The Conservation of Tapestries and Embroideries The Conservation of Tapestries and Embroideries Proceedings of Meetings at the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique Brussels, Belgium September 21-24, 1987 THE GETTY CONSERVATION INSTITUTE Front Cover: Tunic Burgundian vestments, detail. Schatzkammer, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. PI 15. Back Cover: Reverse of antependium, label from seventeenth-century repair. Schatzkammer, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Symposium Coordinator: Liliane Massclj.elein-Kleiner, Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, Brussels, Belgium Publications Coordinator: Irina Averkieff, The Getty Conservation Institute, Marina del Rey, California Training Program Coordinator: Suzanne Deal Booth, The Getty Conservation Institute, Marina del Rey, California Editor: Kirsten Grimstad Technical Drawing: Janet Spehar Design: Terry irwin and Leah Hofmitz, Letterform Design, Los Angeles, California Typography: Ventura/Adobe Postscript Stone Serif and Univers Condensed Printing: Dai Nippon, Tokyo, Japan 1989 The J. Paul Getty Trust ©All rights reserved Printed in Japan Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data The Conservation of tapestries and embroideries. 1. Ecclesiastical embroidery-Conservation and restoration­ Congresses. 2. Tapestry-Conservation and restoration-Congresses. I. Institut royal du patrimoine artistique (Belgium) II. Getty Conservation Institute. NK931O.C66 1989 746.44'0488 89-2058 ISBN 0-89236-154-9 The article by Mechthild Flury-Lemberg, "The Restoration of the An­ tependium of the Musee Paul Dupuy in Toulouse," appeared in Textile Conservation and Research and an edited version is reprinted here with the permission of the Abegg Foundation. The article also appeared in the Bulletin de Liaison du CIETA and is reedited and reprinted here with the permission of the Centre International d'Etude des Textiles Anciens. THE GETTY CONSERVATION INSTITUTE The Getty Conservation Institute (Gel), an operating organization of the ]. Paul Getty Trust, was created in 1982 to enhance the quality of conservation practice in the world today. Based on the belief that the best approach to conservation is interdisciplinary, the Institute brings together the knowledge of conserva­ tors, scientists, and art historians. Through a combi­ nation of in-house activities and collaborative ventures with other organizations, the Institute plays a catalytic role that contributes substantially to the conservation of our cultural heritage. The Institute aims to further scientific research, increase conserva­ tion training opportunities, and strengthen com­ munication among specialists. Contents Luis Monreal Foreword ix Liliane Masschelein-Kleiner Summary of the Discussions 1 Juliette De boeck, The Conservation of Embroideries at the S Vera Vereecken, and Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique Tatiana Reicher Mechthild Flury-Lemberg The Restoration of the Antependium of the 11 Musee Paul Dupuy in Toulouse Rotraud Bauer The Burgundian Vestments 17 Francesco Pertegato Three Embroidered Pilaster Panels from the 2S Church of San Pietro at Broni Marie Schoefer and Restoration of a Seventeenth-Century 33 Eric Houpeaux Chasuble at the Musee Historique des Tissus in Lyons Marie Schoefe r and The Restoration of a Twelfth-Century 41 Denise Lestoquoit Liturgical Sandal at the Musee Historique des Tissus in Lyons Stephen Cousens Second Sight: Further Investigation into the 49 Construction of Ecclesiastical Embroideries and Tapestries Nobuko Kajitani Conservation Maintenance of Tapestries at S3 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987 Karen Finch Tapestries: Conservation and Original 67 Design Andre Brutillot Conservation of a Fifteenth-Century 7S Tapestry from Franconia Loretta Dolcini The Tapestries of the Sala dei Duecento in 81 the Palazzo Vecchio R. Bruce Hutchison Gluttony and Avarice: Two Different 89 Approaches Ksynia Marko Two Case Histories: A Seventeenth-Century 9S Antwerp Tapestry and an Eighteenth- Century English Soho Tapestry Yvan Maes The Conservation/Restoration of the 103 Sixteenth-Century Tapestry The Gathering of the Manna Juliette De boeck, The Treatment of Two Sixteenth-Century 113 Michelle De Bruecker, Tapestries at the Institut Royal du Chantel Carpentier, Patrimoine Artistique Kathrijn Housiaux Foreword Luis Monreal, Director The GettyConservation Institute he restoration of four historically significant Renaissance textiles in the work­ Tshop of the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique (IRPA) provided the occa­ sion for a gathering of twenty-seven conservators, conservation scientists, and curators from museums and tapestry and embroidery conservation workshops in Western Europe and the United States. Organized by the director of the Institut Royal, Liliane Masschelein-Kleiner and cosponsored by the Getty Conservation Insti­ tute, the four-day seminar took place September 21-24, 1987, in Brussels-a location that offered an especially meaningful backdrop because of its historic role as a tapestry-weaving center. On-site visits to the IRPA textiles workshop, the private work­ shop Gaspard De Wit in Mechelen, the "Tissus d'Or" exhibition at the Royal Museums of Art and History (featuring the four works restored at the IRPA workshop), and the "Masterpieces of Bruges Tapestry" exhibition at the Gruuthuse Museum and the Memling Museum in Bruges bore testimony to the issues raised at the working sessions. The seminar was designed as a forum for participants to present their current research and treatments, address urgent issues that have not yet received sufficient attention from the profession, scrutinize new findings, and thoroughly discuss specific problems, innovations, methods, materials, and technologies that might be proposed in the course of the meetings. In other words, the seminar aimed at estab­ lishing the present state of knowledge in the field. Several of the participants had attended a previous textile study group held at the ]. Paul Getty Museum in 1984 at which specific issues for further research-support materials, surfactants, the in­ fluence of aging, the degradation of synthetic polymers, training and standards of practice, and methods of "slowing down" the degradation of large textiles-were iden­ tified. Participants in the Brussels seminar followed up on many of these issues. The fifteen papers published in this volume formed the armature for this creative exchange. They focus on treatments of western European tapestries and eccle­ siastical embroideries, mostly from the Renaissance period, although one work, a litur­ gical sandal, dates back to the twelfth century, while the pilaster panels from Broni originated as recently as the 1740s. Some of the papers present general concerns, such as the development of a comprehensive conservation program for textiles at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Nobuko Kajitani) or the importance of compiling a Foreword ix thorough technical report (Stephen Cousens). Most offer recent treatments of impor­ tant historic textiles as case studies in the state of the art of textiles conservation. From this mixed palette of expertise, certain dominant tones stand out. Per­ haps above all, participants share a concern over the perils and rewards of wet clean­ ing versus dry cleaning. Simply stated, the procedure that may be necessary to preserve the object from further deterioration may also run the risk of altering it irre­ versibly. Not surprisingly, thoughts concerning cleaning technology and procedure weave a thematic pathway through many of these papers (Marie Schoefer and Eric Houpeaux, Nobuko Kajitani, Andre Brutillot, Loretta Do!cini, Bruce Hutchison, Ksy­ nia Marko, and Yvan Maes). Likewise, the pervasive problem of reintegrating large areas of loss in tapestries sparked common concern and innovative approaches, as found especially in the papers presented by Ksynia Marko and Yvan Maes. Interest in the issues of mounting, display, and storage form another thread of continuity among the papers. These issues are sometimes regarded as being outside of the radius of work of the individual textile conservator. Nonetheless, fragile tapestries and embroidered textiles, such as the reconstructed fragments of the twelfth-century liturgical sandal salvaged from a bishop's tomb (Marie SctIoefer and Denise Lestoquoit), require custom-designed backing, mounting, and showcases made of materials that offer optimum protection for their vulnerable displays. The conservator's interest in controlling environmental conditions extends beyond the exhibition rooms to include storage areas as well as works in transit. Attention to these conditions is a requisite of the field. Curators are becoming aware of the textile conservator's role in the continuing preservation of the object once it has been restored (Nobuko Kajitani). The nuances of individual interests expressed in these papers offer evidence of the broad range embraced by this topic. Karen Finch, for example, exposes some of the special problems caused by Victorian textile censors who rewove discrete portions of a tapestry depicting Cleopatra provocatively resting her leg in Anthony's lap. When the inferior nineteenth-century dyestuffs faded away, the naughty leg reap­ peared in a blushing shade of pink. Mechthild Flury-Lemberg traces clues to the origin and history of the Toulouse antependium in its uncommon depictions of scenes from the lives of Saint Francis and Saint Clare. Rotraud Bauer surveys certain historic embroidery techniques-needle painting and or nw?-as found on a set of fifteenth-century