Despite the
small amount of designated funding presently available, the Institute continues
making strides with the restoration and installation of its historic plaster
casts collection, received so kindly five years ago from the de-accessioning
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Late last
month, after a patient wait of more than a year, our consultant conservator,
Treese Robb, delivered another of the six Ghiberti Gates of Paradise panels we are
lucky enough to have. (Four of the ten
were absent at the time we made our initial 2003 curatorial inspection at the
Bronx warehouse, where they’d been stored for decades-- see the catalog entry here
for a more complete description.)
It is the
Isaac panel, which more than any other, features classical architecture as spatial
context. Some refer to it as “#5” as it was created as the left-side panel of
the gate’s middle band.
As you see,
what makes this intervention extraordinary is its gilded surface – as Ghiberti
intended and created in the 15th century and as now restored on the
originals held today in sealed cases in Florence’s Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (www.operaduomo.firenze.it) just
alongside Brunelleschi’s masterpiece.
At the end of
the 19th century when the Met procured its casts directly from the
originals, the gild had long been eroded and covered by a succession of
well-intended interventions and it appeared instead with its underlying bronze
patina. It was that surface that has
therefore guided our own restoration, i.e. in careful evocation of the vaguely
opalescent bronze surface that its great Met-engaged casters first intended.
The original gilded
surface was revealed only in the later 20th-century after the
originals were replaced in situ and literally
brought inside.
With all this
conservation history in mind, I accepted Treese’s spirited (largely
subsidized—bless her) proposal to treat one of the panels with like impulse—and
Isaac seemed ideal given its architectural setting.
ICA&CA
stalwart and guiding light, Clem Labine, awarded the funds as per our ongoing
if somewhat “under known” Adopt-a-Cast” enterprise and long, exacting labors
ensued.
I am pleased
to cite Clem now that we have this literally brilliant teaching resource in
hand. As per usual, he sums it up best:
The transformation is magical. The
bronze patina of the other restorations is excellent, but with the gilding, the
Isaac panel absolutely comes alive. It is no longer just an artifact, but a
piece of vibrant contemporary art—contemporary in the sense that it seems fresh
from Ghiberti’s hand. Treese is a true artisan as her subtle variation in the levels
of burnishing brings new levels of perceptible depth. The gold leaf emphasizes
the play of light and shadow as can best assist future teaching –after all, the
cast collection’s ongoing raison d’etre. The projecting areas of the relief are
now so bright that the receding areas in shadow provide insightful contrast. In
sum, it has come alive.
Please come
by soon for a personal inspection.
Paul Gunther
Was it made by gold?
Posted by: aion kinah | January 06, 2010 at 01:54 AM