The exhibition presents an
overview of the conservation, restoration, and research efforts on several
works by old masters from the painting, sculpture, and print collections of the
Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb.
The conservation and
restoration activities at the Museum of Arts and Crafts have significantly
influenced the development of the restoration profession on a national level. The
early professionalisation of art conservation and restoration at the Museum was
shaped by its directors, first Gjuro Szabo (1919–1926) and then Vladimir
Tkalčić (1933–1952), who continued their role as conservators for northern
Croatia within the Museum’s framework.
In response to a growing
demand for restoration services, Tkalčić, in collaboration with restorer
Zvonimir Wyroubal, founded the Museum's first restoration workshop in 1942. This
was also the first public restoration workshop in Croatia. Zvonimir Wyroubal
introduced a modern approach to documentation and, in 1946, organized the first
exhibition on conservation in Croatia, titled Conservation and Restoration
of Artworks. Due to the growing need for restoration, the workshop was relocated,
leading to the foundation of the Restoration Institute of the Yugoslav Academy
of Sciences and Arts (Jugoslavenska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, abbrev. JAZU),
which later evolved into today’s Croatian Conservation Institute.
Today, the Museum has four
specialised conservation and restoration departments focusing on different
types of museum holdings from twenty-one museum collections
(the Department of Painting
and Polychrome Sculpture, the Department of Textiles, the Department of Glass,
Metal and Ceramics, and the Department of Furniture). Each department focuses
on three key conservation modalities: the conservation aspect, the restoration
aspect which applies a museum-based approach, and the third, the research
aspect, which includes research using various analytical methods.
Conservation research, as an
interdisciplinary field of science and art, is an essential contribution to the
historical and artistic interpretation and a comprehensive understanding of the
artwork.
Natural science research
conducted on works from the painting, sculpture, and print collections of the
Museum of Arts and Crafts, presented in the exhibition at the National Gallery,
has uncovered an invisible spectrum of information about the techniques and
technologies used by the old masters. For example, research on the painting The
Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine led to a revised, earlier dating of the
work. Structural analysis of the paintings Diogenes and Farewell of
Dido and Aeneas revealed hidden images beneath the paint layers, raising
new art historical questions. The conservation and restoration efforts have
restored the structural stability of the artworks, revealed the refined
modelling of the Saint Lawrence sculpture, the vibrancy of colours in
the paintings, and the graphic skill of master artists, thus visually restoring
the original qualities of the artworks. The research and restoration activities
represent a significant contribution to the preservation and promotion of the
museum’s cultural heritage for future generations.
The conservation and
restoration efforts and preliminary research on the artworks were carried out
by Jasminka Podgorski, Srećko Budek, Vedran Benović from the Museum of Arts and
Crafts, along with external collaborators Pavao Lerotić, Višnja Bralić, Mario
Braun, and Domagoj Mudronja from the Croatian Conservation Institute, as well
as Jelena Piasevoli-Mikac and Velimir Mikac from Kustoda d.o.o.