Salvatore Lorusso

Traditional and non-traditional, innovative and ephemeral materials and techniques in today’s cultural heritage

When working with products of contemporary art, one must consider traditional, innovative, and ephemeral materials, depending on the artist’s intentions, to which concepts of originality and authenticity do not always apply. Case studies are discussed to compare the conservation and restoration procedures of works of art from different periods. The importance of involving historical-technical experts, authors, and manufacturers of materials used in artifacts is highlighted. Conservation procedures cannot be the same for all works of contemporary art. One must employ a methodology based on the critical study of not only the materials used, but also the philosophy and creative conceptual intentions of the artist.

Authenticity and conservation state of art works: the market and auction houses & Presentation of the historical-technical Journal “Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage"

The title Authenticity and conservation state of art works: The market and auction houses mirrors the particular status of confusion and instability in which the auction houses – find themselves – nowadays. It is an international situation of existential and economic crisis in which humanity appears to be excited and schizophrenic. This lecture is part of a series all dedicated to various aspects of art, with a particular focus on the great Italian artist Giorgio Morandi. A good selection of his works is currently displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Giorgio Morandi conceived art as a “practice of silence”, where his “still life” functioned as a filter to observe the world outside his small cloistered art studio. By emphasizing the importance of weight and gravity with grace and attention, this artist can therefore teach us how important it is to judge a piece of art not only subjectively – giving greatest relevance to the satisfaction of individual aesthetical standards – but also objectively – where the techniques and the materials utilized assume the greatest significance. This allows the estimator to estimate correctly their economic and financial value. The second part of the lecture consists in the presentation of the historical-technical journal Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage. It represents an emblematic gathering of experts, symbolizing therefore a necessary encounter among people with different cultural backgrounds, experiences and skills. They meet to address and discuss issues related to their common field of study, the Cultural Heritage sector. This jolts, as it can be imagined, American art critics. They often lack social criticism showing them to be too focused on aesthetics and elegance of form. The consequent question arises: is this really true?

La Facoltà di Conservazione dei Beni Culturali e il Dipartimento di Storie e Metodi per la Conservazione dei Beni Culturali, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna (sede di Ravenna)

Gli intenti della Facoltà di Conservazione dei Beni Culturali istituita nel 1996 e del Dipartimento di “Storie e Metodi per la Conservazione dei Beni Culturali” costituitosi nel 1998, perseguono quanto già previso nel 1967 dalla Commissione di indagine parlamentare per la tutela e la valorizzazione delle cose di interesse storico, artistico e del paesaggio (Commissione Franceschini) che ha così sottolineato: « I beni culturali sono testimonianza materiale avente valore di civiltà e strumento di umana elevazione». “Storie” e “Metodi”, riferiti allo studio dei beni culturali, costituiscono le voci chiave per improntare la ricerca nel settore dei Beni Culturali, facendo riferimento all’unione fra l’approccio storico e l’approccio tecnico-scientifico, allo scopo di tracciare un percorso formativo completo. L’intento è costruire un “edificio” di cultura storico-umanistica e tecnicosperimentale, in base alle finalità didattiche della Facoltà di Conservazione dei Beni Culturali per la formazione dei “conservatori”. Il Dipartimento, d’altra parte, che annovera competenze di carattere sia storico-umanistico e giuridico sia tecnico-sperimentale, nasce con il preciso scopo di offrire il supporto storico e tecnico-sperimentale per l’elaborazione di strategie e metodi per la conservazione e valorizzazione dei Beni Culturali; di qui la presenza, presso il Dipartimento, dei laboratori: fotografico, archeologico, musicale, delle cronache, informatico e multimediale, di elaborazione della cartografia storico-documentale del territorio, diagnostico e chimico-fisico.

Research project: “Charter on the Risk for Cultural Heritage conservation in bounded environments”

As for the objectives set by the Charter on the Risk of Cultural Heritage and of the Territorial Information System at a regional level and in particular concerning Sicily, the research is aimed at reaching two goals with an integral and consistent approach. The first objective is to collect the necessary information and to carry out an action plan in order to help the person in charge with the cultural unit (museum, library, archive, picture gallery) to reach and keep a good “status” of the cultural heritage and at the same time to keep a high quality of life and work in the cultural unit. The document which will be drafted will provide the basic and general information for the various areas of the working environment that are adjacent to each other. At the same time the document will provide guidelines for the safety and the conservation of the cultural collections of the museum and will have to be adapted to each cultural unit with specific features concerning the “system: manufactures with historical-artistic interest / or interesting for the conservation environment”. Some sites that are considered to be emblematic will be tested, and this is the second objective of the research, they will be carefully chosen as representative of the various, complex and variable logistic and cultural situations of our country and in particular of Sicily.

Preventive Methods to reduce the deterioration of monuments and outdoor art by microbe burden of the solid-micro-dust-fraction

The research work is focused on new methods to evaluate the effectiveness of protective treatments in protecting against biodeterioration agents or microbes and the micro-dust-fraction. The testing system can be easily adapted to the composition materials in the artefact or to the chemical composition of the protective agent. Currently, it is possible to show simultaneously metabolic turnover (material aggressive component) and replication rates under various conditions. Further results on this project will be submitted as they become available.

The industrial research project: “Blu-Archeosys – Innovative Technologies and Advanced Systems as Support in Underwater Archaeology”

The reasons of the research about new technologies as support in naval and underwater archaeology or, more generally, in waters archaeology are various and described in this work, where the characteristics of the research project “BLU-ARCHEOSYS – Innovative Technologies and Advanced SYStems as Support in Underwater ARCHaeology” are illustrated. This industrial research project faces problems regarding innovative technologies and instruments in waters archaeology and it comprehends synergic steps and joined works among skilled professionals that have the competences to interpret qualitative and/or quantitative data within an artistic – historical and technical – historical study, also with the involvement of various public and private institutions. The BLUARCHEOSYS project has, in fact, the objective to create technologies that have a reply in underwater archaeology and contemporaneously in other sectors. In particular, starting from the methodological way that spans from the discovery in underwater or subaerial environment to the collocation of the objects in museums, the intent is to support the different methodological stages with specific tools and innovative technologies. The education project, presented to the Ministry with the research one, is articulated in the different branches of artistic-historical character, of the management, normative and operative character, and of the technical-diagnostic-material-preservative character. The professionals will have not only theoretical knowledge about standard and consolidated technologies, but they will be also experts about methodologies, in particular the diagnostic ones, that put in field the innovative tools evaluated in the project, with consequent competitive advantage in the working field, more and more demanding specific sector competences.

Characterization of materials and alteration-degradation products of the Blessed Virgin Rosary altar in the Saint Dominic church in Ravenna: preliminary study for the restoration interventions

The construction of the Blessed Virgin Rosary altar in the Saint Dominic church (13th century) in Ravenna occurred between 1723 and 1770. All the portions of the church are interested by intense degradation phenomena and, in particular, the altar preservation condition is worrying. The whole surface is covered by spots and deposits of various nature, efflorescences, swellings, detachments and lacunae. The main cause of damage is the humidity capillary climb. In a preliminary investigation, surveys and observations have been made in order to describe the materials and to evaluate the preservation condition. Then, the areas for sampling have been chosen for analyses and stratigraphies. The present work concerns the altar materials characterisation and the alteration – degradation products analyses: this is essential to plan the restoration interventions.

Environment and biota safeguard in the cultural heritage field

In the past the unsuitable choices made when choosing products to be used for conservation actions related to artefacts of historic-artistic interest were mainly due to wrong assessments. More specifically this means: insufficient determination of the structure-aspect relation which characterises the original materials that make up the artefacts; insufficient knowledge of the behaviour of new materials due to natural ageing processes which might impoverish them or deprive them of specific qualities; lack of interest in measuring the medium-long term effects and interactions of the artefacts-products-environment system. The latter is sometimes capable of triggering new and more serious factors leading to the deterioration of the artefact sometimes causing even greater damage. In particular this study refers to the aspects related to the potential danger deriving from products used for the different types of conservation interventions on stone materials.