The Surprise

1 CHAPTER 1 THE RESTORATION The surprise I have dabbled with restoring vintage art to some degree or other for several years now, having repaired fames, removed varnish and touched up the paint on several primitive pieces. Therefore, I feel I am at least somewhat knowledgeable on the subject of painting restoration although far from expert. I know my limitations and recognized the restoration this painting needed was far beyond my limited skills set. I felt I lacked the ability to remove the varnish without possibly injuring the paint below. Since nobody knew what laid beneath the varnish (other than what was easily seen with the naked eye) I didn’t know if I could do any of the actual restoration painting once the varnish was removed. I was of the opinion this painting was simply too special for me to take on myself and decided I needed to place the project in the hands of people with far more experience and talent than my meager abilities would allow. I contacted Peter Schoenmann, Co-Diretor Parma Conservatory, 1100 West Cernak Avenue, Chicago, Ilinois 60608 and I dropped the framed painting off at their facility August 31, 2020. I left that meeting with the understanding they were to do whatever necessary to remove the dark varnish from the painting and I was to make the four-hour drive back up to their facility afterwards to make a plan of action as to where we would go from that point. On September 23, 2020 Peter sent me an image to show where they were in the varnish stripping process. 2 Using language far beyond my understanding Peter informed me of the process they were using to remove what I thought was common damar varnish used in the early 1800’s during the time the Haro shop was on 30 Rue du Colombier. He told me instead of being a petroleum-based product it was a natural resin common to the art community for “many, many years” before Haro even went into business. In describing the work they were doing Peter used terms such as “dilute consolidating adhesive” and “render the paint in a planar position.” He may as well have been speaking French but I pretended to understand what he was saying and the conversation continued. I was dumfounded a few days later when Peter showed me the result of removing the resin. The painting was in far better condition than I could have ever hoped it would be. 3 What he showed me next changed my world as it turned me from being a small time, vintage arts dealer in possession of an old painting into a small-time vintage arts dealer suddenly in possession of a painting far, far older than I could ever imagine and possibly far more valuable than I could comprehend. After discussing the varnish/resin removal Peter sent me an image and told me, “What you are looking at now is the backside of the original canvass after we removed the lining.“ I could not believe what I saw. 4 Rather than looking at the backside of a painting that had been done on a relatively new “somewhat clean canvass" I was now looking at the backside of the original canvass that had been painted on. Without question somebody in the past (probably during a restoration process) had glued a blank canvass to the back of the original canvass to strengthen and protect the original. That process is called “lining the canvass” and once Peter and company removed the liner the entire original canvass was exposed. According to Peter, the original canvass had been hand-hewn on a loom many years ago. As a result, the threads had a distinct “wavy” weave creating a somewhat course fabric as compared to modern canvass. When I enquired further, he consented it to be possible (but he was not saying definitely) the canvass could have been made in the 1600’s during Rubens’ lifetime. He did acknowledge that Param had recently had a canvass documented to be from the 1700’s with that looked like mine. 5 Bottom right (as viewed from back) section of canvass I was certainly intrigued with the canvass and knew it is common knowledge Rubens preferred to paint on wooden panels for his large pieces but would use canvass when painting smaller ones that were subject to being shipped a longer distance. Is this the type of canvass he would have painted on? I found the following article on canvass preparations to be very beneficial in my understanding the evolution of Rubens’ painting techniques and his use of canvass. While the article I was reading centered around the painting techniques in Spain I felt it did a wonderful job in describing the process in use during those times throughout Europe. It was published by the Mueseo Nacional del Prado: (https://www.museodelprado.es/en/learn/research/studies-and-restorations/resource/the- evolution-of-preparations-for-painting-on/39cd7ac1-b445-49da-9362-61dbc19c5ed8 ) 6 The evolution of preparations for painting on canvas in sixteenth century Spain By Pantoja de la Cruz, Juan (begin reference) “In the mid-sixteenth century, following the example of Italy, painting on canvas began to develop in Spain. In Northern Europe, however, the use of panels would continue as the main medium support for easel painting, especially for important works, and it was not until the seventeenth century that the use of canvas would finally prevail. This shift towards the use of canvas as a support brought with it a new preparation procedure to prime it before the painting process began, since the system used for panels (applying thick coats of gypsum or calcium carbonate aggregated with animal glue), proved to be too rigid for such a flexible, deformable material as canvas. The terminology employed to refer to the inner layers of a painting has always been confusing and, in a certain sense, contradictory. In this study we have opted for the following definitions: • Preparation: is the modern term used to refer to the whole set of layers which are applied to the support to facilitate painting on it. The preparation comprises both the ground layer and the priming layer. • Ground layer: its role is to isolate the support. It is generally formed by a succession of layers; the innermost one is an organic sizing which acts as a sealant coating usually covered by other layers of inert materials, such as gypsum or calcium carbonate, with the aim of creating a smooth, flat surface. This succession of layers can be finished off with a final layer of animal glue or of drying oil which reduces the absorption of this porous surface. • Priming layer: this layer, which possesses a specific color freely chosen by the artist, will be in direct contact with the paint. Most often the priming layer is oil-based, something that also helps to seal the ground layer, and in this manner prevents the painting having a matte appearance. It is also possible to paint directly onto a colorless 7 ground layer, though this was infrequent in the period we are referring to and its usage was not been described as a commonplace practice in contemporary treatises.” (end reference.) I found all of that to be highly interesting but was even more intrigued when I continued with Pantoja de la Cruz’s article; (continue reference) “Arte de la Pintura [The Art of Painting] by Francisco Pacheco, was published posthumously in 1649. The Libro Tercero [Third Volume] and is the most interesting from the point of view of artistic techniques and it contains detailed descriptions of procedures to follow in choosing materials and tools, in preparing supports, mixing colors, etc. With regard to the application and composition of the ground layer and the priming layer, he considered a number of different systems and evaluates the suitability of each. Pacheco wrote, “Some prepare with a porridge made of flour or spelt meal, cooking oil and a little honey (a not very appetizing, almost edible, mixture) […] and once it dries, they apply pumice stone to it and prime it with oil.” (end reference) In other words, it is a very organic style ground layer (flour starch, oil, sugars from honey), but without any inert materials which therefore made it prone to deterioration when exposed to a damp atmosphere, something the author also points out. He goes on by describing other methods, (start reference) Others ground with glove glue, which after drying is applied with the same again, tempered with finely sifted gypsum […] and they prime it with a brush once or twice The process of preparing canvases was based on the tradition of preparing panels using thick successive layers of gypsum and animal-based glue, on top of which a thin, and generally light-toned, priming layer could be applied, which sealed the absorbent surface and provided it with a light base on which to build the painting. Since the beginning of the sixteenth century painters from the north of Italy started to use brownish-red, grey or brownish-grey colored priming layers, with varying degrees of brightness, on top of a gypsum ground layer. By the seventeenth century, these colored oil- 8 based priming layers constituted a practice that had spread right across Italy, and about which there are ample references. In the first half of the seventeenth century the use of colored priming layers would rapidly become widespread, setting the standards, with regard to the practice of painting, which would characterize both the schools of Seville and of Madrid.” (end reference) With an understanding of the general practice of preparing canvasses during the Rubens era I wanted to compare his techniques with those standards.

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