The Department of Conservation and Built Heritage, Faculty for the Built Environment, organised a successful and well-attended two-day seminar entitled 'Changing pictures: the degradation of oil paints' on 12 and 13 July as part of a project under the Internationalisation Partnership Awards Scheme (IPAS), funded by the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST).
Dr Katrien Keune and Dr Annelies van Loon from the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam) and Dr Austin Nevin from the CNR (Milan) were invited to deliver keynote lectures on paint degradation phenomena seen on oil paintings – canvas and wall paintings – in museums, palaces and churches.
Other speakers included Roberta De Angelis, Jennifer Porter and Nathalie Debono, from the Department of Conservation and Built Heritage, who spoke about paint degradation and conservation issues related to the 18th-century wall painting at the chapel of Palazzo De la Salle (Valletta) – the current conservation fieldwork that the Department is undertaking as part of the M.Sc. in Conservation of Decorative Architectural Surfaces.
The seminar provided the opportunity to spread awareness on how oil paintings, in museums and in historical buildings, can appear considerably different to how they were originally conceived and executed.
As the result of physical and chemical changes the appearance and other intrinsic properties of paints change due to their original composition (pigments and binders) and their interactions with environmental conditions. As time progresses, paints generally become more fragile and sensitive to environmental factors, as well as to conservation treatments, and hence this has to be kept in mind when determining exhibition or storage conditions, or deciding on a conservation treatment.
The seminar was well attended by the local conservation community, including art historians, conservators and scientists. Attendees came from the Department of History of Art, Metal and Materials Engineering (University of Malta), from Heritage Malta, St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation, the Malta Association of Conservators-Restorers (MAPCoRe), and the Restoration Directorate.
Participants were fascinated to learn about this intriguing topic which is little known out of local research circles. The participation of the audience in discussions was frequent and animated, also during the coffee breaks, and attendees expressed the need of having regular discussion seminars to speak about common issues, including the identification of paint degradation phenomena and impact that such alterations can have, also in conservation work.
More of such seminars are planned as part of an ongoing programme of dissemination and outreach of the Department of Conservation and Built Heritage.
