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The Conservation and Restoration of Panel Paintings

More information on Panel Paintings can be found here through the Panel Painting page. All conservation must follow the Ethics standards set by the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.

Assessment

Structural

Proper assessment is an initial step in the conservation process. Technologies, such as Radiography and reflectography, are most commonly used. Radiography tends to provide the effective technique in terms of analyzing the condition and preservation work done on the structure of panel paintings (pg. 318). Other uses of radiography can be seen by the opaqueness of specific colors used in the painting, condition of the wood, thickness or density of the wood, and various damage done by pests.

Furniture and Larder Beetles can borrow into wood. Illustrations of these beetles can be found through the Insects Limited Incorporated Museum page. Other examples can be found through Museumpests.net's Identification page.

Surface/Painting

Photographic documentation and the use of magnification with the naked eye used with diffuse and raking light tend to be the most effective tools for initial observation.Causes for damage for the surface of the painting can be caused by the structural issues seen in the wood of the panel paintings (including damage done by wood-boring pests) or from improper care.

Examples of Technology

• Reflectance transformation imaging is a type of computational photography that uses digital computation instead of optical processes to create new data (https://www.penn.museum/sites/artifactlab/2016/03/28/appear-project-reflectance-transformation-imaging-of-the-fayum-mummy-portraits/). More information can be found through the Reflectance transformation Wiki Page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynomial_texture_mapping)
• X-ray Flourescene (XRF) "is a non-destructive analytical technique used to determine the elemental composition of materials" (https://www.thermofisher.com/us/en/home/industrial/spectroscopy-elemental-isotope-analysis/spectroscopy-elemental-isotope-analysis-learning-center/elemental-analysis-information/xrf-technology.html). More information can be found through:  X-ray Flourescene.
• Multispectral Imaging
• X-Ray Radiography

Treatmeant

Structural

http://museumpests.net/solutions/

Preventative Care

Handling

Storage

Environmental Conditions

Fluctuating humidity and temperatures or improper handling can lead to smaller problems within the structure and painted surface that accumulate. This can be seen in panels that are made up of multiple pieces of wood to make a larger surface area and the damage can be seen towards where the pieces of wood are attached (Current Approaches to the Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings, pg. 318-319). Temperatures should be kept within 5% +/- of 70 degrees with humidity within +/- 5% of 50% Relative Humidity. Relative Humidity over 65% could lead to mold growth and dry rot. More information can be found through The National Gallery's website, The American Institute's website (including their Wiki Page on Environmental Guidelines).

Integrated Pest Management

Integrated Pest Management polices are created to reduce or limit any problems relating to pests damaging objects within collections. More information about proper Integrated Pest Management policies and examples of pest damage can be found below:

• Smithsonian Institute. (https://www.si.edu/mci/downloads/articles/pests9.pdf)
• National Park Service (https://www.nature.nps.gov/biology/ipm/manual/museum.cfm).
• Museum Integrated Pest Management. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_integrated_pest_management)
• Government of Canada's "Agent of Deterioration: Pests" (http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1444922929038
• museumpests.net has pages relating to the Prevention (http://museumpests.net/prevention-introduction/), Monitoring (http://museumpests.net/monitoring-introduction/), Identification (http://museumpests.net/identification/), etc. relating to pests.

Outreach

https://www.penn.museum/sites/artifactlab

The Penn Museum, based out of Philadelphia (PA), has the Artifact Lab that is attached to the museum where it can interact with visitors. It also provides a great blog and other relevant pages relating to their Artifact Lab and its operations. Both are great assets for outreach and to make the conservation process a little more transparent. It has blog sections discussing anything from general cleaning with photos (with objects under different lights) to using various scanning technologies (such as X-radiography) to observe hidden aspects of the objects. The Lab, much like their museum counterparts, have two sections where the public can either ask questions or have general questions answered: the "Frequently Asked Questions" section (https://www.penn.museum/sites/artifactlab/sample-page/) and the "Ask Us!" section (https://www.penn.museum/sites/artifactlab/ask-us/). The "Currently in the Lab" section (https://www.penn.museum/sites/artifactlab/in-the-lab/) includes the objects that are or have been in the Lab for conservation and an object will occasionally have related blog posts attached to it.  

The Frequently Asked Questions section (https://www.penn.museum/sites/artifactlab/sample-page/) relating to the collection but, more importantly, it has a section addressing conservation that includes an answer to the question regarding "How do you become a conservator?"