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“To Live Forever” is finally up at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and they have done an amazing job posting a wealth of information on their website. The latest bit to go up is a Q&A session about the conservation of objects for the show. A big thanks to Richard McCoy, IMA objects conservator and his interns who came up with some great questions, put my garbled answers into legible form, and added fantastic links to illustrate what I was talking about. Also, thanks to everyone at the IMA who worked so hard to make this show a reality. One venue down, ten to go.

I’m back from leave, and during the last several months we’ve been busily getting all of the objects ready for the “To Live Forever, Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum“exhibition. In this post, I’ll talk about the conservation of Demetrios to prepare him for this show. Let’s start with a brief history of his past treatment. As I wrote in a previous blog, Demetrios was excavated from a Roman cemetery in Hawara, Egypt in 1911, and is believed to date between 30 B.C. and 395 A.D. After his excavation, he came directly to the Brooklyn Museum. It’s unclear if he went on view in the galleries in these early days of the museum or if he was placed in storage. In April of 1939, conservators noticed that a vertical crack had developed in the portrait. The portrait is painted with encaustic on a cypress wood panel. Wood is very susceptible to changes in temperature and humidity, which fluctuate with the changing seasons, and this causes the wood to expand and contract. The conservators at the time decided the best way to treat the portrait would be to remove it from the mummy. They did this, and stabilized the panel so that no further cracks would occur. A decision was then made to place the mummy back into storage, and just exhibit the portrait. When you see these so called “Fayum Portraits” at other museums, they are often no longer associated with mummies either. There may be numerous explanations for why this was done. While this is a larger topic for discussion than I want to address here, it may have been the convention in the early 20^th century to view these solely as beautiful portraits, rather than to think about them in a larger context and being associated with a mummified body. In addition, a small portrait is much easier to transport than the whole body. Whatever the reason, our portrait of Demetrios was then exhibited almost non-stop from this time forward, while the body of Demetrios remained in storage.

Today, there is a greater appreciation for the importance of these portraits in their original context so for this current exhibition we have decided to reunite the portrait with the body. In order to do this, objects and paintings conservators worked together. A silicone support was cast to conform to the shape of the back of the portrait panel. This provides a rigid support for the portrait that can help absorb any vibration that may occur while traveling and is easily reversible in the future. The portrait, on its new support, was placed back onto the mummy of Demetrios. Using the old photograph as a guide, some new linen fabric, toned with paints to match, was added to recreate how the portrait originally appeared on the mummy. As with any conservation treatment, we carefully documented this process and used appropriate materials so that future generations of conservators and scholars will be able to distinguish between the original ancient Egyptian materials and our modern additions, and be able to remove our additions if necessary. In the next blog, I’ll talk about the next phase of the conservation treatment - how Demetrios was cleaned and areas of torn linen repaired.

the portrait associated with the mummy, as it appeared in the 1930’s

the mummy with portrait removed

the portrait exhibited on its own Lisa and Carolyn hard at work

the portrait and mummy reuinted

The next time you enter the Grand Lobby of the museum, make sure you cast your eyes upwards. In one of the openings in the old brick façade you will find two newly on view objects. They are a Pair of Bronze Owls, two of twenty-two, which originally stood along the roof line of the old Herald Tribune building when it was built in 1893. At that time the owls eyes were electrified, blinking on and off. The owls were created by sculptor Antonin Jean Paul Carles. When the building was torn down in the 1920’s, the owls, Minerva and the Bell Ringers were given to NYU. The latter two sculptures and two owls with outstretched wings were loaned to the city in 1940 for display in Herald Square, where they remain today. The two owls that entered the Brooklyn Museum in 1971 are also on long-term loan from NYU.

To prepare for installation, the owls were first cleaned with a soft brush and vacuum to remove surface dust and then with a detergent and water to remove the more tenacious grime.

Pictured above is Emy Kim, fourth year conservation intern from the NYU IFA Conservation Program, rinsing the owls.

Before the owls were placed into the brickwork they were secured to a mounting board for safe transport and installation. Since the owls weigh in at 251 and 232 pounds they had to first be rigged onto their respect mounting boards. Soldered brass mounts were then created to secure the owls to the boards.

Pictured below at left are Paul Daniel, mount maker, and Jakki Godfrey, project conservator, rigging one of the owls onto a mounting board. Pictured below at right is a detail image of the mounting system.

Finally it was time to install the owls. The mounted owls were secured to a forklift and then gently lifted to their new location. Once in position the owls were secured in place to the brickwork.

Pictured above at left is Jason Grunwald, art handler, making sure the owl is safe as it is raised. Pictured above at right are Jim Hayes, senior art handler and Barbara Duke, art handler securing one of the owls in place.

Photo by Adam Husted

Sorry for the delay in this post, but it was a long process organizing the CT scans. When we unpacked Demetrios, we were happy to find that the packing supported him well, and he had survived the trip on the LIE. We had a great time at North Shore Hospital with Dr. Boxt and his colleagues.

Photo by Adam Husted

First of all, we were able to confirm that Demetrios is an adult male. Next, we were able to tell that he was in very good physical condition when he died, indicating that he was probably a lot younger than we had previously thought. Dr. Boxt could find no indication of foul play involved in his death, and remarked that his bones showed no signs of degenerative disease. So for now, how old he was when he died and what he died from continues to be a mystery.

When you look at the cross section of Demetrios above, you can see some of the things we did find out. Two of his ribs were broken during the mummification process (#5). There is an unidentifiable bundle in his chest, and it is possible that the ribs were broken to place this bundle (#8). This could be anything from more linen to soft tissue of the body, to papyrus. And finally, he was buried on a wooden plank wrapped within the linens (#6). Within the next few months, we plan to work with other physicians and Egyptologists who can help us further decipher the CT scans. In the meantime, we also have to prepare Demetrios for loan. The next few blogs will discuss and track the conservation treatment of Demetrios. I’ll be on leave for several months, so my colleague Lisa will be taking over the blogs -enjoy!

Slideshow created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR. Having trouble seeing the slideshow? Photos are also on Flickr.

These slides show the Jan Martense Schenck House as it is being installed in its new location on the 4th floor. In the first few slides, you see the side view of the Nicholas Schenck House, grandson of Jan Martense.

The first step was to lay out the floor boards on a new substructure The boards were originally white pine (Pinus Strobus).

The next step was to erect the posts and braces that form the structure of the walls. These were made from oak (Quercus).

The posts (vertical elements) and beams (horizontal elements) were joined with mortise and tenons that were pinned.

Rigging and scaffolding was used to lift and position the very heavy timbers.

After the wooden sub-structure was built, the interior walls and window frames were inserted.

The attic floor is held up by supports called H bends.

Because the ceiling in the new gallery is higher than its former gallery , a new roof substructure had to be built, matching the pitch of the original roof.

Because of the new height, new roof shingles needed to be added and painted to match the shingles from the 1960 installation.

After paint cross section analysis and on advise of the Curatorial Department, the house was painted red, including the trim as would have been the convention in the 17th c.

Lisa Bruno
Objects Conservator

In my previous post, I discussed how an adhesive introduced with an ultrasonic mister can be used to stabilize paint layers. Now you can see that close up as illustrated here of another watercolor in the exhibition, Quarry by William Thon, ca. 1952 (pictured above). Much of our work is done under a microscope which magnifies the area we are working on enabling us to be more precise and to see things not visible under normal conditions. As we work on a piece we can take photographs through the microscope known as photomicrographs which are included below. In this watercolor the artist used a range of techniques to apply his paint including a brush and a sponge, and by pouring and dripping paint onto the surface, wet on top of wet layers. Unfortunately, some of these layers are not well adhered to each other.

In the photomicrograph above you can see the top layer of brittle black paint which is lifting away from the underlying powdery yellow paint. We used the ultrasonic mister to treat this watercolor which worked very well for consolidation of the powdery yellow paint, where it would have been otherwise difficult and time-consuming to introduce an adhesive with a brush. For some of the larger paint flakes it was necessary to use the more traditional technique of inserting the gelatin adhesive to specific areas with a minute brush under magnification. See the after treatment photomicrograph below where the black paint has been set down and is no longer lifting away from the yellow layer below.

In preparation for the Museum’s current exhibition, Brushed With Light, conservators in the Paper Conservation Department examined over ninety watercolors. It was great to work on familiar works as well as those never examined or exhibited before. A common condition problem we observed during examination was the presence of unstable paint layers. Watercolors consist of pigments ground in gum arabic, a water soluble gum usually from the acacia plant, which holds or binds the pigment particles together and allows the color to be brushed onto a paper support. There are numerous causes for the paint to become unstable and lift away from the paper, including an insufficient amount or deterioration of the gum binder which can cause cracking and if left untreated, can result in paint loss. Some artists painted their images thickly, squeezing paint right out of a tube to create raised areas of paint called impasto. These areas are vulnerable to loss due to expansion and contraction of the paper and to a lack of adhesion to the paper. Some artists occasionally mixed additional gum into their paint, or as a glaze on top to add saturation to areas of flat color. With age these areas can become brittle and tend to crack and loosen.

In this photograph, I am consolidating lifting and powdery paint on the watercolor, The Samuel Fleet Homestead by Frances Flora Palmer, from the 1850s. The watercolor depicts a house which once stood at the corner of Fulton and Gold streets in Brooklyn and was reproduced in an 1884 publication, History of Kings County and Brooklyn by Stiles.

The piece was previously attached to a stretcher and in the image above you can see it was darkened in the central area where it was once exposed to light. It had been treated extensively in the past, but recent examination under magnification revealed areas of lifting paint where the artist used additional gum binder to enrich shadows in the trees and foreground, and to add dimension to the horses and some of the figures.

To consolidate, or re-adhere the loose pigment particles and flakes, I applied an adhesive using this ultrasonic mister. Most of the time consolidation is done with an adhesive introduced with a very small brush under the microscope under one paint flake at a time. The advantage of the mister is that the adhesive—in this case a photo-grade gelatin in ethanol and deionized water—is formed into minute particles which are smaller than the pigment particles. Because of their size they are easily absorbed into the pigment without changing the appearance of the paint layer and can be applied to a larger area at one time. This is an incredibly successful and useful technique for stabilizing powdery paint and small, light paint flakes as with this watercolor. In this case I am carrying out the treatment on a suction table which creates a downward pull to further enhance the absorption of the consolidant into the paper.

In my next post, we’ll go under the microscope to see the before and after effects of consolidation with an ultrasonic mister on another watercolor in the exhibition.

While Marc was visiting us from the Getty to carry out XRF on our mummy Demetrios, we decided to give Marc a sample of the linen used to wrap him, to perform radiocarbon dating (C14). A small sample (2-5mg) of the linen was taken near the feet, where there was already previous damage.

A sample of linen near the feet was taken for C14 dating.

Marc will send this sample to the NSF Arizona AMS Facility at The University of Arizona. This will give us a ballpark date of how old the linens are, and by association, how old the mummy may be. While we know stylistically it is between 30 B.C. and 395 A.D., we may be able to get a narrower date with C14 dating. We also wanted to find out more about the mummy itself. Is Demetrios really a man? Across the linens, in gilding just under his name is written 89 years. Does that mean he was 89 years old when he died? What did he die of? Is there anything else wrapped up with him in the linens? In order to answer some of these questions, we decided to have Demetrios CT scanned. CT scanning, or computed tomography, is another non-destructive technique that allows us to see beyond the linen wrappings, without having to un-wrap Demetrios. A three-dimensional image is generated using X-rays. This was carried out at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset New York.

Lisa, a BM objects conservator, makes sure Demetrios is securely packed before his big trip. Photo by Adam Husted.

Before Demetrios could travel to Long Island, we needed to make sure he was stable enough to withstand the truck ride. One of our art handlers, Jason, constructed a custom made box with foam padding so that Demetrios wouldn’t shift in transit. We used a special art packing and shipping company, Marshall Fine Arts, to transport Demetrios to the hospital. Their tucks are climate controlled and have “air ride” suspension to give the mummy a nice, smooth, cool ride. This was also an opportunity for us to give Demetrios a “trial run” to see if any damage will occur during transit. While we take every possible precaution to avoid damage to our objects, sometimes there are unforeseen problems. Demetrios hasn’t left the BM since he arrived in 1911, and while he was only going to Long Island for this trip, he will be traveling to 11 different museums across the US as part of the exhibition “To Live Forever, Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum”. If any problems occur during this quick trip, we can address them before he goes out on the road for over 3 years of travel. Check back next week to read about our adventures in CT scanning!

Lisa and the guys from Marshall Fine Arts load Demetrios into the truck. Photo by Adam Husted.

On July 5, Marc Walton, a scientist with the Getty Conservation Institute came to examine one of our mummies, knows as Demetrios. He brought a portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) machine with him. With this non-destructive technique, he can take readings of different inorganic materials on the surface of our mummy, which will tell us the chemical make-up. Marc wanted to compare both the red lead and gilding found on our mummy, Demetrios, to the red lead found on the Getty mummy, Herakleides. It turns out that the red lead and gold are very similar – they have similar trace elements. The Getty is continuing their research to find out what that all means, but it is possible that these all came from the same workshop. There is also evidence to suggest that the lead used to make the red lead pigment may have come from a silver mine in Spain. When silver is smelted from the ore, lead is a common by-product. The lead would have been used to make the red lead paint. The Getty is also researching this further to determine whether the red lead pigment was made in Spain then traded to Egypt, or if the raw lead was traded to Egypt and the pigment made there. It is also unclear why the color red was chosen. Perhaps it was because the color red was thought to ward off danger. Sometimes, the more we find out, the more questions we have - there is still a lot to learn about our mummies! Check back next week to find out what other techniques we are using to learn more about Demetrios.

Over a few days each summer the object conservators and the conservation summer interns get to venture out to the sculpture garden to treat the outdoor sculptures.

One Pair of Pegasi

This summer we cleaned the Four Pairs of Pegasi located along the staircase by the staff entrance. The Pegasi were originally made for the Coney Island High Pressure Pumping Station at 2301 Neptune Avenue. The horses were brought to the Museum in March of 1981 as a result of Project S.A.V.E. of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The horses are carved from limestone of the oolitic variety as many seashells are evident within the body of the stone.

The Pegasi were placed in their current location on concrete pedestals in 2004. Regular maintenance on the Pegasi began last summer when the conservators cleaned them to remove dirt, pollutants and biological growth. Cleaning involved gently scrubbing the horses with water and a detergent. Following cleaning, a biocide was applied to further remove the existing biological growth.

Pegasus Before Treatment (left) and After Treatment (right) in 2006

It was hoped that this biocide would serve to reduce the reoccurrence of biological growth over the next few years, and so far it seemed to have worked fairly well! When examined this summer, the Pegasi appeared to have much less biological growth present. The treatment this summer was identical to last summer - cleaning with a detergent and application of a biocide. It is hoped that the Pegasi are able to be cleaned on a fairly regular basis - about every two summers.

Maintenance 2007: (Left Image) Kate Wight, a summer intern from the Winterthur / University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, (Right Image) Emy Kim, Brooklyn’s Third Year Intern from the NYU Program in Art Conservation and Chris Watters, a summer intern from the Buffalo Program in Art Conservation

Although it is impossible to completely halt changes to sculptures which are displayed outdoors, a regular maintenance program can help to protect the works from significant deterioration caused by atmospheric pollution. Deposits of soil and pollutants from the air support the growth of fungal cells on porous stone sculpture such as limestone. Once begun, the roots of such growth penetrate the stone causing staining and if left untreated complete destruction of the stone itself. Regular maintenance to remove these harmful materials will help to preserve the works for future generations.