📬 La newsletter #26 Edició nadalenca — The newsletter #26 Holidays edition
Sorpresa! una nova edició única per aquest nadal a càrrec de la restauradora Silke Beisiegel — Surprise! a new unique edition for this holidays by the conservator Silke Beisiegel
A love letter to the conservation and study of Polychromed Wooden Sculpture and all the cool resources about it around the net. It’s a one-year bi-monthly newsletter project done just for fun. It’s also not perfect and doesn’t intend to, but rather a space to share. Edited in Catalan and English. Read here past newsletters. The newsletter is closed, but this is a special edition, only this time in English (space issues😅), for holiday seasons ✨.
📷 From the one and only: the MET Christmas tree crèche. This Angel is made by Giuseppe Sanmartino (Italian, 1720–1793), Polychromed terracotta head; wooden limbs and wings; body of wire wrapped in tow; various fabrics ©Public Domain
.
Surprisingly, this newsletter has grown twice in size since the final publication of this one-year project. And although this has not changed, I always thought that would be nice to create a holiday edition. A publication of a colleague and newsletter subscriber made me decide to ask her to be the guest for this special post.
So today I leave this space to Silke Beisiegel, a freelance paintings and polychrome sculpture conservator from Germany. She focused her PhD on the presentation of Hermann Prell’s research into painting techniques and a description of materials and techniques he used, and she’s passionate about the conservation and study of polychromed wooden sculpture. The only request that I made is that were resources from Germany since I do not know the language and therefore much of what is out there. And boy, she delivers! I do not run out doing another one next year, so If you’re interested, let me know. In the meantime, you can find me here. Happy holidays ✨
.
Polychromed wooden sculpture in Germany: a little overview and free resources
There are many different resources and I tried to select the most interesting. First, we will take a look at some museums with polychrome wooden sculpture collections and then what secrets palaces in Bavaria hold. Furthermore, splendid decorations in churches all over Germany will be presented. Finally, a quick detour on publications by the German Association of Conservators and Academic Theses will conclude this newsletter. In the end, I hope you will be as enchanted as me by polychrome wooden sculptures in Germany.
📸(Lübeck) In addition to the important collections of polychrome sculptures in Germany mentioned in past newsletters (no. 1, 3, 12, 16, 17), you can find polychrome wooden sculptures in numerous German museums. The majority is religious art like it is housed at the beautiful former convent St. Annen in Lübeck.
.
🎥 (Nuremberg) The Germanische Nationalmuseum has a stunning collection, which also includes altarpieces and sculptures. Some of their publications are open-access!
.
🎥 (Stuttgart) The Landesmuseum Württemberg has presented findings on sculpture techniques from their wonderful collection in some catalogues, for example, sculptures and panel paintings by Niklaus Weckmann’s workshop in the catalogue ʻMeisterwerke massenhaftʼ. The book ʻGraviert, gemalt, gepresstʼ compares mainly engraved, painted and moulded patterns from late Gothic retabels. Since 1989, this Museum has been working on a catalogue raisonné of Medieval Sculptures in their collection and the newest part can be found online. The Museum also offers an interesting blog on several topics like examination and conservation of artworks.
.
📖(Berlin) The Rathgen-Forschungslabor, research laboratory of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, regularly publishes its findings in the journal ʻBerliner Beiträge zur Archäometrie, Kunsttechnologie und Konservierungswissenschaftenʼ. From No. 1 (1976) on to 25 (2017), you can find all articles online.
.
🤓(Bavaria) Besides museums, the furnishing of Palaces includes also polychrome wooden artworks worth knowing about. In Bavaria, the conservation department Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen is responsible for their preservation. They publish selected work reports and allow us a look behind the scenes or show their favourite objects in their blog.
(around Germany) In churches, you can find artworks still in situ. In each federal state of the German Republic, their conservation is monitored by the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (State Department for Cultural Heritage Preservation). They provide work reports and publications on the conservation and restoration performed, for example in Bavaria. For another region (Baden-Württemberg) you can find articles among other things on the conservation of wooden objects here. To learn about the preservation of heritage in a northern part of Germany (Mecklenburg-West Pomerania) see here.
.
Finally, here are some extra links of other German organisations and training institutions that are worth checking out:
Three academies provide selected PhD and diploma/Master-theses on conservation and art technology on their websites! Check the Technische Universtität München, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden, and Hornemann Institut, Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaft und Kunst (which we already mentioned in another post).
Finally, the Verband der Restauratoren (German Association of Conservators) organizes conferences on various subjects. Worth knowing that in 2019 the meeting ʻDie Fassung bewahren Keep Color – Keep Coolʼ focused on the conservation and restoration of polychrome sculpture. The abstracts book is available online (you will read some familiar names!). This year the VdR started to publish their journal ʻConserva – Beiträge zur Erhaltung von Kunst- und Kulturgutʼ twice a year with open access.
📸 Polychrome wooden artworks of the 19th and 20th centuries are exhibited less often than medieval or baroque ones. This is also reflected in art technology publications. My favourite polychrome wooden sculpture at Dresden State Art Collection is the ʻForest dreamʼ created by Robert Diez(1844–1922) around 1890, 146 x 70 x 65 cm, Inv. ZV 1389, donated by Carl Louis Uhle 1894. The complex polychromy is fascinating, e.g. painted on different metal leafs. In 1995 Katharina Heilein wrote her diploma thesis (unpublished) about its examination and conservation at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden © Albertinum – Skulpturensammlung ab 1800, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Franz Zadnicek
 | A guest post by
|