In October 2004 the Art Technological Source Research study group held a highly successful symposium at the Instituut Collectie Nederland, Amsterdam: Approaching the Art of the Past: Sources & Reconstructions. Recipe books, treatises and manuals on artists’ materials, tools and methods are of fundamental importance for an understanding of how art objects were made. Historically accurate reconstructions on the basis of these sources provide insight into the original appearance of an object, as well as workshop practices, and provide models for understanding material degradation. The interpretation of artists’ intent rests on this kind of basic knowledge. For example: Van Gogh never intended the blossoms in his series of orchard paintings (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam) to appear quite as pale as they look today. How would they have looked originally? The recipe sources and reconstructions may answer this and help us understand what has happened. The symposium was held to discuss the role of source research and the use of reconstructions in the emerging field of art technological research. The Proceedings of the symposium (edited by Mark Clarke, Joyce Townsend and Ad Stijnman) will be published next year (2005). Table of contents Forward – Henriëtte van der Linden Preface – Alberto de Tagle Introduction – Ad Stijnman and Mark Clarke Chairman’s remarks – Arie Wallert An introduction to source research Ad Stijnman Reconstruction research, some cases and their contexts Ernst van de Wetering Blue and green, understanding historical recipes and phenomena on old master paintings Margriet van Eikema Hommes The Cologne database for Medieval painting materials and reconstruction Doris Oltrogge Levels of reconstruction of black iron gall inks for the InkCor project Ad Stijnman The value of accurate reconstructions to the art historian Lorne Campbell Historically accurate oil painting reconstructions for the De Mayerne Project Leslie Carlyle Cobalt blue, emerald green and rose madder in copal-based media used by the Pre-Raphaelites Joyce Townsend Reconstructions of French 19th-century red lake pigments for the Red Lake Project Jo Kirby When glass is made of plastic : restoration of the model of the Pavillon Saint-Gobain for the international exhibition of 1937 Olivier Béringuer ArTeS database Hayo de Boer Inventory of a pharmacy in Kolberg Andreas Burmester Page-Image Recipe Databases Mark Clarke and Leslie Carlyle 16th century portrait miniatures Alan Derbyshire, Nick Frayling, Timea Tallian Computer reconstruction of the yellow cloak of the Girl at the Virginals by Vermeer Joris Dik, Paul van Alkemade, Valerie Sivel, Jan van der Lubbe, Yuval Garini Sources and preparatory drawing in 15th-19th century Byzantine iconography Vaios Ganitis, Ekaterina Talarou 3D Digital Visualisation and Virtual Restoration of Polychrome Sculpture Angie Geary Whistler’s Correspondence: an artist in the studios Erma Hermens, Margaret MacDonald Reconstruction of recipes for flesh colours in mediaeval artist manuals Kathrin Kinseher Reconstruction of the one of Durer s drawing machines Aurélie Nicolaus, William Whitney Smalt glazes on silver leaf gildings of baroque and rococo polychromy in southern Germany Mark Richter (In)stability of pigment mixtures described in artist manuals Elzbieta Szmit-Naud Import of European painting materials in Havana, Cuba, in the 17th and 18th century Alberto de Tagle Chrozophora tinctoria : mediaeval colourant in the seventeenth century Arie Wallert Exploring Rembrandt s painting materials and techniques: Rembrandt and burnt plate oil Phoebe Dent Weil & Sarah Belchetz-Swenson Imitating ultramarine: artist’s economies reconstructed Sally Woodcock & Libby Sheldon

This volume contains the papers presented at the ICON Paintings Group conference ‘Wet Paint – Interactions between Water and Paintings’ held in Edinburgh on 12th October 2018. There are many ways in which water and humidity can physically alter paintings, sometimes with disastrous effect e.g the staining of canvases; flaking and blanching paint; warping of wooden panels and cockling canvas supports. However, water is also a useful material for conservators that can be employed in the treatment of painted surfaces in the form of aqueous cleaning solutions, moisture treatments to reduce deformations and as a carrier for adhesives. Contents: The Conservation Legacy of the 1966 Flooding: the Experience of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Firenze through the Restoration of The Last Supper by Giorgio Vasari / L’eredità conservativa dell’Alluvione del 1966: l’esperienza dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure di Firenze attraverso il restauro dell’Ultima Cena di Giorgio Vasari – Andrea Santacesaria. Methodology for Monitoring the Impact of Moisture on Lined Canvas Paintings in Historic Houses – Vladimir Vilde, David Thickett, David Hollis and Emma Richardson. The Conservation of Two Water Sensitive Fourteenth-Century Italian Fresco Fragments by Spinello Aretino, Previously Treated and Displayed as Easel Paintings in the Nineteenth Century – Eric Miller, Lynne Harrison and Helen Howard. The Application of Water-based Cleaning Systems in the Treatment of George Stubbs’ Wax Paintings – Annie Cornwell. 25 Years After the Perth Museum & Art Gallery Flood: Reflections – Clare Meredith. Edvard Munch’s Monumental Aula Paintings: Reviewing Soiling and Surface Cleaning Issues and Searching for New Solutions – Lena Porsmo Stoveland, Maartje Stols-Witlox, Bronwyn Ormsby, Francesco Caruso and Tine Frøysaker. Bulging in Wax-Resin Impregnated Canvas paintings: review and cases – Cecil Krarup Andersen, Christine Slottved Kimbriel, Karen-Marie Henriksen, Cecilia Gregers-Høegh, Marie Christensen and Martin N. Mortensen. ‘It is a formal problem to represent water, to describe water, because it can be anything ‘ [1] Watery subjects, media, materials and conservation solutions for paintings by David Hockney – Rebecca Hellen, Rachel Scott and Bronwyn Ormsby. Using High Molecular Weight Polysaccharides to Clean Vinyl Paintings: a Case Study on a Polymateric Contemporary Artwork – Paola Carnazza and Serena Francone. The Challenges of the Reconstruction of the Paint Layer on Painted Wooden Panelling Damaged by Rainfall – Maja Sucevic Miklin. Paintings Affected by Mould at the Palace of Westminster – Alison Seed and Sally Higgs. Oil Based Paint Under a Layer of Water: A Rare Miniature Painting Technique from the Eighteenth Century – Tatjana Wischniowski.

The three one-day conferences from which the papers in this title are taken were jointly hosted by Paintings Group of the Institute of Conservation (ICON) and the British Association of Painting Conservators-Restorers (BAPCR) and held at the Courtauld Institute in London in 2007. The conferences explored egg tempura retouching, resin retouching and retouching complex surfaces. The papers in this volume discuss various approaches to retouching paintings and the challenges that they present to the conservator. They cover the history behind techniques used today and also the scientific basis of conservation and restoration techniques.

This publication is the result of a project of technical examination on metalpoint drawings which was undertaken in preparation for the exhibition Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns. In this volume we report the results of the examination of thirty metalpoint drawings in the British Museum’s collection from Germany and the Low Countries dating from the 15th to 17th centuries. This research builds on the work done for an earlier project, published in Italian Renaissance Drawings: Technical Examination and Analysis. The research methodology used combines techniques of visual examination, technical imaging and chemical analysis in order to understand drawing techniques and the use of materials. In some cases curators had particular questions that might be further investigated through this research. The results are fully documented here and it is hoped that this will form a useful reference in the future, as comparative information to the examination of drawings in other collections.

A portrait of an eminent jewelry artist and her unique creations!

Inspired by the Arte Povera movement, the Italian jewelry artist Annamaria Zanella (b. 1966) uses base materials, which only gain meaning through their context. Corroded metal or found objects convey statements that can be both political and personal in nature. Zanella wants to bring the soul of the material to light through the work of her own hands.

The color used is intended to evoke feelings and reactions. To this end Zanella studied the history of colors and their production, especially that of her unmistakable blue. She produced a blue pigment according to a recipe from the fourteenth century, invoking in its modern use pioneering artists such as Giotto, Wassily Kandinsky and Yves Klein.

Annamaria Zanella is represented in numerous museums, including Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (FR); Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin (DE); Die Neue Sammlung The Design Museum, Munich (DE); Museum of Arts and Design, New York (US); Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim (DE); Museo degli Argenti, Florence (IT); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (GB); Palazzo Fortuny, Venice (IT); Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York (US); Swiss National Museum, Zurich (CH).

Text in English and Italian.

Artisans of Israel is a very special book on crafts. Author Lynn Holstein is in search of a national identity in the artisanry of the still young country – and she finds it in the unifying pursuit for innovation. Forty artists, including Jews, Muslims and Christians, tell their stories and show in five different trades how emancipation can be promoted through creativity. Working with one’s hands stands unfailingly at the centre of this reflection. From the hybrid of cultural and religious backgrounds emerges a unique compilation that brings together the fields of metalwork and jewellery, ceramics, textiles, paper and wood. This compilation portrays a sensitive and inspiring portrait of Israel and its inhabitants. This book accompanies an exhibition at The Open Museum, Tefen (IL), in January 2018.

Text in English, Hebrew and Arabic.

Petra Zimmermann occupies a unique position among emerging contemporary jewelry artists: she shares their exciting approach to the subject of jewelry and the quotable adoption of the pop culture label for defining the auteur jewelry concept in which she succeeds, this time through historical reference. The artist draws on past encounters with costume jewelry from the previous century for her rings, bracelets and brooches. Comprised of bright, colorful synthetic forms, these objects receive a framework in which their artificial appearance contrasts to the dusty splendour of the historic costume jewelry. Beguiling pieces of jewelry emerge, which combine the present fascination for glamour with an element of progression, thus referencing the costume jewelry as an essential component in the production and construction of glamour in the portrait photography of the Hollywood diva. In her latest series of works, the artist uses mass media images of models, floral motifs, architecture and design objects which broaden her scope of cultural and social interpretations. Thus behind the visual opulence of her work, she succeeds in handling relevant aesthetic and social themes in her pieces; relevant for a generation that no longer struggles against traditional conventions, but that negotiates much more in an increasingly complex environment in the search for personal and historical coherence.

Petra Zimmermann is one of the most ambitious artists in contemporary jewelry. This book provides the first overview of her fascinating and exciting creative jewelry works with sumptuous images and scholarly articles.

Custodians brings together for the first time, in this beautifully compiled collection, images of many of Oxford’s most prestigious buildings along with some rarely seen, but wonderful venues and their ‘Custodians’. Photographer Joanna Vestey set out to explore the extraordinary colleges and buildings of Oxford, behind the closed doors, often beyond the reach of the 9.5 million visitors a year who come here, and to meet the ‘Custodians’ playing a pivotal role in perpetuating these world renowned institutions. Rarely do we get to catch a glimpse behind the closed facades of these iconic structures and to see the spaces that lie within. All the images have been captured in the University City of Oxford, known as the “City of Dreaming Spires” and show its extraordinary breadth of architecture since the arrival of the Saxons. It includes venues such as the 17th Century Divinity School, the mid-18th century Radcliffe Camera continuing through to the most recent award winning RIBA nominated chapel at Ripon College completed last year. Venues such as the Sheldonian Theatre and Christchurch College sit alongside perhaps lesser known venues such as The Real Tennis Courts or the John Martyr Pawsons cricket pavilion portraying the breadth and diversity constituting the city. The ‘Custodians’ and their surroundings enjoy equal status in Joanna’s formal compositions; they seem to belong together, yet do not fuse into one, thereby asking us to question how we are all largely shaped and influenced by the structures around us – how defined we are by them and how much they form us. Full of unexpected venues beautifully photographed, this book will appeal to the his-torian, city visitor, people interested in architecture and interiors as well as to the extensive alumni network of the colleges themselves. It will also appeal to an audience interested in contemporary photography.

The collection of drawings in the Ashmolean is one of the greatest treasures of the University of Oxford. It began spectacularly in 1843 when a group of drawings by Raphael and Michelangelo that had previously belonged to the portrait painter, Sir Thomas Lawrence, was bought by subscription. Lawrence’s collection was one of the greatest collections of Old Master drawings ever assembled and its dispersal was much regretted. The Raphaels and Michelangelos, however, were the jewels in its crown. Following their arrival in Oxford, their fame attracted a number of gifts and bequests of drawings and watercolors by Dürer, Claude Lorraine, Brueghel, J. M. W Turner and many others.

This is a story not only of Old Masters but of benefactors – Francis Douce, Chambers Hall, John Ruskin and their successors – whose different tastes account for the variety of the drawings in the modern Print Room. It is a story also of the curators who bought them. In particular, it is the story of Sir Karl Parker who arrived at the museum in 1934 and left a collection when he retired in 1962 that comprehensively covered the history of the art of drawing in Europe from its origins to the present day. The exhibition, Master Drawings: Michelangelo to Moore, celebrates this history. It includes many of the finest drawings in Oxford, representing the work of many different artists: Raphael and Michelangelo; Dürer and the artists of the Northern Renaissance; Guercino and Rubens; Boucher and Tiepolo; German Romantics; J. M. W. Turner; Degas and Pissarro; the artists of the Ballets Russes; British twentieth-century artists from Gwen John to Hockney; and much else.

The Ashmolean Museum holds a world-class collection of over 200 prints made by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1669). Widely hailed as the greatest painter of the Dutch Golden Age, Rembrandt was also one of the most innovative and experimental printmakers of the seventeenth century. Rembrandt was extraordinary in creating prints not merely as multiples to be distributed but also as artistic expressions by using the etching printmaking technique for the sketchy compositions so typical of him. Almost drawing-like in appearance, these images were created by combining spontaneous lines with his remarkable sense for detail.

Rembrandt was a keen observer and this clearly shows in his choice of subjects for his etchings: intense self-portraits with their penetrating gaze; atmospheric views of the Dutch countryside; lifelike beggars seen in the streets of his native Leiden; intimate family portraits as well as portrayals of his wealthy friends in Amsterdam; and biblical stories illustrated with numerous figures. This book presents Rembrandt as an unrivalled storyteller through a selection of over 70 prints from the Ashmolean collection through a variety of subjects ranging from 1630 until the late 1650s.

During the day, painter and graphic artist Fred Bervoets (1942) works almost routinely at his large format etchings. At night, he lets his imagination run wild. The hundreds of drawings, sketches, doodles and paintings done in the margin today fill almost the entire ground floor of his studio home. The one thing they have in common, apart from their maker, is their modest A4 format.
The spontaneity of these small works on paper forms the heart of this book, which also includes Bervoets’ more monumental etchings since 2013. This one-of-its kind “print room” offers an impressive kaleidoscopic self-portrait of an absolutely unique artist.

Text in English and Dutch.

A large selection of Letizia Battaglia’s iconic black and white images are presented in this catalog, guiding the reader along a journey into one of post-war Italy’s darkest periods. Drawing from Battaglia’s personal archive, the book also includes some of the photographer’s more recent projects. It offers a unique approach to her genre-defining work (often likened to that of American ‘crime’ photographer Weegee) and a chance to reflect on the role of photography as an individual and collective means for taking action, bearing witness, providing evidence and documenting history. The Daily Beast wrote that Battaglia’s pictures capture “Mafia judges and police officers, many dead in their cars with blood so fresh it glimmers like water.” Yet some present daily Sicilian life with “young girls playing on the cobbled streets and wealthy women in fur collars sipping champagne.” The breadth of Battaglia’s ouevre paints a portrait of Sicily across the turning point of the centuries.

Many of Gauguin’s portraits of Breton and Polynesian sitters, as well as his self-portraits, include inanimate objects. Intriguing as these are, the works in Paul Gauguin’s portrait gallery have never really been the subject of a thorough study. This book, first published in English in 2005, fills a gap in the scholarly literature on Gauguin, one of the leading figures in post-Impressionist art, with an in-depth, well-illustrated examination of his portraits. An array of experts on Gauguin’s art reflect on the symbolic attributes his models were endowed with, and the meaning behind the evocative settings he chose for them. The authors explore the many aspects of the artist’s portraits, often in light of the remarks he made about his models, and focus on their importance in relation to his larger oeuvre. This book, which is intended as a standard text in this field, includes essays written by experts in Gauguin’s work, all established scholars and researchers.

Text in French.

An impressively tattooed but unnamed Easter Island (Rapa Nui) man appears often in the pages of Pacific Island histories and museum catalogs. The Swedish ethnographer Dr. Knut Hjalmar Stolpe knew him only as Tepano, the Tahitian version of the Christian name Stephen. But what was his real Rapanui identity, and what can his life story tell us about the history of Easter Island?

This book reveals his identity, who illustrated him, and how he transcended the tragic events of 19th-century Rapa Nui to become one of the most iconic faces of the Polynesian past. The authors summarize the history of tattoo as practiced by Rapanui artisans, link that history to island geography, and present rare barkcloth sculptures as a visual record of tattoo patterns.

This title is the first in a new series on Polynesian Arts & Culture by Mana Press, in partnership with Floating World Editions.

For a list of future titles, visit: www.FloatingWorldEditions.com. For more on Rapa Nui, the Mana Gallery and Mana Books, visit: www.eisp.org.

First to translate two of the oldest accounts of Musashi’s career – the Bushû denraiki and the Bukôden – William de Lange presents a full biography of the most famous yet enigmatic of swordsmen. In doing so, he draws extensively on a wealth of additional and often neglected sources to reconstruct the meandering course of Musashi’s eventful life: his dramatic encounter with Sasaki Kojirô on Ganryû island, his multiple bouts with the famed Yoshioka brothers, and the remarkable gestation of his life’s influential work: The Book of Five Rings. In the course of this highly readable account, many of the convenient myths that have arisen around Musashi are debunked. The more controversial incidents of the warrior’s life that have been left hidden, perhaps deliberately, are uncovered: his troubled relationship with his father, his whereabouts during the battle of Sekigahara, the siege of Osaka castle, and the birth and death of an illegitimate child, which was an event that deeply influenced his art. The biography reveals how Musashi’s path through life was shaped by strong personal traits: his reckless valor in the face of danger, his sensitive intelligence in the fields of art and architecture, his generosity toward peers and pupils, and his defiant stubbornness in old age. The complex yet human portrait that arises is a far cry from the accepted one-dimensional caricature of this medieval swordsman.

Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584-1645) is the most revered and celebrated swordsman in Japanese history; in Japan alone close to a thousand works have taken the ancient warrior as its subject. Unfortunately, our modern portrait of this folk hero is derived mainly from popular books, comics, and film, with little heed paid to the early denki, chronicles recorded by men who, though they had not known Musashi in his lifetime, faithfully recorded what was passed down by those who had. The Bushû Denraiki is the earliest such record still in existence. Completed in 1727 by Tachibana Minehide, the fifth generation master of Musashi’s Niten Ichi school of fencing, it is the most reliable record of Musashi’s life and exploits outside those from the hand of the master swordsman himself. Now, after three centuries, Minehide’s insight into this enigmatic and solitary swordsman are available to the English reader. His text throws a new and refreshing light on many aspects of especially Musashi’s early life-his troubled relations with his father, his first battle experience during Japan’s period of unification, the sad death of his illegitimate child, and of course his legendary duel on Ganryû island.

This is the book that accompanies a landmark exhibition organized jointly by the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, and the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, to bring together works by Francis Bacon alongside masterpieces from the Hermitage collection. The book and exhibition focus on Bacon’s known influences and inspirations, and explore his fascination with artists such as Rembrandt, Velasquez, Titian, Michelangelo, Rodin, Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne and Degas. The thirteen paintings by Bacon in the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection form the core group by the artist, alongside paintings, sculptures and artefacts from the Hermitage that exemplify the theme of the project. Photographs from the Hugh Lane archive in Dublin further explore the artist’s working methods. With text by leading Bacon experts, and designed by John Morgan Studio, London, it is a book that will offer intriguing new insights into the life and work of one of the twentieth century’s most famous artists. Contents: An Introduction: Thierry Morel; Bacon, Michelangelo and the Classical Tradition: Paul Joannides; Francis Bacon’s Studio: Margarita Cappock; Bacon’s Paintings in the Sainsbury Collection: Amanda Geitner. Also available Bacon Moore ISBN 9781851497478

Margaret Mercer Elphinstone (1788-1867), with her powerful mind and independent spirit, was never daunted by adversity as she sought to realize her ambitions for her family against the background of intellectual upheaval and social and political change which followed the French Revolution and the end of the ancien régime. The turning-point in her life was her controversial marriage in 1817 with the general Charles de Flahaut (1785-1870), which, contrary to all expectations, resulted in one of the most successful partnerships in the ‘auld alliance’ between France and Scotland.

Whereas the life of her husband, the dashing Napoleonic general and diplomat Charles de Flahaut, is well known, Margaret has remained in the shadows. Yet this biographical study, based on unpublished correspondence in the Archives Nationales, Paris, reveals her to have been the more interesting of the two. It shows how much he depended on her brains, political judgment and artistic taste as well as her fortune to guide him in his career. Her lively, observant but wicked pen takes us with her on visits to Talleyrand, to the marquis de Lafayette, to the duchesse de Praslin, to house parties in stately homes of England and Scotland. Acknowledged a superb hostess, her descriptions of the menus, and entertainments organized in her homes in Scotland, London and Paris, and at the Flahaut embassies in Vienna and in London capture the flavor of those cosmopolitan gatherings. A lifelong liberal in politics and an upholder of Whig principles, her politicomanie inspires sharp comments on the opponents of Reform in England and on the self-seeking ministers of Louis-Philippe in France.