Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 105. (Budapest, 2006)
ANDRÁS FÁY - MIKLÓS GÁLOS: The Restoration of Maarten van Heemskerck's Budapest Lamentation Panel
In order to examine the painting more thoroughly, we had another infrared reflectogram made with an end sensitivity of 1200 nm prior to the commencement of the restoration. 15 This image showed more details in the case of the flesh colours and revealed the sketches of Christ's body. In the first stage of the painting the artist sketched the forms and the anatomical elements of the body, as well as the motifs of the musculature and veining, with azurite. He used an oily binding material and applied the paint while it was relatively dry, with only a small amount of oil. The ochre of the body colours was then added to the surface of the sketch. Because of the transparency of the paint, the bluish-black sketch marking the contours of the forms and the veining, are also visible to the naked eye. THE RESTORATION In order to remove the varnish we first made cleaning tests with acetone. Since acetone proved suitable only for the removal of the upper layer of varnish and on the surface of the blue draperies, we finally executed the cleaning with dimetil-sulphoxide. This solvent was safer on the brown, black and red tones than acetone, which would have quickly bitten into the painting. Frequently neutralized with white spirit, it was possible to regulate the effect of the solvent in such a way that the cleaning process was easy to control. The removal of the complete coat of varnish was carried out in the first phase of the cleaning followed by the removal of the underlying retouches. The oil film was removed in layers from the overpaintings on the background. The faces were covered by at least four layers of overpainting, beneath which we also found a thin, ultramarine layer applied with a flat brush in tempera and watercolour. It was impossible to soften and remove it with only solvent, and in this case the overpainting, softened with dimetil-sulphoxide and white spirit, had to be removed mechanically. We started to clean the background from the right. The two male heads that gradually emerged appeared to be in a very good state of preservation. Notwithstanding its thinness, the painting preserved unbelievable nuances; the freshness of the complexions as w r ell as the white painting of the eyelashes and hair of the figures appeared in a perfect state. Minor corrosion was visible at the edges with the ochre tone of the raw surface of the wood. The cleaning of the heads on the left proved easier, since we had already gained experience from how the overpaintings reacted to being softened by solvents. Here the overpainting was much thicker and we also found an isolating layer of varnish. Consequently, a longer time must have elapsed between the repairs made in several different periods (fig. 5). During the restoration and after the cleaning, the area around the gaps was saturated with a solution 20 per cent of which was composed of rabbit-skin glue. We filled the gaps with a mass
