Kisné Cseh Julianna (szerk.): Annales Tataienses III. Régészeti adatok Tata történetéhez 1. (A Tatán 1999-ben megtartott tudományos ülésszakon elhangzott előadások anyaga). Mecénás Közalapítvány, Tata, 2003.

Ifj. Bóna István: A tatai római freskós szoba mennyezetének restaurálása

The fragments were plastered around in a way that the surface of the fresh plaster remained a few millimetres below the original surface of the fragments. As opposed to the shiny polished surfaces of the Roman plasters, the surface of the new plaster was intentionally coarsened. These two technical divergences help to distinguish the original from the reconstruction. THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CEILING (Reconstruction made after technologies developed by the author.) Martos Neuberger craftsman in Tata made the bracing of the ceiling after Tamás Mezős's designs. The suspended ceiling rests on two iron rails deeply anchored to the wall of the medieval hall so that it does not load the reconstructed wall. The "lateral wall" and the "ceiling" are not jointed. The frescos had been mounted with the precision of a millimetre before the elements were lifted into their places. It was the first time that we used a method in Hungary that strengthens the plaster with a compound similar to its own material to reinforce and fix the fresco. The fragments were impregnated by a chemical - ethyl-silicic-acid-ester, - which in two weeks transforms into a silicate binding matter that is chemically similar to the material of quartz sand. To build the wall surface, we used a plaster layer the binding matter of which is wholly plastic (styrol-acrylate), while the filling matter was the mixture of quartz sand and perlit. This excellently sticks to metal, polyester foam, and it can be painted. It is seemingly identical to the traditional plaster. The matter was applied in a single thin layer, contrary to the more complex, multi-layered solution used on the lateral walls. A thinner version of the same plaster was used for the gluing of the fragments as well. Unlike on the lateral walls where the plaster was added after the integration of the fragments, here first the plaster was applied, then holes were cut into the surface to receive the fresco fragments. A special crane had to be constructed to move the elements, which measured hundreds of kilos, yet the last three items had to be manually placed into position from the scaffolding. No more than about 20 % of the entire painted surface has been recovered during the excavations. It means that the remaining 80% had to be freshly fabricated. So the part we produced was quantitatively certainly dominant over the original. We had to admit that the repetitive motives had to be painted on the ceiling in a simplified, modest manner. The standing male figures and the Ganymede scene were so fragmentary that we found it necessary to give some help to the public to understand them. We tried to solve the problem with a soft, spotty "impressionist" reconstruction. All the colours on the walls were applied with transparent coating in a white undercoat. The material of the coating was artists' oil paint of a tempered binding matter. To paint the undercoat of the ceiling this way would have been unnecessarily difficult since the aesthetic advantages could not have been perceived. So the undercoat was painted here with Tikkurila acrylic paint mixed by a computer. So although the reconstruction was prepared in two stages, the background colour was uniform. The greatest divergence from the lateral walls appeared in the completion of the figurai elements and the retouching of some worn patterns. Retouching was made with watercolours, using short strokes, the socalled tratteggio retouching technique. I prepared the work together with Péter Márkus sculptor. 163