The Ravished Image: Or How to Ruin Masterpieces by Restoration [Hardcover]

Sarah Walden (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: St Martins Pr (August 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312664168
• ISBN-13: 978-0312664169
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,067,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Defending the helpless, February 9, 2007

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wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Ravished Image: Or How to Ruin Masterpieces by Restoration (Hardcover)

This time, it's the older generation under attack. They are helpless against their caretakers, subjected to brutal, disfiguring, and destructive treatments "for their own good." Too often, those in charge are blinded by science or by irrelevant ideas of a later generation, so unproven and risky treatments are undertaken more because they're possible than because they'll actually do any good. With discouraging regularity, the best outcome would simply have been to let them age gracefully.

The paintings, that it. Walden describes several hundred years of abuse at the hands of the cleaners, conservators, and restorers, abuse that has all but destroyed many of the old masters, and abuse that only accelerates as modern solvents and tools are put into play. Walden starts with the most basic question: what is a painting. The range and complexity of answers will startle some readers, especially the complex layering of paint and varnish. Using these terms, she then talks a little about classical painting technique that starts with broad tones, almost cartoons, and successively builds up layers of delicate shades, details, and optical effects. Of course, painters eager for immediate recognition have often resorted to dramatic techniques and materials, often with little thought to longevity.

Traditional varnishes yellowed over time, though, and collected dirt from the environment. Zealous if misinformed cleaners often start by scrubbing painting clean of the soluble varnish. But, when the subtle, final touches on a painting are on top of that varnish, all that distinguished a masterwork from daubery literally goes down the drain. It's not a new phenomenon - Walden cites tirades by Goya, Goethe, Delacroix, and others against the same things in their own day. In many of those cases, not just cleaning but acutal over-painting was part of the offense against the artwork, whether to "repair" it, bring it into conformance with the tastes of the era, or personalize for a specific owner.

This is a fitting complement to Beck's book, "Art Restoration" (ISBN 0719554306), since that focuses on fesco and sculpture, while this addresses painting. I found it a drier read than Beck's though no less informative, partly since this book's stage is more often a British museum lab than Beck's Italian legal thriller. Still, it's a good one for any reader who cares about art that has come down through the centuries and should, if let to live, go down many more.

//wiredweird