[attach id=284281 size="medium"]Three boxes show tests carried out to find the best solvent to remove the yellowed varnish.[/attach]

In museums, antique shops or private houses, we have all come across paintings full of dust deposits and the occasional cobweb, covered with a multitude of flaking and craquelure, having deformations or tears in the canvas, and all covered with aged varnish obstructing the true colours with a yellow tinge.

Usually these nasty factors are just the tip of the iceberg because they are the result of an ongoing decay which will eventually lead to the loss of at least particular parts of the artwork.

Paintings are made from tangible materials and therefore it is for their safekeeping that material has to be kept in the best conditions – otherwise all type of decaying activity will progress rapidly. Time takes its toll on everything even on art objects and if they are not properly taken care of, ageing will progress at a much quicker pace, passing from humidity to craquelure, flaking, lacunas and loss of the paint layer.

The solution is sometimes as simple as maintaining good conditions – avoiding dust and maintaining good temperature, light and humidity levels. With good conservation intervention it is possible to prolong the lifetime of an object by ensuring the stability of thematerial composing it.

With restoration, the art object which might have suffered through the years, is made to look aesthetically more pleasing and more readable without changing what the artist had in mind and respecting fully the ethics of conservation. In fact over the last decade in Malta we have seen the rise of this practice from a mere craft, much of which was based on trial and error by artists themselves, to a more scientific and disciplined approach.

In fact, many times the retouching used to infill the missing parts of the painting is left to show from near – either by using small puntini or dots or else in the tratteggio spezzato technique, where short lines in different hues are drawn to reach the desired colour. These are covered by the one metre rule, where from a distance the painting appears united, while from near, one is able to differentiate the original areas and those added by the restorer.

High-quality conservation practice takes time and patience and prior to the intervention, good research and understanding the work of art from the different point of views – both historically and scientifically – is necessary.

Charlotte Bellizzi has been practising as a professional conservator and restorer for 10 years. For more information visit www.charlottebellizzi.com.