„Antox” is one from a fairly wide range of fungicides manufactured by IiNCO Building Chemistry Division, Foland and is known as preservative specially dev e loped for preservation of timber constructions in ancient buildings. Although it has been thought as .a medium for use in not polychrome wood material a series of tests and experiments was carried out with the aim to check the usability of this preparation for preservation of polychrome objects. It has been found in the course of tests conducted that crystallization pentachlorophenol salts on the surface of saturated wood has destructive effect on the painting itself. However, a 0,5 to 1.0 per cent admixture of dibutyl phtalate or tricresyl phosphate can prevent the superficial salt crystallization thus enabling ,,Antox” to be used for preservatdng the objects coated with distemper paints,, and, though w ith every possible precautions, for those coated with gold, too. On the basis of tests conducted it has been found further that the above preparation under no circumstances could find application for objects coated with oil paints since the set of solvents present in „Antox” softens and even solves both the paint and the newly placed varnish.
In 1975 there appeared ”A List of the Documentation and Mobile Monuments in Poland”, the first publication of this kind in Poland after the war. It came out as an edition of series В in ’’Library of Museology and Monuments Protection”. Apart from very important bibliographical data on structures themselves the publication, so valuable for conservators and restorers of paintings and polychromed sculptures, contains also much information on conservation, restoration of forks of art and mainly on materials used to this purpose. Therefore, in the course of time we shall be able to check their suitablity for conservation and restoration procedure. Thus, the materials are subject to verifications and improvements in conservation and restoration technique. The article presents an analysis of binding agents and paints used in the restoration of paintings and polychromed sculptures (up to 1975) for stippling and reconstructional purposes.
The wing under examination comes from the altar of St. Jodok in the church in Sątopy. It is the property of the Mazurian Museum in Olsztyn, displayed in the castle in Lidzbark Warmiński. The wing is divided into two panels with paintings on both sides, 94,5 x 85,5 cm large, and executed with tempera on pine boards. The date of their origin has been established as the beginning of the sixteenth century. The wing has been already subjected to several conservation procedures. In 1990 it was handed over to the Department of the Conservation of Paintings and Polychrome Sculpture at the Mikołaj Kopernik University in Toruń. The wing was strongly warped and the painting layer in a state of deterioration. Owing to considerable difficulties in straightening out the base (each of the panels reacted differently to moisture), the only way to salvage the object was to transfer the wings of the polyptych to a new, stable base. Originally, the streppo method was taken into consideration but ultimately abandoned due to certain hazards involved; as a result the boards , some 0,8 cms thick, were separated with the help of a specially constructed device. After many difficulties, the two panels were separated without harming the painting layer. At the same time, studies were conducted on the selection of the new adhesive and base. It was decided to use a plexi board and the application of various glues was considered. Next, the resilience of such adhesives as Rhoplex B-500, Acrylkleber 360HV, Rhoplex+chalk (1:1) +Acrysol G-110, Rhoplex +Acrysol G-110 was tested. It was found that the most suitable adhesive was a mixture of Rhoplex, chalk and Acrysol. Additional tests were carried out with Araldit SV which has the consistency of putty. The Rhoplex mixture was used for one of the panels and Araldit SV - for the other. The placing on the new plexi base was performed on a vacuum table and a pressure of about 600 mB was applied.
A new variant of plying-up paintings with a high delicate texture proposed by G. A. Berger (Maltechnik— Restauro, I (1980, p. 50— 6 6 ) and which was to eliminate the pressure of foil upon a painting layer has been tested in practice and employed in the Department of the Conservation of Paintings and Polychromed Sculptures in the Copernicus University of Toruń. Instead of Beva 371 recommended by Berger, a water binder (50 per cent water emulsion of Osacryl with 4 per cent methylcellulose as 1 :2) was used giving a tight airproof coat on the back of the plyed-up painting, which made it possible to produce underpressure between the back of the painting and the top of the table. In this lies a difference between that method and a traditional one; moreover, it permits for the plying-up without covering the whole facing of the painting with foil. An additional advantage of the described technique is the possibility to dry up the painting completely during the treatment under a continuous effect of underpressure and increased temperature, which reduces greatly a risk involved in every traditional plying-up on a water binder. This offers also a possiblity to avoid numerous inconveniences of drying the painting with tissue paper under high pressure. The method has been employed in practice to ply up the 18 th-century picture of „Madonna with the Child” .
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