Conserving a Canaletto
Denver Art Museum staff are publishing a multi-part series on a long lost painting recently located in our collections.
Denver Art Museum staff are publishing a multi-part series on a long lost painting recently located in our collections.
In my last post, I discussed some of the techniques I used to examine the Canaletto. In this post I will review (with pictures!) my findings. The techniques discussed were: normal, raking and specular illumination, ultraviolet-A radiation, and x-radiation. I was able to gather useful information from all of the techniques for my assessment.
I’ve finally been able to more closely examine the Canaletto to gain a better understanding of its present overall condition and treatment history. Generally, the picture is in better shape than I anticipated. To come to that conclusion I used a variety of evaluative and analytical techniques to assess the painting’s structural and aesthetic state. These non-destructive techniques range from looking closely at the picture in bright and varied lighting to bathing the picture in ultraviolet or x-radiation.
My story is about the discovery and subsequent process of reaching consensus on the attribution of an unpublished early work by the Italian veduto (vista or views) painter Giovanni Antonio Canal, called il Canaletto I 1697 – 1768 at the Denver Art Museum. Yes, even unknown works by old master artists can be found even in museum storage areas.
I chanced upon this painting one day in 2007 while looking at works with other staff members from the Department of Painting and Sculpture in storage.
I was happy to hear from Timothy Standring, the curator of European painting and sculpture, that the Denver Art Museum was awarded the TEFAF grant to treat a long lost Canaletto picture, Venice: the Molo from the Bacino di San Marco. Though eager to look at the picture myself, I was also a little apprehensive to learn of its condition because pictures of this age are often heavily restored or "touched up," which may have been the reason it was overlooked in the first place.
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First Look
Artist Yunn Pann answered some questions about her process ahead of her Demo & Do visits at the Denver Art Museum in December 2010 and January 2011. Read on to find out what Yunn has to say about inspiration, teaching, and her craft.
Denver Art Museum: What is it about the materials/process you use when creating your large-format calligraphy images that intrigues you?