Terms for Disputa
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
I should probably define a few of the terms that I use while writing this Web log. Restoration, the subject of entries past and future (just warning you now), is the process of making the artwork look the way it did originally. Or as Wikipedia puts it – a little more harshly but perhaps closer to the truth, “Restoration is a process that attempts to return the work of art to some previous state that restorer imagines to be ‘original’”. Restoration can cause controversy, since it usually involves making an irreversible change that could alter the way the artwork was intended to look or even the message it was intended to convey. The purpose of restoration is to make the work look like it did when it was first created. This is a problem with many of the older works, since it is difficult to ascertain what the work looked like – the artists are (generally) dead, the provenance scant, missing or misleading, and the texts (first person accounts, scholarly studies, etc.) tend to be subjected to interpretation.
Restoration is different from conservation, which just involves the preservation of the work rather than any kind of change or return. The main goal of conservation is to make sure that work is in survivable condition.
Within the world of museums, however, these words are sometimes used interchangeably, creating some confusion. For example, the job title of the person who oversees restoration at a museum/gallery is Head Conservator.
Provenance is another term that is significant to the world of art, though it gets ignored on many occasions. Provenance is just a record of origin, or a sort of map if the object moves. An original document, usually a transaction or receipt upon collecting on a commission is a good beginning. So if Duke Sforza commissions Leonardo da Vinci to paint The Last Supper for the Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, upon the completion of the work, there will be a document stating that this happened and LdV got his check. This is a good provenance (assuming no one forged it). Later, if the work gets moved, there should be documentation; if someone sees it and writes a first person view, that’s perfect; and so forth. It is important to always be on the lookout for shady or scant provenances, because dishonest deals can and do happen.
As I think of more terms, I’ll add them to the blog continually.