Final Stages of the Treatment of “Terra de Parangua”

When I last wrote about the painting, “Terra de Parangua”, I just completed retouching the majority of the fills and applying a separation layer of Paraloid B72 in Xylene (1:5). Manuel told me that now the larger fills had been retouched, the smaller areas of dirt and cracks stood out more and I should focus on retouching them in the following week.

The first thing that I decided I should remove was the pencil mark at the top of the painting. I was originally reluctant to remove this as I was unsure if it was original or not so I applied varnish to it instead. As I mentioned in an earlier post, our course teaches us to be cautious about removing original material as it is part of the object’s history but as the treatment of the painting progressed, the removal of the pencil mark seemed more necessary. One reason for this was because it did not match the other pencil mark on the painting and it appeared to have been drawn in relation to the frame. Another reason that it should be removed was that its presence on the painting was distracting and it was likely that Manuel would tell me to remove it or retouch it.

I used MEC applied with cotton swabs to remove the separation layer and then the pencil mark. I then applied a new separation layer.

I then had to clean and fill the smaller holes in the painting. There were several of these smaller flaws to restore so I will just  give you an example of how I treated them.

 

Once I had filled and retouched the smaller holes and cracks, Manuel asked me why I hadn’t retouched/ removed three areas:

1. the pencil mark next to the second hill on the left.

2. the red dot highlighted in the circle on the left.

3. the blue dot highlighted in the circle on the right.

I explained that I had not retouched the pencil mark as I believed it to have been used by the artist and it was an important insight into how he had created the painting. I also told him that the red and blue dots looked like they could be original and that I was reluctant to paint over them for the same reason.

Manuel agreed that the pencil mark should be left as I had found it but argued that the red and blue dots should be retouched as they detracted from the painting and that after working with Valeria for many years, he believed that she would question why these areas had been left unretouched/removed. In order to compromise with the Pinacoteca’s preference for paintings with less flaws and the guidance that I have received from the University of Lincoln to not remove original material, I decided to retouch over them, rather than remove them.

 

 

After my final retouches I consulted Manuel and we agreed it was time for the big step of applying the final coat of varnish. We placed the painting on a makeshift stand in the fume cupboard, readjusting it so that the spray can was always level with the painting, therefore creating an even finish.

 

 

After spraying the varnish, I waited roughly ten minutes and then made sure the varnish was even using a large house painting brush. Once I had done this, I considered the treatment of the painting finished!

Everyone loves a before and after so here you are:

 

 

Thank you very much to all of the staff in the conservation department for all of their help and guidance, and for letting me restore part of their collection using their materials! Also thank you for the lovely leaving gifts and goodbye meals! I have had such a fantastic time and I still cannot believe I was lucky enough to work in such a good lab and museum with such great people in Brazil! Thank you to the rest of the staff at the Pinacoteca who have made Issy and I feel so welcome! We already miss all of you but I suppose that means that we will just have to come back to SP someday…