Testing the cleaning effectiveness of new ecological aqueousdispersions applied on old icons

Adherent deposits are very aggressive towards ancient heritage paintings since they affect the varnish and the painting’s layers, sometimes reaching the preparative layers. The biggest problem to the restorer is their removal without affecting the patina, the transparent varnish (well preserved) and fine colour glazes made during painting. Therefore, their removal requires preliminary cleaning tests that allow the optimization of the cleaning system composition that is going to be used. The study was focused on organic natural systems, as colourless supernatants, some of them used during ages, but insufficiently studied. The paper presents an evaluation of the effectiveness of cleaning varnished icons of the nineteenth century, with complex conservation cases using supernatants derived from aqueous dispersions extracted from vegetables and dry indigenous herbal infusions. Best results, after six consecutive cleaning steps, on tempera old icon was obtained for a mixture made of mature white onion juice + extract of Soapwort flowers + corn silk tea + acacia tea. As a best result after just one cleaning step was obtained for a quaternary mixture composed from mature white onion juice + mature carrot juice + corn silk tea + aqueous extract of Soapwort flowers.

MATERIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF GILDING AND PAINTING TECHNIQUES OF A POST-BYZANTINE ICON

This study aims to identify the materials used in the production of a post-byzantine icon from the Museum of Évora’s collection. The icon, representing the “Emperor Constantine and his mother Helen holding the Holy Cross” was once dated as being from the 10th century. Throughout a multi-analytical approach, combining area exams with spectroscopic techniques, this study tried to confirm its actual chronology. The results obtained revealed that it is most likely an icon from the late 17th or 18th century.

Le Corbusier (1887–1965)

Le Corbusier was a Swiss architect and urbanist who acquired French nationality in 1930, having set up his studio (“the atelier of patient research”) in that country. Just as he assumed an unconditional continuity in relation to the past, he also clearly confronted the circumstances of his time. Many of his works became icons of Modernism, like the Villa Savoye (1928), the Marseilles Housing Unit (1945), the Ronchamp Chapel (1950), the Convent of Sainte-Marie de la Tourette (1953) and the Chandigarh Capitol Complex (1950-55), to mention just a few examples. His architecture reflected the development of a modern industrialized economy, a western avant-garde society and a vibrant political and social context. He made a mark not only with his constructed work, but also with designs that were never built (and which were progressive in character), his painting (which reflected his experimentalist nature) and with his theoretical texts, which today bear witness to his modernist doctrine. Le Corbusier was above all one of the most prolific thinkers of Modernism, and one of the greatest figures of the 20th century.