Material History of Objets, History of Conservation - Histoire Matérielle des Objets, Histoire de la Conservation

Agnès Bos ¹, Anne Labourdette ², Georgina Ripley ³

^1/2 Musée Du Louvre, ³National Museum Scotland

Sujet en anglais / Topic in english

If there exists any field for which the materiality of objects is essential to their understanding, it is that of textiles, in which it is not only necessary to consider the materials and type of weaving employed, but also the pigments and functions of the fabric, whether it was used for clothing or to upholster furniture. For this reason, the CIETA (Centre international d’études des textiles anciens) has developed a method of technical analysis aimed to take account of this complex materiality of textiles and to build a common vocabulary so that specialists from around the world can understand one another when it comes to analysing weaving types.

This proposed session focuses on another form, or perhaps a supplementary stratum, of materiality: that of traces. Both visible traces (such as stains or holes) and invisible ones (such as odours) can provide new information about the creation of an object, its use and alterations, or the ways in which it may have been modified or repaired over time. Just as smudging on a medieval liturgical manuscript can inform us with remarkable precision about the areas touched by officiants and thus about their liturgical and devotional practices (for example, see the work of Kathryn Rudy on manuscripts, which have been made available to the general public through this video: How the Grand Obituary of Notre-Dame (Paris, BnF, Ms. lat. 5185 CC) was Touched, Kissed, and Handled, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixugb35bfcA), the traces left on a textile work can serve as a new source for analysis and understanding.

The ongoing conservation treatment of the liturgical textiles of the Ordre du Saint-Esprit, held at the Musée du Louvre, provides an opportunity to achieve a more clear understanding of their use over time: thus, the fact that the antependium underwent more substantial conservation work than the altarpiece suggests that the antependium was more exposed to rubbing by celebrants during the Order’s ceremonies. In a more recent context, pieces from a fashion show may bear traces of makeup, holes from high-heeled shoes, or points showing the couturier’s last-minute touch-ups. These traces also lead us to question how they should be taken into account in a museum environment: should they be removed during conservation treatment? Although the subject has been occasionally considered in publications on textiles, taking it up over a long time scale, in diverse contexts (such as in archaeology and fashion), and different geographical environments would provide a new dimension to this approach, in order to affirm its importance in understanding textiles.

Thierry Laugee ¹, Emmanuel Lamouche ², Grégoire Extermann ³

^1/2 Nantes Université - Nantes (France), ³Haute Ecole Spécialisée Du Tessin - Mendrisio (Switzerland)

Sujet en anglais / Topic in english

In recent years, publications on the subject of plaster have increased in number, whether they are symposium proceedings (A. Alexandridis, L. Winkler-Horaček [eds.], Destroy the Copy - Plaster Cast Collections in the 19th-20th Centuries, Berlin, 2022; T. Lochman, M. Guderzo [eds], Il valore del gesso come modello [... ], Possagno, 2017; E. Marchand, R. Fredericksen, Plaster Casts, Making, Collecting and Displaying from Classical Antiquity to the Present, Berlin, 2010), general volumes (G. de Laubier, G.-L. Barthe, Plâtres en majesté, l'univers du plâtre, Paris, 2023), or issues of scientific journals (Technè, 51, 2021; Sculpture journal, 28-3, 2019; In situ, 28, 2016).

Most of the times, plaster is studied from a unique perspective, it is mentioned as a step in the creative process. Indeed, plaster is often a "utilitarian" material, intended to prepare a sculpture in a definitive material. The plaster work is then transitory, destined to disappear because of its fragility or its low value. The article by Jacques de Caso, « Alors, on ne jette plus? » (La sculpture du XIXe siècle, une mémoire retrouvée, Paris 1986, p. 18-21) has made us aware of a heritage issue. Many collections of studio plaster casts, or major copies, were until then abandoned in storerooms, in a poor condition, or simply suppressed. Many campaigns to rehabilitate these collections have made it possible to rediscover them and to understand their importance. One of the most remarkable manifestations of this rehabilitation is the opening in 2018 of the sculpture gallery of the Petit Palais, made up of models previously stored in the reserves of Ivry-sur-Seine. Going beyond the sole criterion of the value of the material to judge the quality of a sculpture is thus a recent movement. Although plaster is visible in many museum institutions, it should be noted that only two types of plaster are valued, models or maquettes, and collections of casts.

The use of plaster thus remains stuck in its transitory status; it would only make sense in relation to an earlier or later work. This consideration of plaster in a chronological logic deprives the history of statuary of a study of plaster as a true medium, with its own aesthetic qualities, sought after by practitioners and artists, or allowing them to free themselves from the usual economy of statuary and from the norm. The session aims precisely at getting out of the apprehension of plaster as a substitute, and thus questioning the forms of completion by plaster. The aim is to determine how this inexpensive, liquid, and possibly temporary technique generates singular practical and artistic results, and even an aesthetic of its own.

Sujet de la session en français / Topic in french

Ces dernières années, les publications sur le plâtre se sont multipliées, qu’il s’agisse d’actes de colloques (A. Alexandridis, L. Winkler-Horaček [dir.], Destroy the Copy – Plaster Cast Collections in the 19th–20th Centuries, Berlin, 2022 ; T. Lochman, M. Guderzo [dir.], Il valore del gesso come modello [... ], Possagno, 2017 ; E. Marchand, R. Fredericksen, Plaster Casts, Making, Collecting and Displaying from Classical Antiquity to the Present, Berlin, 2010), d’ouvrages généraux (G. de Laubier, G.-L. Barthe, Plâtres en majesté, l’univers du plâtre, Paris, 2023), ou de numéros de revues scientifiques (Technè, 51, 2021 ; Sculpture journal, 28-3, 2019 ; In situ, 28, 2016).

Le plus souvent, le plâtre est étudié sous un angle unique, il est mentionné comme étape dans le processus créateur. Le plâtre est en effet souvent un matériau « utilitaire », destiné à préparer une sculpture dans un matériau définitif. L’œuvre de plâtre est alors transitoire, vouée à disparaître en raison de sa fragilité ou de sa faible valeur. L’article de Jacques de Caso, « Alors, on ne jette plus ? » (La sculpture du XIXe siècle, une mémoire retrouvée, Paris 1986, p. 18-21) a permis de prendre conscience d’un écueil patrimonial. Nombre de collections de plâtres d’ateliers, ou de copies majeures étaient jusqu’alors abandonnées dans les réserves, dans un piteux état, voire purement supprimées. De multiples campagnes de réhabilitation ont permis de les redécouvrir ces fonds et de saisir leur importance. L’une des manifestations les plus remarquables de cette réhabilitation est l’ouverture en 2018 de la galerie des sculptures du Petit Palais constituée de modèles auparavant entreposés dans les réserves d’Ivry-sur-Seine. Le dépassement du seul critère de valeur du matériau pour juger de la qualité d’une sculpture est donc un mouvement récent. Si le plâtre est visible dans nombre d’institutions muséales, il convient toutefois de remarquer que seuls deux types de plâtres sont valorisés, les modèles ou maquettes, et les collections de moulages.

L’usage du plâtre demeure donc figé dans son statut transitoire, il n’aurait de sens que par rapport à une œuvre antérieure ou postérieure. Cette logique chronologique prive l’histoire de la statuaire d’une étude du plâtre comme médium véritable, possédant des qualités esthétiques propres, recherchées par les praticiens et les artistes, ou permettant de se libérer de l’économie usuelle de la statuaire et ainsi se libérer de la norme. La session vise précisément à sortir de l’appréhension du plâtre comme d’un substitut, et ainsi interroger les formes de l’achèvement par le plâtre. Il s’agira de déterminer comment cette technique peu coûteuse, liquide, engendre des résultats pratiques et artistiques singuliers, voire une esthétique qui lui est propre.

Sarah Catala ¹, Jeroen Stumpel ²

¹Larhra UMR5190 - Lyon (France), ²Utrecht University - Utrecht (Netherlands)

Sujet en anglais / Topic in english

The capacity for drawing is a most important, and apparently unique faculty of the human mind, and one of the prime techniques in the history of art. Acts of drawing often have been considered as privileged materializations of mental images or ideas.

Individual drawings, the results of such acts, may be coveted as essential documents revealing the genesis of works of art; as windows to an artist’s personality, and as complete and important masterpieces in themselves. With all such appreciation and acknowledgment, there are still great intellectual challenges for both the practical and theoretical analysis of drawings and drawing-acts; especially of drawing as material interface between concept and final production in art – where we can think of the materializing and first outward visibility of the prima idea, as well to the material role of the cartoon and even the counterproof.

From the viewpoint of materiality it may also be said that the technical investigation of drawings and the drawing process has lagged rather far behind the technical research of painting and sculpture. It has been generally acknowledged that studies of the materials aspects of drawings are of the greatest importance for authentication, as well as conservation; and important research has been done after materials employed in the act of drawing, for instance on the production and structure of paper. But compared to other fields of the visual arts, these studies have been incidental and relatively far apart.

Often the actual drawings have been considered and studied as static sheets. Yet, drawings are objects with a life of their own. At first, they are complex traces of human cognition or motor activities, preceding the application of ink or chalk on paper. But even after the hand of artists have stopped modifying the drawings, many changes continue to take place. Some of these changes are the obvious and sometimes brusque result of human intervention, such as reworking, restoring, cutting, ripping or bleaching. Others are less obvious or harder to trace but comparably significant. These concern various processes of metamorphosis due to chemical processes within the materials themselves, combined with environmental factors such as exposure to light or humidity. All of these processes are part of what one could call the material biography of a drawing.

Sujet de la session en français / Topic in french

Dessiner est une faculté importante et apparemment unique de l'esprit humain, qui constitue aussi l’une des techniques fondamentales dans l'histoire de l'art.

L’acte a souvent été considéré comme le moyen privilégié pour matérialiser une idée ou une image mentale. Il en résulte des dessins qui sont considérés aussi bien comme des documents essentiels révélant la genèse des œuvres d'art, que des éclairages sur la personnalité d'un artiste, ou encore des chefs-d'œuvre autonomes. Malgré cette reconnaissance, il reste de grands défis intellectuels à relever pour réaliser des analyses aussi bien pratiques que théoriques des dessins et de leur production même. C’est particulièrement le cas du dessin pensé comme un artefact situé entre le concept et la production finale dans l'art, à l’endroit même où nous pouvons penser à la matérialisation et à la visibilité extérieure de la prima idea, ainsi qu’aux rôles matériels du carton ou de la contre-épreuve.

Du point de vue de la matérialité, on soulignera que les investigations conduites sur le dessin et ses processus sont largement distancées par les recherches techniques dédiées à la peinture et à la sculpture. Pourtant, il est généralement admis que l'étude matérielle des dessins revêt une grande importance pour l'identification technique, l'attribution et la conservation. Des recherches remarquables ont été menées sur les matériaux utilisés dans le dessin, par exemple sur la production et la structure du papier, mais comparées à d'autres domaines des arts visuels, ces études restent marginales et sporadiques.

Souvent, les dessins ont été considérés et étudiés comme des feuilles statiques. Pourtant, ce sont des objets dotés d'une vie propre. Au départ, il s'agit de traces complexes d'activités humaines cognitives ou motrices, précédant l'application d'encre ou de craie sur le papier, mais même lorsque la main de l'artiste a cessé de modifier les dessins, de nombreux changements continuent de se produire. Certains de ces changements sont le résultat évident et parfois brutal de l'intervention humaine telle la retouche, la restauration, le découpage, la déchirure ou le blanchiment. D'autres sont plus difficiles à repérer, mais tout aussi significatifs. Il s'agit de divers processus de métamorphose dus à des procédés chimiques au sein des matériaux eux-mêmes, combinés à des facteurs environnementaux tels que l'exposition à la lumière ou à l'humidité. Tous ces processus font partie de ce que l'on pourrait appeler la biographie matérielle d'un dessin.

Giulia Puma ¹ , Emanuele Pellegrini ²

¹Université Côte D'azur - Nice (France), ²Scuola IMT Alti Studi, Lucca (Italy)

Sujet en anglais / Topic in english

The session focuses on the issues of dispersion/unity of the work of art, taking into account the materiality of the works as well as their meaning and reception. We suggest the altarpiece may serve as an ideal starting point to explore the dispersion/unity question in a very open way, as much as we hope to widen the subject to other types of dispersed ensembles. Our goal is to take advantage of the CIHA Congress to bring together an international panel of experts around a common methodological question, that of the work of art’s original unity, of its loss in time, and of the scientific ways to restore it, or at least try to.

The session focuses on the dismantling suffered by altarpieces over time, their dispersion, and their (possible) reconstruction. Analyzing both material and immaterial nature of the artworks, the aim is to consider altarpieces as objects of investigation as a whole, by questioning the modalities of the reunion (physical and/or digital) of the dispersed sets, but also the conservation stakes. The dismantling of altarpieces represents a pool of long histories, which involves taste variations, new demand on the art market, preservation and management of art objects, and invites to reconsider the epistemology of art history. At the same time questioning the lost unity of art objects implies different level of investigation from conservation/restoration processes, to geography of art, given the displacements on a global scale, restitution and exhibitions as opportunities for the temporary reconstitution of the object’s lost unity.

The history of exhibitions is also a fertile place for observing the efforts made by specialists (curators, connoisseurs, art historians) to hypothesize reunion of dismantled ensambles.

Some events related to the subject have been held recently : the meetings at Villa I Tatti under the supervision of M. Israëls, which preceded the publication of Israels 2009 (Sassetta. The Borgo San Sepolcro Altarpiece); the various thematic issues dedicated by the scientific journal Predella to the « fortune of the primitives » throughout many centuries; the exhibition dedicated to the physical and digital reconstruction of the Griffoni Polyptych in Bologna in 2021 (Cavalca, Natale 2020).

Justine Croutelle ¹, Lili Davenas ²

¹ Drac Aura - Lyon (France), ² Musée Bourdelle - Paris (France)

Sujet en anglais / Topic in english

In praise of matter : conservation of artifacts' materiality relating to the world's cultural heritage

“We only restore the material of a work of art”, specifies Cesare Brandi in his Theory of restoration. “The material of a work of art” is, according to Brandi, of a double nature, where one must distinguish the structure and the aspect. In other words, what constitutes the work of art and what it shows. It should therefore be considered as the core of the restoration process, which transforms the material and its temporality.

The ethics of restoration are governed by international charts, they all give a major place to the material. Nevertheless, the process of restoration aims at preserving historical heritage, for transmission. As such, it cannot be considered without other notions, such as aesthetics, senses, memory, functionality. Another approach of materiality also has to be considered regarding specific types of inheritage. The substance of historical gardens is, by definition, living, perishable and renewable, whereas scientific and technical inheritage is mainly defined by its function. Furthermore, scientific research as well as the plurality of international practices invite us to reconsider these principles. The relationship established in Japanese culture between intangible cultural heritage and tangible cultural heritage proves that other patterns can be accepted to transmit architectural inheritage. How should the substance of a work of art be defined? What has to be preserved and transmitted? If a work of art is brought to live, grow and die, what does one preserve? What should be the role of immateriality and sensitivity in the conservation-restoration process (for instance, harmony for an organ, light for stained-glass)?

Sujet de la session en français / Topic in french

« On ne restaure que la matière de l’œuvre d’art. » Ce postulat, donné par Cesare Brandi dans Théorie de la restauration, place la matière au cœur du processus de restauration. La « matière de l’œuvre d’art » est pour Brandi d’une double nature, où l’on doit distinguer la structure et l’aspect, autrement dit d’une part ce qui constitue l’œuvre, et d’autre part, ce qu’elle donne à voir. Elle est au cœur des pratiques de conservation et de restauration, qui transforment la matière de l’œuvre d’art pour la placer dans une temporalité nouvelle.

Les grandes chartes qui régissent la déontologie de la restauration donnent une place centrale au matériau, et donc à la structure de l’œuvre d’art. L’acte de restaurer a cependant pour objectif premier la conservation pour la transmission aux générations futures. Il ne saurait, à ce titre, se passer d’autres notions, telles que l’esthétique, l’approche sensorielle et mémorielle, l’usage. La question de la matérialité se pose par ailleurs différemment à l’approche de certaines typologies patrimoniales : le patrimoine des jardins est, par nature, « vivant, périssable et renouvelable[1] », tandis que le patrimoine technique se définit en grande partie par sa valeur d’usage. Du reste, les avancées scientifiques et la pluralité des approches internationales invitent à échanger sur ces grands principes. La relation établie, dans la culture japonaise, entre le patrimoine culturel immatériel et le patrimoine culturel matériel montre qu’une approche différente peut être admise pour la transmission du patrimoine architectural. Comment définir la substance d’une œuvre ? Que veut-on conserver et transmettre ? Quelle est la matière que l’on conserve, lorsque cette dernière est amenée à vivre, à croître et à mourir ? Quelle place donner à l’immatériel et au sensoriel dans la conservation-restauration (exemples : l’harmonie pour un orgue, la lumière pour les vitraux) ?

[1] Charte de Florence, article 2 (1982)

Julia Alting ¹, Raslene ²

¹University Of Groningen - Amsterdam (Netherlands), ²Independent Artist/researcher - Jakarta (Indonesia)

Sujet en anglais / Topic in english

In art history the question of (historical) time is taken up more widely today as the discipline faces anxieties about its colonial foundations. As linear historical time is complicit with imperial ideologies of ‘progress’, alternative conceptualizations of time and history have been proposed, yet they have not been conceptually elaborated upon, nor have they been connected to new materialist art historical scholarship.

The repurposing of (found) objects and matter in contemporary art practice affords to link personal to socio-political histories, like in the work of Chiharu Shiota and Danh Vo. Exhibitions often follow a linear route or adopt a linear timeline model, yet recent transhistorical curatorial experiments and museums focusing on materiality, like the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and the Museum der Dinge in Berlin disrupt these conventions. A focus on matter and the object thus seems to invite a disruption of linear chronology.

This session aims to follow the lives of art objects' materiality and their challenge to the traditional linear chronology of the discipline. ‘Timeless’ concepts of art negate the complicated trajectories of matter: the materiality of objects is never timeless, but is bound to its own temporality. Matter decays; it changes colour; travels; and leaves traces. This session explores the nonlinear temporalities that a focus on material brings with it.

How can we account for the structures of power intrinsic to historical time? What temporal layer is privileged in contexts of display? Which artistic approaches to archiving can be discerned? What are the temporal trajectories of the material?

This panel proposes a reconsideration of the temporal structures that undergird the discipline of art history, while focusing on the particular histories and complicated temporalities that art objects often carry with them. As structures of exclusion embedded in our disciplines, museums, narratives and universities are widely debated in society today, we deem it important to look at the fundamental temporal logics on which our stories are based, and through which we make sense of continuity, rupture and change.

Annika Finne ¹, Emily Frank ²

¹ Institute Of Fine Arts, New York University / Modern Art Conservation - New York (United States), ² Institute For Study Of The Ancient World, New York University / American Academy in Rome - Rome (Italy) / Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum - New York (United States)

Sujet en anglais / Topic in english

When the vibrant green glaze copper resinate is used to paint the leaves of a tree, the resin salts may slowly oxidize, and eventually cause the color of the painted leaf to shift from green to brown. Like a real tree, the painted tree can, with time and in response to its levels of light exposure, present the semblance of a pseudo-autumn through this “deterioration.” Does the fact that these leaves “died” outside the approval of their initial artist-author mean that there is no discursive space in which their brownness, and all of its attendant affects, can be appreciated? If, after the color-shift, a later hand overpainted the leaves that changed “on their own” to make them green again, what would be gained, what would be lost, and is this overpainter a conservator, or something else? In this way, is the “material turn” also an occasion to rethink what is meant by the job of “conservator” or “restorer”?

This session aims to highlight how a work of art’s materials and manufacture techniques can shape subsequent efforts to preserve, cultivate, or modify those artworks, on both physical and conceptual levels. Consider the tea bowl repaired with gold lacquer by Hon’ami Kōetsu (1558- 1637), whose mended cracks are celebrated for their resemblance to a snowy mountainscape, or the abrasion pattern, described by Matthew Hayes, which until recently gave a cool, bright sky painted by Titian the appearance of a sunset. We seek to draw attention to case studies such as these—where interventions (or non-interventions) seem a specific form of collaboration or call-and-response between the object and its procession of handlers, rather than the imposition of a new, renewed, or improved identity onto a passive artwork. The session is meant to be a bridge across the narratives produced by the technical analysis of materials, the history of conservation and restoration, and the anthropological, sociological, and art historical methods of appreciating material agencies. We draw inspiration from both artistic and scholarly work, by authors including Arjun Appadurai, Sanchita Balachandran, Karen Barad, Jill Bennett, Marco Ciatti, Anne Dunlop, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Jonathan Hay, Herbert Kessler, Bruno Latour, George Lewis, Paolo and Laura Mora, Gala Porras-Kim, Amy Knight Powell, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Yuriko Saito, and Marvin Trachtenberg.

Guillemette Caupin ¹, Noemie Etienne ²

¹The Metropolitan Museum Of Art - New York (United States), ²University Of Vienna - Vienne (Austria)

Sujet en anglais / Topic in english

Heritage conservation is a political matter that needs to be understood historically and theoretically based on a long-term and broad geographical scope. What were the ways of caring before conservation became a science in the 20^th century? What were the guidance and criteria to follow? And what were the practices beyond Europe and the United States?

While the 20^th century marked a period of expansion in the field of art conservation, the action of caring for cultural objects is much older. Indeed, conservation methods, commonly performed by artists or craftspeople, have been self-taught based on empirical evidence and passed on to generations since the 18^th century. That century saw the rise of specialist restorers and marked the beginning of an aesthetic debate about the effects of time on cultural objects. Innovations to artists’ supplies and growing collaborations between the fields of art and science in the 19^th century introduced new challenges to the conservation field. The progressive integration of science and innovative instrumental methods into the conservation field initiated a Scientific Turn to the domain over the 20^th century strengthening knowledge about the materiality of artifacts. While the globalization of the art markets opened international dialogues, a (more recent) Green Turn is taken in conservation towards eco- sustainability. With a slow return to natural materials respectful of the environment, the artifacts, and the practitioners, this new direction echoes ancient techniques and practices. Finally, a Postcolonial Turn is also at stake today, while ethnographic museums are currently exploring the connections between conservation and coloniality.

Early restoration practices and methods are considered the founding principles of the field in terms of maintaining and ensuring proper environmental conditions for the display of artifacts. Proof of those early methods, mostly driven by craft savoir-faire and studio recipes, are recorded in archival documentation, even though they are scarce and fragmentary. Moreover, objects and their materials carry proof of this additional history, restoration, and conservation. This multidimensional archive reflects the variety of methods and ways of caring applied under circumstances, to give answers to pressure from interests and objectives from different stakeholders and brings new evidence to the understanding of the art world organization and network including the art market.

In a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary scope, this panel aims to discuss the early history of conservation techniques and alternate ways of caring for artifacts before the 20^th century on the five continents to shed light on understudied traditions.

Sujet de la session en français / Topic in french

La conservation du patrimoine est une question politique qui doit être comprise, historiquement et théoriquement, dans un contexte temporel et géographique large et diversifié. Quelles étaient les manières de prendre soin du patrimoine avant que la conservation-restauration ne devienne une science au XXe siècle ? Quelles étaient les critères déontologiques à respecter ? Et quelles étaient les pratiques au-delà de l'Europe et des États-Unis ?

Si le XXe siècle a marqué une période d'expansion dans le domaine de la conservation de l'art, les mesures d'entretien des objets culturels sont beaucoup plus anciennes. En effet, les méthodes de conservation-restauration, couramment pratiquées par des artistes et des artisans, étaient pratiquées de manière empirique, souvent issues d'un apprentissage autodidacte et transmises de générations en générations depuis le XVIIIe siècle. Le XVIIIe siècle voit l'essor de restaurateurs spécialisés et marque le début d'un débat esthétique sur les effets du temps sur les objets culturels. Les innovations apportées aux matériels pour artistes et les collaborations croissantes entre les disciplines de l'art et de la science au XIXe siècle, ont introduit de nouvelles problématiques dans le domaine de la conservation. L'intégration progressive de la science et des méthodes instrumentales innovantes dans l'examen du patrimoine a initié un Scientific Turn dans la discipline au cours du XXe siècle, renforçant les connaissances sur la matérialité des artefacts. Alors que la mondialisation des marchés de l'art ouvre des dialogues internationaux, la discipline amorce un Green Turn (plus récent) tourné vers l'éco-durabilité et l'éco-responsabilité. Avec un lent retour et intérêt vers les matériaux naturels respectueux de l'environnement, des artefacts et des praticiens, les techniques et pratiques anciennes s'en trouvent priviligiées. Tandis que les musées ethnographiques s'intéressent davantage aux liens entre conservation et colonialisme ces dernières années, un Postcolonial Turn est palpable au sein de la discipline.

Les pratiques de restauration anciennes sont considérées comme les interventions fondatrices de la discipline favorisant la stabilité et la pérennité des œuvres d'art. La preuve de ces premières méthodes, issues d'un savoir-faire artisanal et de recettes d'atelier, sont enregistrées dans les documents d'archives, même si celles-ci sont rares et fragmentaires. Les œuvres elles-mêmes et leurs matériaux constitutifs portent aussi la trace de cette histoire des techniques de conservation-restauration à travers le temps. Ces documents d'archives multidimensionnelles reflètent aussi la variété des modes de restauration et de soins exécutées selon des contextes particuliers répondant à des intérêts et des objectifs des différents partis impliqués dans l'acte de restauration. Ils apportent également de nouvelles preuves dans la compréhension des intéractions et de l'organisation du réseau du monde de l'art, y compris le marché de l'art.

Dans un objectif interculturel et interdisciplinaire, ce panel vise à discuter de l'histoire ancienne des techniques de conservation et des façons alternatives de prendre soin des objets d'art avant le XXe siècle sur les cinq continents et ainsi de mettre en lumière des pratiques et des coutumes peu étudiées.

Wojciech Bałus ¹, Brigitte Kurmann-Schwarz ², Francine Giese ³, Sophie Wolf ⁴

¹Jagiellonian University - Kraków (Poland), ²Université De Zurich, Zürich (Switzerland), ^3/4Vitrocentre de Romont (Switzerland)

Sujet en anglais / Topic in english

Glass is an exceptionally diverse material that has been highly valued ever since its discovery by human beings in the 4th millennium BC. In art, the malleable and translucent material has found many forms of expression in all epochs and cultures: from the earliest jewellery glass beads to the monumental stained glass windows of the Middle Ages and the glass sculptures of contemporary artists. Despite its wide and continuous use in art, the artistic and cultural- historical significance of glass has long been underestimated and even been neglected by researchers in art history.

This section is therefore dedicated to two topics:

 On the one hand, we will examine the role of the material in constituting a work of art and upon the perception of glass art, in particular stained glass. This artistic genre is considered as a special branch of monumental painting that is closely linked to architecture. This connection has an effect on the perception of its materiality, which gains force through the contrast between the transparency/diaphaneity of the glass and the opacity of the architectural structure.

On the other hand, we will take a closer look at the composition, the properties and the diverse uses of glass in art and discuss the increasing importance of material characterization for art historical research, the strength of which lies in its transdisciplinary approach and multidirectional nature.

To guide the discussions, we would like to raise the following questions:

• How was the material aspect of stained glass presented in written sources, how were the possibilities of achieving visual effects with different methods of handling glass described (painting with grisaille, silver stain and enamel, connecting glasses of different colors, the type of painting, the line, the hatching, etc.)?
• To what extent do the properties of the material and its handling determine the design process?
• When and where did coloured or colourless glass itself become an aesthetic object or gain aesthetic value?
• How was and is the material of an artwork perceived by the viewer (de- and re-materialisation in the process of viewing the artwork)?
• What kinds of metaphors were used to describe the aesthetic effect of the material (e.g. comparisons with precious stones in the Middle Ages, or comparisons with bouquets of flowers in the 19th century)?
• What information can the characterisation of the material and the techniques of a glass artwork provide us with?
• What is the significance of knowledge about glass composition, raw materials and their provenance and glass manufacturing techniques for art history?
• To what extent can these findings inform us about production sites, trade routes, knowledge transfer, technological and artistic developments, as well as the restoration and the long-term conservation of glass art?
• The planned section is intended to demonstrate the potential of research on glass as a material, and its manifold uses and expressions in art, and to show the significance and scope of the findings for the disciplines of art history and material culture, over the centuries and across the world.