Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-01
RESTORATION OF PAINTINGS.
A Difficult .Task-The Story of a Van
Dyck Portrait.
From Harper's Weekly.

From Harper's Weekly.
One of the cleverest reservations of a
painting ever made was that conducted
under the supervision Of New York ex-
pert not long since. BY reason of the
great age of the picture the canvas,
which was about six feet square. had be-
come rotten. The first step in the work
of restoration was the gluing by means
Of a vegetable compound, of thick
piece of manila paper over the face Of a
painting. The picture was then turned
over and from it's back there was picked
thread by thread. all the rotten canvas.
Inls delicate operation required four days
for Its completion. At the end of that
time all that remained of the original
work was a delicate shell of pigment
glued by its face to piece of paper
The rest of the task was conparative-
~ easy. The expert covered the bare
back OF the painting with strong fish
glue and fastened to it new piece of
canvas The manila paper was then, by
means of hot water, removed from the
face or the painting. There was the pic
ture the same as before, but now upon
strong new canvas
The commission appointed some time
ago by the Italian minister of public in
stfuct1on to ascertain whether several
paintings by old masters in the Flor
ence galleries. which have been washed
or restored, have suffered any damage
mas accomplished its task, but as tie
three commissioners failed to agree in
their conclusions they have drawn two
separate reports.
The painter Sartorio deplores the res
toration. He states that the varnish or
outer coating of paint in the old paintings
constituted. as rule. an integral and es-
sential part of the execution of the work.
ana very often the aspect of the paint
fhn ,:.,y-
he contends. it is a mistake to remove
1t. as invariably the characteristic fea-
lures of picture are thus altered.
Inc other commissioners, Canevaghi
and Pagliaghi. defend the restora ton.
They admit that some of the washed
paintings have lost their original .patina
ana the special tone of the color. but on
the other hand, they have not been dam
aged. These commissioners examined
each painting restored and reached the
conclusion that slight mistakes in tae
treatment adopted may have been com
mltted. as the restOrers did not succeed
IN preserving the original harmony of
coioTs. put that the washing was neces-
sary to save the paintings from decay.
Despite the fact that the restora t;on
mas been practically approved by two
commissioners who are both experts in
the art of restoring old paintings. the
fine arts departments decided not to al
low other paintings to be washed in the
AuAuIc uiitSS the proposed reStOratlOnS
are fully approved by the SUPERIOR coun-
Gil of fine arts
or the strange vicissitLdes through
which many of the worlds famous pic
lures have passed, perhaps none was odd
er than that OF The Picture in Dis
gulse.' magnificent painting which now
adOrns the residence of Lord Leigh in
Warwickshire, England
This remarkable picture for many wears
appeared to be merely painting Of flow
ers The floral study was. however, final
~ pronounced by an astute art dealer to
be In reality a mask of another painting
With the permission of the owner he
caused the painting of flowers gradually
to be removed whereupon there was dis
covered underneath a very fine portrait
or Charles ]. by Van Dyck.
While no authentic record of this mas
terpiece has been found. it is supposed
that the portrait was disguised by some
royalist in order to guard against its
destruction by roundheads during the
revolution.