Műtárgyvédelem, 2004 (Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum)
Összefoglalók
documentation was made of the dismantling of the gathering sections at the start of the restoration. Later it helped when the text block was hand-sewed with loop stiches and the wooden boards were fixed. Since the headband was removed together with the backing cloth at the dismatling of the book, they were together replaced to their original place on the spine. The injured coloured elements of the headband, the embroidery threads were fixed with a glue of a natural base and a thin thread of a nearly identical colour. I used new leather pieces to complete the missing parts of the leather cover. Pegs were applied to hold together the broken wooden boards. Another problem was that the text block reached over the dessicated boards. The boards could not be enlarged since the original elements that were elaborated on all the sides had to be preserved unaltered. The mounts and the missing braided leather straps were made after analogues. At the reconstruction of the codex, the original binding technology was preserved. The traditions characteristic of Serbian bindings were respected. GOTHIC ALLEGORIES Notes from an art historian on the restoration of a late gothic FRESCO SERIES OF THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS IN BUDAPEST Ildikó Fehér The fresco series, originally consisting of about 24 pieces, depicting eight allegorical female figures standing in painted alcoves are on show at the permanent exibition of the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, in the museum’s Renaissance Hall. The allegories, which were demounted from the original walls were restored by the graduating students of the Restorer Training Institute of the University of Fine Arts of Budapest over the past few years. Karoly Pulszky, the director of the National Gallery, the predecessor of the Museum of Fine Arts, saw the fresco series during his visit to Italy in 1894. He saw the frescos on the ceiling of the grand hall on the first floor of Palazzo Isidori (Palazzo Stocchi today), together with the Annunciation fresco. General Comiolo della Corgna, a major politician of the time, commissioned in 1416 the painting of the piano nobile level’s only room, including the ceiling with wooden beams and the walls. The allegories were painted in the wooden- beam ceiling’s panel on a cane-based whitewashed surface, with a cane structure woven together like a textile. Prints of the cane fastened to the wooden beams preserved nicely on the back of the allegorical figure Fides, which was restored in 1998 (inv. nr. 1167). Dilatation of the wooden beams of the original ceiling made its mark on the frescos’ cracks of broken paint such as the allegories of Luxuria and Fides. The dark, brownish substance unusually present in the layers underneath the paint and surfacing as a brownish-greyish taint derived from the cane during the frescos’ cleaning. Thanks to the research carried out by Francesco F. Mancini, professor of art history at the University of Peruggia, our knowledge of the 152
