{"id":3271,"date":"2012-05-21T08:19:55","date_gmt":"2012-05-21T13:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservators-converse.org\/?p=3271"},"modified":"2012-05-21T08:19:55","modified_gmt":"2012-05-21T13:19:55","slug":"40th-annual-meeting-outreach-in-paintings-conservation-session-the-dissemination-of-information-outside-the-field-and-within-may-10-bridging-the-divide-conversing-with-allied-professionals-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/2012\/05\/21\/40th-annual-meeting-outreach-in-paintings-conservation-session-the-dissemination-of-information-outside-the-field-and-within-may-10-bridging-the-divide-conversing-with-allied-professionals-by\/","title":{"rendered":"40th Annual Meeting: Outreach in Paintings Session: The Dissemination of Information Outside the Field and Within, May 10, “Bridging the Divide–Conversing with Allied Professionals” by Michael O’Malley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael O\u2019Malley gave a fascinating talk about describing the investigation he undertook on a painting he had treated in 1998, which resulted in an attribution.\u00a0\u00a0 His determination to uncover the mysteries of the posthumous Portrait of M\u00e9re Catherine de Saint-Augustin<\/span>, a 17th <\/sup>Century Carmelite nun beatified in 1989 was piqued by hints given by materials analysis undertaken during the treatment of the painting; it suggested a good opportunity to the conservator to open a conservation dialog with art historians.\u00a0 As no interest was evident in the subject in the years since the treatment, Michael later took it upon himself to do a little digging of his own, \u201cI\u2019m not an art historian but I can read\u201d, he humorously, if modestly, stated!<\/p>\n

Michael began his talk with an overview of the Conservation Center of Quebec which sounds like a superb facility which appears to have a great community outreach and interaction with allied professionals including training, tours and bilingual publications.<\/p>\n

Michael described the treatment of the painting, the article he wrote for the
\nJournal of Canadian Art History, the analysis that was conducted at CCI and the
\nadditional research he completed to arrive at his attribution.<\/p>\n

The unsigned and undated portrait of the nun, according to oral tradition, had been painted at her deathbed and had been attributed to Hugh Pommier (1636- 1686) a priest and artist that lived in the colony at the time. M\u00e9re Catherine de Saint-Augustin (1632-1688) was revered figure in New France and was considered to be the founder of the Catholic Church there. She was first a nurse then the keeper and director general of the hospital of the French colony.<\/p>\n

The painting had undergone at least two restorations in the past, one by a nun who had been charged with the task of making Catherine look, \u201cyounger with a more cheerful appearance\u201d! The painting had been glue lined, heavily overpainted and coated with a natural resin varnish.\u00a0 The treatment included lining reversal and relining, varnish and overpaint removal and loss compensation.\u00a0 After cleaning, the face had renewed subtlety; evident cracquelure, the original greyish-blue tone.<\/p>\n

Stylistically the painting appeared to be of European origin. Eminent art historian Gerard Morisset Gerard Morisset (1898-1973) placed painting in an inventory of paintings in Quebec parishes and churches.\u00a0 As early as 1936 he had noted a stylistic resemblance to works by Claude Francois aka, Fr\u00e8re Luc (1614-1685), a student of Simon Vouet and an influential artist in New France.\u00a0 The artist had returned to his mother country, however by the date of the nun\u2019s death.\u00a0 Morisset saw the painting in the 1950\u2019s at which time the background had already been overpainted.\u00a0 In 1960 Morisset had made a connection with a painting of St. Claire in an altarpiece by Fr\u00e8re Luc.\u00a0 He saw similarities with paintings of the two nuns and other similarities in the naturalistic qualities of other faces by Fr\u00e8re Luc as well as similarities in the treatment of the landscape elements.<\/p>\n

Cross section and pigment analysis conducted at CCI by scientists Marie Claude Corbiel and Elizabeth Moffatt revealed a double ground layer, consistent with grounds used in France in the 17th<\/sup> Century\u00a0 (The author referred to\u00a0 Elaine Du Val\u2019s publication on red grounds in 17 C France.) and\u00a0 lead tin yellow which placed the painting prior to 1750.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Malley did further study of 17th<\/sup> C Carmelite portraits. He learned that Catherine\u2019s death was described in the annuals of the day.\u00a0 Because the date of
\nher death was not consistent with Fr\u00e8re Luc having been documented as being in
\nNew France, he hypothesize that the painting was not, in fact,\u00a0 a true portrait but a commemoration; his attribution, when published, was well received.<\/p>\n

Michael O\u2019Malley\u2019s work nicely demonstrates a situation when a professional must \u201ccross the aisle\u201d to an allied profession when information gleaned in our work demands to be researched and shared to the benefit of all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael O\u2019Malley gave a fascinating talk about describing the investigation he undertook on a painting he had treated in 1998, which resulted in an attribution.\u00a0\u00a0 His determination to uncover the mysteries of the posthumous Portrait of M\u00e9re Catherine de Saint-Augustin, a 17th Century Carmelite nun beatified in 1989 was piqued by hints given by materials … Continue reading “40th Annual Meeting: Outreach in Paintings Session: The Dissemination of Information Outside the Field and Within, May 10, “Bridging the Divide–Conversing with Allied Professionals” by Michael O’Malley”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":5342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,34,16],"tags":[71],"class_list":["post-3271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-annual-meeting","category-paintings","category-specialty-sessions","tag-aics-40th-annual-meeting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}