpainted photographs within an alternative understanding of chance as natural process, and argues that, by reappropriating a former tradition of randomness at a time when Germany’s past was resurfacing in political and cultural discourses, Richter redefines the landscape against various ideological recuperations of the genre, from the Third Reich to neo-expressionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the work of artist Jean-François Millet, focusing on analysis of his painting over the 1848 work "Captivity of the Jews in Babylon" with the work "Young Shepherdess" in 1870-73. Topics include an overview of Millet's career, the x-ray analysis of "Young Shepherdess" that revealed the previous work and description of its layout, and criticism of the 1848 painting during its' display at the Paris Salon art show and by the author.