04 Barbu Eng

CARACTERIZAREA MOSTRELOR PROVENITE DE LA CRI BISERICETI DE PATRIMONIU

72Diana Iuliana Barbu73The consolidation of the support and paint layer for an iconographic peculiarity

The consolidation of the support andpaint layer for an iconographic peculiarity in the portrayal of the Holy Virgin

Diana Iuliana Barbu

Religious Painting Commission, Religious Culture and Heritage Sector, The Romanian Patriarchate Bucharest

Abstract

The icon from the first half of the XVIIIth century with a western influence visible in the aesthetic presentation, presents an extreme degradation status as effects of combined causes: high humidity according to the limits for the storage, generalized xylophages attack, careless handling. Originary from the zonal warehouse Strehaia monastery, the icon suffered not only an active xylophages attack but also a microbial attack. The pictorial layer suffered major damages, especially on the icon sides, tending to detach from the support in the areas where the wands of the frame join. The color coat in the area where the wooden pieces join had several areas covered with steam and adulterations due to the microbial attack. The whole frame surface was repainted in tempera.

Because of the very complex character of the degradation forms, in evolutionary process which affected the icon not only aesthetically, but also jeopardized even the existence of the icon, the restoration work took place in several, difficult and laborious stages the consolidation of the pictorial layer, the putting of the areas, where the picture layer had been destroyed, the cleaning of the whole surface, inclusively the removing of the ancient, clumsy, repainting from the whole picture, the varnishing and the retouch.

The method chosen was the consolidation through all available means by combining classic material with the modern ones, taking into consideration the compatibility with the original structure and as much as possible the reversibility. The methods gave satisfactory results and the minimum intervention principle was applied.

Key words: post-Brancovanian style, stylistic influences, Banat area, conservation status, restoration operations1. Introduction

On the grounds of the Holy Virgins preeminence in the divine plan of salvation, the most highly venerated, widespread and numerous Orthodox icons are dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos. The hyperveneration addressed to the Mother of God, implicitly to her icons, peaked at Constantinople under the Palaiologan dynasty. From the capital it spread throughout the empire, crossing its boundaries into the Slavic states south of the Danube, then north of it into the Romanian Principalities

2. The Holy Virgin with the Child sitting in the throne icon description

The icon to be discussed below belonging to the collection of Strehaia Monastery, Mehedini county illustrates the latter variant, namely The Holy Virgin with the Child seated on a throne. Our icon instantiates the iconographic type of the Virgin Hodegetria and Nikopeea the Lady of Angels, emphasizing her capacity as Mistress of Angelic Hosts and Queen of Heaven. The Nikopeea icon was the protectress of the imperial house in Constantinople. An 8th century praise hymn, intoned on the feast of Lords Ascension beseeches her: lead the armies alongside their commanders. The Holy Virgin, seen frontally, is holding infant Jesus, who gives His blessing with widely-open arms. She is seated on a throne, and flanked by Archangels Michael and Gabriel. The two archangels as well as her crown point to her complementary attributes as Queen of Heavens and Lady of the Angels. This is a festal icon painted in post-Brancovanian style, during the second half of the 18th century (most likely in the 1780s), by an anonymous icon painter who worked in the vicinity of Banat,and was employed by the Serbian churches located in the Romanian Banat, the Serbian Banat and Vojvodina (inhabited by Romanian communities). At the time, this was the iconographic type of choice of the reputable Banat painter Nedelcu Popovici, who was commissioned icons for the Romanian and Serbian churches in both the Romanian and Serbian Banat. An iconographic peculiarity in the portrayal of the Holy Virgin is the lack of the traditional maphorion, which in this case is replaced by a short veil (apparently, a fragment of the maphorion covering her head, without reaching her shoulders and clothing the body, too). That part of the maphorion covering her shoulders has become a cloak (a kind of a sakkos). These iconographic peculiarities are the result of the influence Western (Baroque) painting that reached Banat in the 18th century, and illustrate the traditionalist painters efforts to assimilate that style. We note the Baroque medallions containing the initials of the Mother of God. Another characteristic trait is the moderate use of gold leaf only for auras and imperial crowns.

(after restoration)(before restoration)

Fig. 1. The Holy Virgin with the Child sitting in the throne icon

We mention that the iconography of seated characters, which entered the pictorial tradition of Wallachia during the 17th century, can be found mainly in the works of Romanian iconographers who were active in the Banat plain. The popularity of this iconographic pattern peaked between 1750s-1770s. Later on, without completely disappearing from the repertoire of Banat painters, it was gradually replaced with the versions portraying the Virgins full-length figure.

It is common knowledge that, unlike the other Romanian provinces, Banat was largely deprived of medieval art works, both with regard to its monuments and its old liturgical inventory. In this province, political authorities included no Orthodox members, therefore the great foundations were commissioned either by noblemen, or by an unstable, scarcely documented church hierarchy, at least by the 17th century. The changes in the political, as well as social-economic climate after 1718 and the character of this climate over the following centuries, in their turn had a disastruous impact on religious art. To a certain extent, this also concerns documentary sources, therefore information of any kind regarding the iconographic representations of the enthroned Holy Virgin and Infant, is greatly relevant and important.

The choice of icons commissioned in the Banat plain, evinces a certain preference for a full-length depiction of characters, rather than half-length.

The colorful background, traditional iconography and often archaic stylistic vocabulary, seem to reveal the options of traditional rural communities, whose collective memory had retained age-old Byzantine motifs. We assume that these works, evincing close iconographic and stylistic similarities, were based on a restricted number of models. Some of them originate from Wallachia, but we assume they reached Banat via Transylvania, through Transylvanian painters or Wallachian-origin ones who employed the post-Brancovanian style. Our opinion is based on the fact that colourful backgrounds are frequent in the stylistic repertoire of Wallachian painters working in Transylvania, or Transylvanian painters who had either direct or indirect contacts (through Wallachian iconographers) with Wallachia. Although icons never bear a signature, the similarities in the rendering of figures, vestments, in the color range, as well as the presence of the holy archangels flanking the thone, allow us to infer that the icons author worked in the Banat area, having access to patterns peculiar to the neighboring regions, and even to Western (Baroque) models from which he even borrowed certain elements.

3. Methods:

The icon discussed below belonging to the collection of Strehaia Monastery, Mehedini county, namely the Virgin and Infant seated on a throne was subjected to the following research methodology: filling in certain basic invenory data, determination of the provenance related information, relying on historical methods, object description, image capturing from the microscope, determination of the trace elements, as well as provenance atribuions through caraceristic determination for every pigment, by comparison on the presence chart of semi-quantitative chemical elements, determination of the specific work tehnique, drawing the conclusion on object`s dating, attribution or inventory.

4. Technical description of component materials:

Wooden support: the icon is made from two panels of linden wood and is consolidated with two beams made of the same material.

Features of wood: original color of the heartwood is light; annual rings are easily seen on the side of the icon with little differences between them. The texture is smooth and homogenous. Wood is of medium weight, and its hardness, too. Type of used cutting is tangential; panel manufacturing was conducted with saw and joined by gluing. Shaping was done by hand with a plane. The panel has two beams embedded in the support fixed in dovetail system and narrowed at one end. The humidity of wood (measured with moisture meter) is of 55% (seasoned wood).

Technical features of icons: front of icon has a primer coat consisting of inert materials mixed with a protean binder. The primer of this icon is made of three elements: chalk, a binder animal glue and a plasticizer and linseed oil. The color film consists of pigments with protean binders and natural resin varnish.

5. Report as a result of an experience made by means of Spectroscopy

The device:the specter of vibration have been recorded using the spectrometer FT-IR, class VERTEX 70 (Burcker), equipped by: Raman module, RAM II and by probes (derrick) MIR and Raman for the non-destructive analysis: a source of laser stimulation NIR, 1064 nm (Nd: YAG), power 1 1500 mW, detector with semiconductor of Germanium ultra-pure cooled by means of nitrogen liquid.

Parameters of experience: the acquisition of specter FT-IR has been effected non-destructively, without contact in reflection of the spectral domain 400-4500 cm-1, spectral resolution of 4 cm-1, 64-100 scans for the substance and the test with the MIR probe.

The acquisition of the specters FT-Raman has been effected non-destructively in direct reflection on the test, the spectral domain 50-3500 cm-1, spectral resolution of 4cm-1, adjustment power 1-500 mW of LASER source (1064 nm), 500 scans.

Conclusions/interpretation: spectroscopy FTIR and spectroscopy Raman are complementary techniques. The specter IR offers important information about vibrations accompanied by the modification of the moment's dipole of the molecule, and the Raman specters about the vibration accompanied by the modification of the molecular polarizability. The specter FTIR contains pieces of information about the presence of some functional groupings/types of connections in the molecules of the studied test. The strong vibrations form the specter IR are usually weak in specter Raman and conversely. From a qualitative point of view, the anti-symetric modes of vibration owed to the polar connections O-H, C=O have prominent straps (belts) in IR while in the Raman specter appear vibrations implied in symmetric connections C=C, C-C.

FT-IR: the specter recorded by means of MIR probes, non-destructive and without contact may contain pieces of information about the painting medium (oil or yolk of egg in the case of using tempera technique), pigment and varnish or ground color if there are fissures of the pictorial stratum. In the first annex are shown the spectral data FT-IR recorded in order to have a general spectral vision, aiming obtaining the information about the pictorial medium (in this case the pictorial medium being tempera). (fig.2)

Fig. 2. The spectral data FT-IR recorded onThe Holy Virgin with the Child seated on a Throne Icon- Strehaia - MH

(yellow pigment, blue pigment, red pigment)

Fig. 3. The proteinic component of the pictorial stratum

In the recorded specters can be seen the proteinic component of the pictorial stratum through the straps (belts) proper to the amidic groupings (the straps characteristic to the primary amides between 1650/1750 cm/1 and those of the secondary amides 1100/1300 cm/1). (Fig. 3)In the first table is shown the assignation of the FT-IR straps from the recorded specters for the pictorial medium.

Assignation of the FT-IR strapsNr. crt.Frecvena benzilor FT-IR (cm-1)Intensitatea (m-medium, s-strong, w-weak) benzilor FT-IRAtribuirea

1668W-CH3, -CH2-

2711W-CH3, -CH2-

3752W-CH3, -CH2-

4802W-CH2-, >CH2=CH2C=C