Proceedings e report - Firenze University Press

NOSSA SENHORA DO ROSÁRIO AND ANJO CEROFERÁRIO. EXAMINATION AND
CONSERVATION OF TWO DIFFERENT WOODEN POLYCHROME
SCULPTURES, AT THE IMC’S DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION
Elsa Murta 1 *, Diogo Sanches 2
1 Departamento de Conservação e Restauro, Instituto dos Museus e da Conservação, Rua das Janelas Verdes,
Lisboa, Portugal
2 Departamento de Conservação e Restauro, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa,
Monte de Caparica
Abstract
This paper presents two cases of Portuguese sculptures that will be object of a future investigation project at the
Departamento de Conservação - I. M. C., Portugal. The motivation will be to create a corpus 1 with the most
common construction techniques which were employed when carving these great scale works of art, during the
17 th and 18 th centuries. Direct observation and X-ray exams revealed that one of the sculptures was composed of
several boards of different wood species, while the other was made of a section of a single tree trunk. Optical
microscopy was used to characterize wood species found in each sculpture. Both construction techniques showed
signs of physical instability which were responsible for the appearance of distinct irreversible damages of the
polychrome surface.
1. Introduction
Since pre-historical times, due mainly to its workable characteristics [1], wood has been preferably
chosen as support of several utility objects, as well as a mean for artists expressions when creating
works of art. However, limitations and susceptibility to adverse environmental conditions of this
material are well known. Consequently, both in form of plane shape panels or carved sculptures, the
work of art tend to suffer physical alterations due to the different tension rate in each transformed
material.
During 17 th and 18 th centuries, the artist’s knowledge, skills and quality of work were highly controlled
[2] which resulted in a great number of very good polychrome sculptures, both regarding the carved
work and the paintwork.
Like it happens in many other cases, it is very difficult to understand an artist’s choice when selecting
the material or technique to construct a sculpture. The order documentation, which could have
revealed important aspects of the client’s demands regarding materials or techniques is most times lost
in consequence of a fire or a flood. [3],
2. Characterization and conservation condition
The first case is a 160 cm high whole-volume sculpture, belonging since 1950 [4] to the Museu de
Santa Cruz, Vila Viçosa. The sculpture represents the Virgin Nossa Senhora do Rosário (Fig.1). It was
produced around 1751-1800 by an unknown artist for the church of São Bartolomeu at Vila Viçosa,
and was located standing in a niche, in the left side of the main altarpiece. Its conservation condition
demanded an urgent intervention due to poor adhesion between structural wooden pieces which
caused polychrome detachment. Fissures in the paint layer were originated not only because of the
natural expansion and retraction movements of wood, but also because of the weak binding between
the glue and the wood with diverse grain orientations (Fig. 2).
The second case is also a whole volume sculpture, 136 cm high, belonging to the Igreja de Nossa
Senhora do Carmo in Beja, representing an angel, Anjo Ceroferario (Fig. 3). The sculpture was
produced late in the 18 th century by an unknown artist. These sculptures were very commonly found in
*
E-mail: elsa.murta@gmail.com
1
Corpus is the Latin name to body. In this context it relates to the study of a collection with the same typology
of works of art.
Joseph Gril (edited by), Wood Science for Conservation of Cultural Heritage –Braga 2008: Proceedings of the International
Conference held by COST Action IE0601 (Braga - Portugal, 5-7 November 2008, ISBN 978-88-6453-157-1 (print)
ISBN 978-88-6453-165-6 (online) © 2010 Firenze University Press