Kovács Petronella (szerk.): Isis - Erdélyi magyar restaurátor füzetek 18. (Székelyudvarhely, 2018)
Mester Éva: Az ólmozott üvegablakok és üvegfestmények rekonstrukciójának kockázatai
The loss of the former memories of material culture could have been caused by the carelessness or by the change of fashion. The greatest losses were caused by intentional war destructions, the targets of which were often the most beautiful buildings, parts of the cultural heritage. After such traumas, a certain amount of time has to pass so that the need of recreate the work of art can emerge. The above opinion refers to the glass windows as well. At the time of their making, the creators (architects and craftsmen) originally intended to design these decorative elements as integral parts of the buildings. With their loss, the building gets a different significance, resulting in the emptiness of the architectural space, as the glass paintings are not only colourful in themselves, but also because their transparent nature makes the atmosphere of the interiors coloured too. In the case of partial reconstruction, a part of the work is remade. Here, the authenticity of the reconstruction is less typical, as the use of materials, application of colours, the surface structure of the glasses and the painting techniques are all recognizable in the remaining fragments, which provide a solid base for the interpretation. The overall reconstruction poses a high risk. The original scaled chart drawings do not always give the correct base either, to avoid the above problem. The opaque colours applied to the paper provide only a reference basis for the selection of stained, transparent glass fragments. The change in the composition of the paints can also be a problem. Certain colours are completely transformed. Not only their intensity decreases, but their spectrum can also be changed, such as green can become black. If these circumstances are not taken into account during the reconstruction work, compositions may be created which are completely false, not authentic and different from the original artwork. It is important to note that the mistakes mentioned above were typical of pre-digitalization times. Eva Mester Glass designer DLA, restorer Translated by: Márta Kissné Bendefy 136
