The 19th c did restore quite freely to make the vases and the stories on them more accessible and sympathetic to a larger number of museum visitors (and not only them, but some collectors, too). The results were often very bad indeed. If you have a
collection of old Alinari photos (and those from the Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale, the GFN, in
Rome) you will see for yourself.
I remember Dietrich von Bothmer explaining to a group of us in the conservation rooms of the Metropolitan Museum what out to be done on a red-figured vase and why: the white plaster that fills in the gaps should be painted black or, on a figure, an earth-orange tint distinguishable from the color of the clay, because white patches are terribly distracting, but coloring in black or clay-like color helps the original
work to stand out and to stand out intelligibly. Contours should not be
restored. The most famous example is that of the chest of the
horse on Euphronios's Leagros
cup, Beazley ARV2, p. 16, no. 17,
Munich 2620. The generically rounded contour of the restoration has now been removed. I mention this, because this restoration was trying earnestly to be innocuous, but always bothered even young students sensitive either to horses or to art. No, don't be tempted: you are not, we are not, Euphronios, and
his concept and drawing of a
horse are not ours,
nor can ours be
his.
Smoothing, as defined by
Curtis, is fairly analogous to what Dietrich von Bothmer (and others for the last 50 or 60 years) have done, but it is more necessary and less annoying to the very sensitive, PROVIDED IT IS DONE EXTREMELY WELL, than the tinting of plaster on vases. Anything whatsoever that tries to
supply something of the engraver or vase-painter that is lost is dubious at best.
Persons who pay four- and five-digit prices for bronzes do not like roughness. The high-priced, highly skilled conservators are, evidently, most frequently called upon to please these buyers. It is the same for
work in other media, by the way.
I think it is very important to distinguish the cosmetic
work done on, e.g.,
sestertii from the butchery perpetrated on some Mr. Tooley, whether by
smoothing or by metal tooling. Personally, I HATE re-patination, but it is not so bad as getting into the metal or drawing new features or drapery on vases.
What about Thorwaldsen's addition to the
Aegina sculptures? There's a whole caseful of them exhibited in the Glyptothek. I mention these as among the best of their kind. The key is,
hands off the surface of the original marble! Simply restoring the
circle of a discus on a
Myron Diskobolos is, IMO, perfectly right, provided you have the
arc of the
circle preserved. Many post-Renaissance restorations, of course, are hilarious.
Avoid all hybris! You aren't the artist (and neither were the Imperial ateliers that made that
copia of statuary).
Pat L.
