Mikó Árpád szerk.: "Magnificat anima mea Dominum" M S Mester vizitáció-képe és egykori selmecbányai főoltára (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 1997/1)
TANULMÁNYOK / ESSAYS - MENRÁTH PÉTER-HERNÁDY SZILVIA: M S mester Vizitáció-képének restaurálása
long hair, these were provided with repairs of a reconstructional type. These repairs would not qualify as complete reconstructions, as the outlines of the forms could accurately be deduced from those parts of the painting, which survived in a good condition. The most problematic parts of the painting were Mary's red and Elizabeth's blue capes. In eliminating the surface discontinuities in these areas, our only goal was to provide a better and a more accurate interpretation of the shape of the drapery. We had to accept the consequences of earlier overcleaning, for example the extreme thinness of the modelling layer, and the extensive losses of the glazes as accomplished and irreversible facts. These could only be alleviated by correcting the surface discontinuities of the modelling shading. Repairs of a reconstructional character were applied to the lavishly folded drapery at the bottom of both Mary's and Elizabeth's dresses, again, relying on the surviving details of the original painting. In the case of the foliage in the foreground, we limited our efforts to eliminating the surface discontinuities. In the interest of continuity and ease of interpretation, we found it necessary to apply reconstructional repairs in the cases of paintlosses found on a few motifs, such as the house on the rock, the rocky hillside above Mary, the gate and road next to the two figures on the right. Due to repairs that take into account the condition of the uncovered original paint layer, developed only to the same condition, fitted to the surrounding yet distinguished with the help of fine rigattino, the restored painting provides complete aesthetic experience, while allowing the observant viewers to spot the evidence of centuries of adversities. Micro-Morphologic Examinations and Specific Features of Painting Technique As I have already pointed out in the passages discussing the preliminary examinations, in the modern practice of restoration, certain physical and chemical examinations have to be carried out, either by the restorers themselves or by outside experts. In order to clarify their task, to meet the requirement of providing as complete documentation as possible and to support art historical research. In the case of Visitation, the high quality of the painting and the problems concerning its original location, the associated panels, and the many unknown aspects of the life and work of this "mysterious" master, reinforced the need to expand the range of these special examinations. Using our observations and experimental results, we hoped to set up a detailed and multifaceted database, which could, in the future, be used both for comparative studies of panels attributed to Master M S and for the scientific evaluation of paintings associated with the master. From the viewpoint of the success and the evaluation of the results, and also in the interest of causing minimal damage to the painted surface, the decisions about the location, the size and the quality of the samples to be taken were of crucial importance. The XRD analysis required an extremely small sample (0.1 mg - invisible to the naked eye), which nevertheless had to be absolutely pure. To take such a small sample, one needs to use a microscope. In addition, the sample still has to be purified so as to remove traces of the medium, for example. For a cross section, one would need a sample of much larger area, sometimes in the region of one square millimetre. Some of the samples were collected in order to differenciate the overpaints, while the samples taken from the best preserved areas were to determine the pigments of the original paint layer, as well as to provide evidence for the use of specific painting techniques. Using the samples collected from areas chosen on the basis of the preliminary examinations, we have been able to verify the assumption about the existence of overpaints. Those repairs, which had been carried out during the restoration in 1951, along with those done afterwards, were removed before collecting the samples. The evidence of overpaint found in the samples, therefore, indicates earlier restauration. The microscopic investigations using polarisation and fluorescence methods have revealed that in the area around Mary's blue cape, underneath the top layer, there is another overpaint layer of a different (non-luminescent) character. This was separated from the original paint layer (also of a non-luminescent character) by a luminescent layer (perhaps varnish). In other samples, where this luminescent layer was missing, the overpaint could be separated from the original layer on the basis of the differences in the tonality and size of the paint granules. The „irregulär nature" of the boundary between these surfaces, as determined by the samples, suggested the damaged condition of the original paint layer, which was eventually confirmed by its subsequent cleaning. The XRD analysis 8 revealed that the main component of Mary's blue cape was CaCuSi 4 O ]0 , in other words Egyptian blue, while the lighter tones were found to be containing Pb 3 (Co 3 ),(OH), in other words, Egyptian blue mixed with lead white. The scraped samples of overpaint, for REM (electron-beam micro-analysis) indicated the presence of Berlin blue (K,Fe) and ultramarine (Al, Si, S), as well as that of zinc white (Zn). By indicating the presence of the anionic group CN, the spectrograph^ investigation FTIR 9 contributed to the identification of Berlin blue. In the case of Elizabeth's red cape, the majority of the samples were collected from the brownish-red tone used for modelling and shading, as this was the area which posed the greatest difficulty to the interpretation of the drapery. By using techniques based on polarization and luminescence methods, of the cross sections revealed two different overpaint layers. In contrast to the
