Kovács Petronella (szerk.): Isis - Erdélyi magyar restaurátor füzetek 4. (Székelyudvarhely, 2004)
Mester Éva: A Kárpát-medence üvegfesztészete. II. Az üvegfestmények és díszműüvegezések jellemző károsodásai
Preface and Abstracts The thematic of the 4th Postgraduate Conference of Transylvanian Hungarian Restorers included reports on the conservation/restoration of paintings beside the topics of the former occasions, which mainly dealt with the restoration of ethnographic and archaeological objects and those of applied art. A professor of the Institute for Training of Conservators of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts discussed the degree of the completion of paintings, the reconstruction and the technology of retouching and László Vinczeffy painting restorer of the Székely National Museum of Sepsiszentgyörgy (Sfântu-Gheorghe) gave an account of his works between 2000 and 2003. An exhibition organised from more than twenty paintings restored by him and the panels illustrating the restoration was opened also to the public in the Haáz Rezső Museum. The participants visited the ecclesiastic and folk monuments of Medgyes (Médiás), Szászbogács (Băgaciu), Nagyszeben (Sibiu), Szászsebes (Sebeş), Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia), Torockó (Rimetea), Torda (Turda), Bánfyhunyad (Huedin), Körösfő (Izvoru Crişului) Magyarerőmonostor (Mănăstireni), Magyarvalkó (Văleni) and Magyarvista (Viştea) within the frames of a study trip connected with the program of the postgraduate conference. Hungarian students of furniture restoration have regularly taken part in on-the-job training in Transylvanian museums since 1995. They conserved some of the wooden statues in the Székely Museum (Csíkszereda, Miercuriera Ciuc) and most of the guild chests of the Haáz Rezső Museum (Székelyudvarhely, Odorheiu Secueisc) and the painted furniture in its permanent exhibition. A report was given at the conference on the three-week program titled “Conservation of painted Transylvanian Saxon furniture”, which the Hungarian University of Fine Arts organised for future furniture restorers within the frames of the Erasmus higher education program of the European Union in 2003. Beside Hungarian participants, students of three universities EVTEK, Vantaa (Finland), Universität für Angewandte Wissenschaft und Kunst, Hildesheim (Germany) and Universitatea Lucian Blaga, Nagyszeben (Sibiu, Romania) attended the event. The theoretical lectures held in Budapest (Hungary) were followed by practical training in the Astra Museum in Nagyszeben (Sibiu). They were also the professors of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts who proposed a few years ago the conservation of the wooden chests preserved in the church of the Saxon community in Hégen (Brădeni). The work, which was planned to last a couple of years, started in the summer of 2003 in the co-operation of the furniture restoration departments of the Hildesheim and the Budapest art universities by the financial support of the two countries. The chests that were conserved during the two weeks of the on-the-job training in Segesvár (Sighişoara) were deposited in the St. Nicolas church on the top of the hill. A study trip was added to both international programs, which aimed at the recognition of the material cultural heritage just as well as of the history of Transylvania. Katalin GÖRBE The methods of completion in the restoration of paintings The paper traces back the individual specifics of the completion of panel paintings to theoretical bases. An object of art is a specifically complex feature: it represents an artistic value and, at the same time, it is an irreplaceable relic of our historical past. The multidirectional approach of the problem actually roots in this double feature. Only an authentic reconstruction can be accepted, but as it is always a compromise, the execution is often debatable. The necessity of a critical interpretation is evident since the possibility of an error is always present yet it should be a mistake to refuse completion because of it. The original condition of an object of art cannot be reconstructed but its effect can be approached. The purpose of the completion is to give emphasis to the original parts, to lend the greatest possible stress to the artistic value of the object of art. The responsibility of the restorer charged with the execution is immense since the completion gets integrated into the object. Consequently, only a specialist of an appropriate training and artistic sensitivity can do this job. The author lists the other factors that influence the completion of an art object: e.g. the style of the given period, the circumstances of the object, its relationship with the spectator or its cultic value. The antiquity value and the illusionistic feature of the object can have a specific determinant role. 90
