Research database

The consolidation of a painting is the trickiest operation the conservator faces, first of all, because it is a de facto irreversible process, although this word is almost taboo in the field. The term 'painting' actually defines a variety of complex structures, in which the original materials present (substrate, preparatory layer, paint layers, possible varnish) may have been layered with additions over the centuries due to repainting and restoration treatments. This characteristic makes consolidation even more complicated both in the choice of the consolidating agent to be applied and in understanding the outcome of the treatment. To date, there are no consolidating adhesives on the market as such, but what is applied is borrowed from other applications (e.g., lining, stone consolidation). Although this may be understandable due to the urgency of completing the restoration commission and the limited funds, it does not take into account the core of the intervention: namely the structural needs and intrinsic chemical reactivity of the artwork. COME-IN! fits into this context, proposing, at the end of three years of the project, the release of a line of consolidating adhesive kits, formulated not only on the basis of the restorers’ experience and request, but also on the basis of an in-depth study of different pictorial systems in terms of mechanical properties, porosity and chemical properties, which aims to describe them in pictorial macro-categories.