Series editors' preface - Wood Tools

578 Conservation of Furniture
copolymer with inorganic mineral filler) are
used by some conservators. Commercial preparations
called Polyfilla are marketed in both
North America and the UK but the formulations
are very different. Product information or technical
specification sheets supplied by the manufacturer
should be consulted for information
on ingredients since formulations can change.
Caley (2000) noted a change in the formulation
of Fine Surface Polyfilla (UK) and suggested the
use of Vinamul 6975 mixed with an inert filler
such as whiting or china clay with the addition
of a thixotropic material such as sepiolite or
bentonite as a stabilizer, as an alternative. Some
commercial preparations contain solvents that
may affect modern paints, leaving an irreversible
halo around the fill. Residues that
remain on the surface after levelling should be
removed otherwise they may be visible after
varnishing. A range of commercial vinyl and
acrylic fill materials were evaluated by Craft and
Solz (1998).
12.3.2 Retouching
Introduction to retouching
The retouching of decorative surfaces is perhaps
the most controversial activity, after cleaning, that
conservators undertake. It is, after all, a restoration
and, depending on the degree of loss, can
be a subjective reinterpretation of the original
picture or design. Retouching seeks to reduce the
visual impact of damage in order to improve the
legibility of an object, enabling it to be more
readily understood. In the case of furniture, evidence
of wear is often seen as legitimate and it
is not necessary to slavishly make good all losses.
The significance of loss may be open to interpretation.
If the ‘unity’ of an object is intact
despite losses to the surface or decoration,
retouching may be considered unnecessary.
There may be a conflict between unreconstructed
decoration and what the museum-going
public or a private owner expects to see. Any
treatment should therefore seek to find a balance
between aesthetics and the object’s role as historical
or cultural document. Philosophies of
retouching vary between countries, cultures, conservation
disciplines and conservators. Bomford
(1994) has reviewed historical attitudes to the
retouching of paintings, whilst Samet (1998a) has
contrasted approaches to the retouching of paintings
and painted furniture.
In a reaction against ‘deceptive reconstruction’
several non-mimetic methods have been
developed in an effort to find a compromise
between the disturbance of an unreconstructed
loss and the subjective reinterpretation of
retouching. The first proponents of visible
retouching were Cesare Brandi and Paolo and
Laura Mora at the Instituto Centrale in Rome,
who developed the tratteggio technique. This
was devised as a way of retrieving the aesthetic
unity of a damaged work of art whilst respecting
changes that have occurred due to the passage
of time (Ramsay, 2000). Tratteggio is based
on the principle of decomposition of the tones
in pure colour and recomposition in the eye
due to luminous images on the retina. It utilizes
a network of parallel, vertical lines of pure
colours on a white ground. A variation, called
modulated tratteggio, varies the density and the
length of the lines to render a more realistic
approximation of the image (Bergeon, 1990).
Tratteggio is often considered to have been
successful on Italian Primitive paintings, but the
success of this technique in other contexts
remains a matter for debate. An alternative
approach, called pointillism, was executed in
dots of varying sizes. This technique was generally
utilized as a visible retouching technique
but could be invisible when the points were
extremely fine. Other techniques that rely on
chromatic abstraction, such as selezione cromatica
and astrazione cromatica, have also
been applied to the retouching of paintings
(Ackroyd and Keith, 2000; Ciatti, 1990). Thus
retouching may range from the use of a neutral
background to recreating the loss. Ethical considerations
include the nature of the object, the
impact and cause of the loss and how the
object will be displayed or used after treatment.
It should be noted that not all critics believe
such techniques were successful and, as is the
case with cleaning, retouching is a subject that
will continue to provoke controversy and discussion.
Whilst the need for consolidation or the
application of a coating to a previously varnished
surface can be argued on the basis of
preservation, the decision to retouch losses is
based primarily on aesthetic and interpretative
criteria. There is a wide range of choices
between no retouching and complete and invisible
retouching. Retouching without filling, for
example, may work particularly well on three-