Study of Original Painting and Gilding Technology on a Nineteenth-Century Terracotta Sculpture

Abstract

Conservation research has a main role to play during the decision-making process of restoration – how an object should look, what should be removed, what should be clearly exposed, and how to connect history and conservation with the aesthetic effects expected by the owner. In many situations we do not have enough historic material to fully establish this. In this article we would like to describe the process and steps taken during microchemistry research to identify the original technology used in the painting and gilding layers of a terracotta sculpture, dated to the late nineteenth century.