The news today showed a short clip of the restoration of the fresco of the virgin mary with saints in some cathedral or museum, I think. Why is it called a restoration when the artists are actually painting over the original? Do they use the exact paint mixture/ingredients as the original artist used, or they're just guessing?
2007-01-15 04:49:10 · 2 answers · asked by xander 5 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Visual Arts ➔ Painting
Well it varies. If you are going to restore a fresco (a painting on plaster) you would need to apply some color. The way a fresco is created is by painting onto semi wet plaster. The paint seeps in & over time becomes less vibrant. Sometimes restoring oil paintings could just be a matter of cleaning them. Do you remember the Ghostbusters movie where the guy from the painting comes to life? They were restoring a painting. As for the correct formulas of paint being used....well alot has changed since many of these works of art were created. For instance, red paint used to be made from rust (iron oxide) . Now most paint is manufactured in factories. I am sure the restorers get as close to the real thing as possible.
2007-01-15 05:01:54 · answer #1 · answered by artist0027 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
quality restoration takes a pro who can formulate what was used before and even improve on it a bit so the next time it has to be worked on it will not take as much work we loose thousands of works ever year because of lack of funding to keep them alive. you have a choice..... either work on them and get them as good as you can or just let them go ..... I would chose to work on them and let future generations decide if they just want them to die or keep them alive as long as they can and yes eventually they will turn into works by a dozen people instead of the original artist but what can yo do .... good question though.
2007-01-15 13:52:27 · answer #2 · answered by doc 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋