A must-see exhibit

During a quick visit to The Morgan Library and Museum yesterday, I entered the small exhibit, “Pierre-Jean Mariette and the Art of Collecting Drawings” (on display through May 1, 2016) expecting to see a number of wonderful drawings. While the drawings were wonderful, the exhibit was much more than that. It was an examination of the ways in which Mariette mounted, altered, restored, and displayed the drawings he acquired for his collection, and thus contained a number of examples of 18th century restorations. These, plus the accompanying video demonstrating how a single sheet of paper with drawings on both sides is separated (or split) into two sheets of paper each containing a single drawing, make it an exhibit that anyone interested in the history of conservation must see.