A New Dawn: The Restoration of L'Aurora Part 1

Support for this video comes from Skillshare, which offers thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people on topics including illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing, and more. Every once in a while, a piece arrives at the studio that's in such a sad state, so damaged, and so desperately in need of conservation that I can't help but smile. And it's not because I take enjoyment in seeing these pieces damaged, but it's because I'm honored and humbled and really excited to be afforded the opportunity to conserve and restore these pieces and return them to their former glory. And that's exactly the case with this copy of Guido Reni's masterpiece, Aurora. Now the original is a fresco painted in the garden house next to the Palazzo Palavincini Rospigliosi in Italy. And the original is gigantic. And this painting isn't exactly small. Now unfortunately, we don't know who the artist is. The signature, if ever there was one, is gone. The lower several inches of the painting had been exposed to some serious water damage, and much of the paint layer has flaked off. You can see there are massive holes and tears and punctures and creases and, well, just about every type of damage you can see on a piece of painting. There's even some old conservation work that needs to come off. And on top of that, the painting is filthy and covered with house paint that's splattered on it from somebody's ill-fated attempt to paint their own house. Now it goes without saying that this painting is going to be a magnum opus of conservation work. There is so much that needs to be done. And I've had this in my studio for a long time. Over a year, in fact, while the client decided what to do with it. But now they've given the go-ahead, and so I am ready to get started. Now when dealing with a conservation of this scope and scale, it's important to spend some time with the piece and understand what needs to be done before any of the real work can begin. And one thing that I'm doing right now is dampening some absorbent cotton blotter papers with water. And I'm going to press some of the areas of the canvas where the canvas is really distorted. There are some areas where this canvas has rolled and folded underneath itself, and I need to address those locally right now because they're going to present problems later on if I don't do that. And so by sandwiching these areas with the blotter paper and putting a weight on them and leaving them for a day or so, I can soften the canvas and return it to a little bit more of a flat state than it is currently. Now this isn't the only treatment I'm going to be doing to flatten the canvas, but this is kind of a pre-treatment. And so I'm going to isolate all of these areas that need it, and then I can move on to the next step in the pre-treatment treatment. And that's going to be removing some of the built-up grime from behind the canvas where the stretcher bar was. Now normally I just flip the painting over and use a brush or a vacuum to do this, but this painting is so delicate and so vulnerable that I can't do that. If I were to flip this painting over when I returned it and flipped it back over, there would be a lot less paint left on the surface. Now the way that I'm going to address the planar distortions or the waves and the ripples and the creases in the canvas is on my hot table, and I'm going to be doing what's called a vapor treatment. So I'm dampening a couple of absorbent cotton blotter papers, the same ones I used to press out the tears and the deviations in the canvas earlier, and I'm going to transfer this painting over and place it on those blotter papers. I have to be really careful, again, because if I sneeze while handling this painting, half the paint could pop right off. Now this is going to do a couple of things. Aside from just relaxing the painting and getting all of these waves and ripples down, much like you would iron a shirt, it's also going to reactivate the size. And the size is something that the artist puts on the canvas before putting the ground layer on and then the paint. And in this case, the size is a rabbit skin glue. And rabbit skin glue is hygroscopic, and that means that it will absorb ambient water. And so this rabbit skin glue size is going to absorb some of that water, and it's going to become soft, and the heat and the moisture is going to make it tacky again. And the pressure that's going to be applied by the vacuum pump is going to force some of these areas of lifting paint back down into this soft size. And when it cools, we're hoping that it's going to dry and that those areas of paint will be rebonded to the canvas. Now I've put the mylar film over the painting, and I have installed the through-port vacuum extraction hoses. I've hooked them up to the vacuum pump, and I'm turning on the heat. Now I don't need a ton of heat for this. I'm not looking to melt anything. I just want to warm up the painting. In addition, I don't need a ton of vacuum pressure because I'm not looking to mount anything or crush anything. I just want to make sure that there's even consistent pressure downward on those areas of lifting paint. And so this vacuum pump is going to go up to about 30 mercury inches, and then I'm going to start to turn it down because that's just way too much pressure. So I'll twist the little knob, and I will close the vacuum port until I reach, oh, I think probably about five mercury inches because, again, I just need a little bit of pressure. Now there's no rule book for this. This is not something that you can look up in a textbook. There's no guide. You just kind of have to learn this through doing, and I found that five mercury inches is a really great point. Now I'm going to go over the painting with a little brayer and roll out some of those areas. I'm not using a lot of pressure here. I'm just looking to add a little bit of downward force because this is a large painting. I want to make sure that the vacuum pump is able to extract all of the air, and going over it manually helps me ensure that that's the case. So once the painting has reached temperature, I'll turn off the heat, and I'll allow it to cool for about an hour or so, and when the temperature comes down to ambient room temperature, which is about 72 degrees in my studio, I'll remove it from the mylar film and the hot table, and I'll transfer the painting over to another table because at this point the canvas has still got a little residual moisture in it from the treatment, and if I don't take corrective action now, as that moisture evaporates and the canvas shrinks, well, this painting is going to distort all over again, and that would be frankly pretty terrible. So I'm taking care to remove it from the blotter paper because sometimes the sizing sticks a little bit, and once I've got it completely detached, I'll pull out that blotter paper. It's my best magician's trick. And I will cover the painting with some mylar and a piece of felt, and then I'll sandwich it in between another sheet of drywall or gypsum board, and I'll add some weight to it. And this technique that I'm employing here wasn't anything that I learned from any other conservator or from any conservation journals or white papers or anything in school. This I learned from an artist with whom I interned, and he was a printmaker, and this was his technique of keeping damp papers flat so that they didn't distort and become unusable for his printmaking. And as a conservator, I am always on the lookout for new tips, tricks, materials, and techniques to keep me on top of my game. I mean, it's really important that I am always in a state of constant learning. And frankly, I kind of think it's important for everybody to always be learning. And really, there's no better place to continue learning than with Skillshare and their online community with thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people. Explore new skills, deepen existing passions, and get lost in creativity. Skillshare offers creative classes designed for real life and all the chaos and circumstances that come with it. These lessons can help you stay inspired, express yourself, and introduce you to a community of millions of like-minded people. And since you clearly like art, I'd love to suggest How to Talk About Art, a beginner's guide from Artsy and Jordana Zeldin. I mean, frankly, I'd like it if some of my clients would watch that. The first 1,000 of my subscribers to click the link in the description will get a two-month free trial of Premium Membership so you can explore your creativity. Alright, you guys and gals are smarter and more empowered now, so we can get back to the conservation. So it's been a couple of days, and I can remove all of those weights from this painting, and I can check to see how it looks. Now, I'm lucky in that it has performed exactly how I want it. Well, not lucky. I mean, I've done this plenty of times before, so I know what to expect. But it's always nice to see that your best intentions have come to fruition. Now again, I'm still being very, very careful with this painting, because even though I've reactivated that size and helped bond some of that precarious paint back down to the canvas, this painting is still really delicate, and so I just want to be careful here. Now at this stage, I can face the painting. And that's where I'm going to be using washi kozo, or Japanese mulberry paper. And in this case, I'm using a water-based fish glue. And the reason I'm using water-based fish glue is really twofold. One, any of that fish glue that gets onto the raw canvas will not disturb the original size. Because they're both water-based and both protein-based, they'll kind of mix nicely and play well with each other. But also, one of the next steps that I'm going to be doing is an adhesive impregnation to bond any existing paint film that's still loose back down to the canvas. And that adhesive is a petroleum solvent based adhesive. And so I want to make sure that whatever glue or adhesive I use to face the painting isn't going to be affected by solvent or heat. And that's why I'm using a water-based fish glue. So I'll lay these pieces of washi kozo down on the painting. And I will make sure that I've got good purchase. Now, again, the treatment that I did before to flatten the canvas has bonded a lot of this paint back down. So it's not as precarious as it was. And this may seem excessive or unnecessary, but precaution is the name of the game here. Because I don't want to lose any more paint film than has already been lost. So this is going to dry for a couple of hours. And then I can apply the adhesive to the back of the canvas. Now, this adhesive needs to be thinned out so that it has a good penetrating quality. And it needs to be heated up. Now, once it's heated up, I can apply it with a roller to the back of the canvas. And this adhesive can be applied with brush. It can even be sprayed on. But for this particular treatment, I have found that a roller works best to get a nice, even distribution of adhesive. Now, the canvas is going to absorb this adhesive. And it's going to penetrate down through all of the weave of the canvas, through all the nooks and crannies and voids where the paint film has detached. And I'm going to let this adhesive dry. And when it's dry, I will then take it over to the hot table and begin the impregnation process. And the impregnation process sounds complicated and kind of weird. But it's really a method whereby I can use heat to reactivate this adhesive and pressure to force it up and around and through any voids. And so back on the hot table, extract the air, turn the heat up, use a brayer, and make sure that all of that adhesive is getting into all of the gaps and the voids. So with the adhesive impregnation complete, I can now begin the process of removing the facing. And that's done by exposing both the washi kozo and the fish gelatin glue to a little bit of warm water and giving it time to swell and soften. Now, once it's had sufficient amount of time to soften and starts to release its bond, I can come back and using a palette knife or a scalpel or just about anything, begin to peel back this paper. Now, I always hope that it comes off in nice big clean sheets so I can save time. But more often than not, it doesn't. Particularly when I'm using a water-based adhesive and the paper has broken down a bit. So there's no easy way to do it. No fast way. It's just a lot of peeling. But this is one of those points where it is absolutely clear that using two different adhesives was essential and worked wonderfully. Because if the same adhesive was used for the facing as for the impregnation, then when I exposed the face of the painting to the solvent to soften that adhesive, it would also soften the adhesive used for the impregnation. And then that treatment would kind of fail. It would be all for naught. So by using two different adhesives, I can ensure that I can remove this facing without compromising the impregnation. And one of the ancillary benefits of using a water-based fish skeleton adhesive and this washi kozo is that some of the surface grime is going to be removed when I peel back this paper. Not all of it, but enough that it helps the next step of cleaning go a little bit faster. And if there was any question about the efficacy of the impregnation, you can see that I'm peeling back this facing paper and no paint is coming off. Not even in the areas where it was so damaged and so perilous that if I blew on it, it would blow right off the painting. So that was a really good impregnation and that is essential to making sure that this painting is stable and that I can continue to treat it going forward. And now on to the cleaning process. And without a doubt, this is one that I have been looking forward to for a very long time because I have a sneaking suspicion that underneath all of this old discolored varnish, there is a really beautiful painting. And so using a cotton swab with a little bit of solvents, I can start to break down that old natural resin varnish and reveal the true colors. And this is what the artist wanted us to see. These really glorious, bright, vibrant colors that are full of life. And they've been obscured by this old dirty surface grime and discolored varnish. But once we get them off, we can start to see just how beautiful of a painting this is. And so right now I'm going to go step away and get a glass of water. Don't worry, it's a long video and I will be back. But I thought you guys might like to just enjoy this process with a little bit more atmosphere. So I'm going to leave you here for a little bit and I'm going to leave you a little bit of Bach is going to look, huh? But of course, we are still a long ways off from getting this painting wall ready. And the next step is to start to address these voids where the canvas is just missing. Now, there are some spots where little pieces of canvas came in in a Ziploc baggie and I was able to salvage those. But in areas where they're completely gone, I will turn to my selection of canvas that I've collected over the years and I'll find one that has a similar weight and weave and color if possible. And I will cut out a little inlay and I'll place that into the gap and I'll secure it in place temporarily so that when I do the next steps, it stays where I need it to. Now, there are a lot of voids on this painting, so there is a lot of time spent with these scissors cutting out little patches. And this is one of those things where I wish there was an easier way to do it. But unfortunately, there really isn't. So it's nice to have these on a slow day. Now, I mentioned that they needed to be secured into place and I'm using a bookbinding tape. And this is acid-free, acrylic, pH neutral, lignin-free. And this is something that is just temporarily going to hold these inlays in place so that as I transfer the painting and handle it, they don't get misaligned or get lost for that matter. Now, at this point, I can turn my attention to the structural issues that this painting has. And there are too many holes and tears and creases and other compromises in the canvas for me to fix locally and to expect that this is going to hold up for the long term. So I'm going to do an interleaved lining. And that's where a new piece of canvas is adhered to the back of the painting, to the original canvas, with a rigid substrate in between the two. And I'm going to be using the same adhesive that I did for the impregnation, but this time it's a little bit thicker. And I'm going to roll it onto the back of the painting, but I've added this flat spun nylon gossamer. And this is going to help compensate for the difference between the rough texture of the canvas and the smooth texture of the PET film that I'll be using for the interleaf. It's going to just make sure that there's a lot of good purchase. And the PET film does two things. It helps structurally stabilize the painting and it also prevents any movement that the painting would otherwise be subject to with humidity changes. So once it's all dry, I can start to remove that bookbinder's tape. And it's not very complicated, but you can see how important it was because it kept all of those little patches, those inlays in place while I was handling the painting. I'm also going to trim off any excess nylon gossamer just to keep it tidy and so that it doesn't get in the way. And then when I'm done with that, I can put the sandwich together, the new canvas, the adhesive film, the PET film, and the original canvas with the flat spun nylon gossamer. And I can transfer it over to my hot table where the lining process is actually executed. So I'll turn the table up to temperature. I will turn the vacuum pump on and extract all of the air and make sure that I've got good, even, consistent downward pressure. I'll check it. I'll roll over it a couple of times just to make sure that everything is getting good contact. And then I'll let it sit. And once it's reached temperature, I'll turn the heat off and I will remove the vacuum pump and take the painting out of the sandwich. And if everything has gone right, and spoiler alert, everything has gone right, then this painting will be bonded back down to that new canvas and it will be as stable as it has been pretty much since it was painted. And now I can turn my attention to filling in some of these voids and really putting the image back together. But before I can get to the retouching process, which is where the image will really start to come together, I have to prep the painting because there are so many losses here. It's just not ready for retouching. And the first thing that I'm going to do is prime the areas where I cut those little inlays. Because if I don't do this, the fill-in medium that I'm going to add later on will just flake off and that would be a really big problem because then the painting would end up back in my studio and I'm pretty sure the client wouldn't be very happy. So I'll apply this primer, I'll let it dry, and then I'll start to fill in the voids. Now the fill-in material I'm using is water-based and removable, but it is also flexible and it doesn't shrink or crack as it dries, which is really important. It also does a really good job of filling gaps, but some of these gaps are pretty epic and so I'll probably have to come back two or three times to fill them back in. That is, apply a little bit and then let it dry and then apply a little bit more. And it's important that I fill in all of these gaps with this putty because as you can see, there's just nothing there. And it's not like I can go to a little bin of paint chips that I have lying around and pick some out that match in color or texture and glue them down. And this is important because if I don't take this step and I were to try to just retouch on top of the missing areas, well, you would see that pretty clearly and it would look pretty bad. So you can see just how much overfill I've done on this painting and now I'm going to have to go through and remove the excess fill-in material because, again, I just want the areas where the paint is missing to have the fill-in medium. And I'm going to be using a piece of very, very lightly dampened felt to rub over the surface and the felt doesn't hold much water. It doesn't really hold on to it at all. In fact, what ends up happening is the fill-in material takes on the water and then the felt will pick up the excess material as it rolls over the surface. And this isn't something that's taught in any books or that I've ever read about. In fact, this is a technique that I'm copying from a master plasterer who I saw working. And so what I said about always being learning and always on the lookout and trying to constantly move forward, well, this proof is right here. So stay tuned because next episode we are going to see how this painting comes together and that's going to be really, really fun.