Painting treatment
Micker, Jan Christaensz (1600-64)
David and Abigail in the desert c.1650 oil on panel (367 x 675 mm)
Signed at lower right corner in brown paint “Micker fecit.”
This painting was treated in 2007 at CCMC as part of the fee-for-service conservation program.
The painting is a mid-seventeenth century Dutch panel painting, depicting a scene from the Old Testament. It is an oil painting, executed on an oak wood board. Discussions with the owner have revealed that the painting was probably brought to Australia from Scotland in the 1850s. The painting was left to the great-great-grandfather of the owner by a would-be miner as a ‘grub-stake’ in return for equipment and stores in the Victorian goldfields during the 1850s. The miner never returned to collect the painting, presumably because he did not make his fortune, or died before he could do so. The painting has since been in a private collection in Victoria for the past 150 years.
The wooden panel had been prepared for painting with a very thin gesso ground. The paint layer is quite thin, containing hand-ground pigments with glazes to the darker areas of the trees and draperies of the figures. In some areas the paint is quite textured; the landscape has been laid in with a broad bristle brush. The figures and horses have been very thinly painted, laid in on top of the background. These figures have become more transparent with time and the background is becoming more visible through the figures.
Oil paintings are generally varnished to protect the paint surface and saturate the colours. Natural resin varnishes have been historically used for this purpose, but over time these discolor to a yellowish brown. In this case, the painting had been varnished with a natural resin varnish (probably Mastic resin). Over time this layer had discoloured and was obscuring the image. It was evident that the varnish on this painting had been removed and replaced in the past, as there were deposits of discoloured varnish left in the hollows of the brush strokes. This created a dark, speckled appearance on the painting, particularly the lighter areas such as the sky and faces of the figures. The sky had also been heavily overpainted in the past, especially in the top left corner. This had probably been applied to hide discoloured old varnish and make the sky appear ‘blue’again. (See figure 1, the painting before treatment)
Figure 1: Micker, Jan Christaensz (1600-64), David and Abigail in the desert, 367 x 675 mm, oil on panel,
before conservation treatment
As with all professional conservation treatments, before treatment began on this painting the artwork was thoroughly documented and photographed to record its condition before treatment. The painting was cleaned of surface dirt and grime with a chelating agent and the discoloured varnish then removed with an organic solvent solution. (See figure 2, the painting during treatment)
Figure 2: Micker, Jan Christaensz (1600-64), David and Abigail in the desert, 367 x 675 mm, oil on panel,
during removal of the discoloured varnish.
The solvent solution adequately removed the varnish, wax fills and some of the old restoration, however remnants of oil over-paint and lead fills remained on the surface of the work.
With the owner’s permission, tiny samples (smaller than pin-head sized) were taken from the painting and mounted in polyester resin. The resin blocks were sanded until the tiny paint sample could be seen in cross-section and viewed under a microscope to reveal the layer stratigraphy and determine the level of overpaint present on the painting. (See figure 3 for a cross-section from the painting)
Figure 3: Cross-section of paint taken from the top right corner of the painting, in the blue sky area.
The top layer is non-original overpaint. Photomicrograph taken at 40x magnification.
Broadly applied layers of dark blue overpaint were found in the sky, on both sides of the trees. This layer was removed mechanically, working under the microscope with a scalpel and fine tools. Removal of the overpaint revealed several birds in the sky that had been painted over in the past, as well as remnants of old, discoloured varnish (See figures 4 and 5).
Figure 4: Top right corner of the painting, showing darker blue overpaint covering discoloured varnish
and underneath these layers three little birds in the sky.
Figure 5: Top right corner of the painting, after removal of old overpaint and varnish, revealing the three
little birds in the sky.
The painting was re-varnished with a conservation grade synthetic varnish resin that is formulated to resist yellowing. Losses to the paint were filled with acrylic filler material (See figure 6) and these were inpainted with conservation grade retouching paints. A final spray varnish of conservation grade synthetic varnish containing hindered amine light stabilizer was applied to the painting. The removal of the discoloured varnish and overpaint has enabled the richness of the colours and fine details in the painting to be fully appreciated for the first time in many centuries. (See figure 7, the painting after treatment).
Figure 6: The painting after cleaning and filling of losses (the white areas are the filler material), before inpainting.
Figure 7: The painting after treatment.
Catherine Nunn, Paintings Conservator
cnunn@unimelb.edu.au
February 2008