aspetti di tutela sostenibile fra vecchie e nuove tecnologie: L’evoluzione dei metodi di PULITURA di opere pittoriche nel novecento

Paolo Bensi1, Mario Casaburo2, Amalia Galeone3

1 Dipartimento di Scienze per l’Architettura, Scuola Politecnica - Università degli Studi di Genova; paolo.bensi@arch.unige.it; paolo.bensi@libero.it

2 Dottore di ricerca, Dipartimento di Lettere e Beni Culturali, Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli, Santa Maria Capua Vetere (CE); mariocasaburo@gmail.com; mario.casaburo@unina2.it

3 Storica dell’Arte, Settore conservazione dipinti mobili - Pinacoteca, Museo Campano, Capua (CE); amaliagaleone82@gmail.com; amaliagaleone@libero.it

ABSTRACT

The cleaning of paintings, sculptures and architectural surfaces, has always been one of the most complex operations of restoration. During the history has been characterized by aesthetic implications and economic dynamics that have often overshadowed the need for material protection of artworks.

This work aims to analyze the sustainability of the intervention of cleaning – rather than from a point of view of the economic or aesthetics benefits – compared to the most difficult moment of choice of the methods best suited with which to operate, its critical characters before than manual, which is affected by factors always different. It focused attention – after a first necessary historical survey on the use of solvents for cleaning of paintings in Italy in the twentieth century – on the operational aspects of recent years, who have seen, after the Second World War, the traditional solvents be overtaken by materials from the chemical industry. On the one side have been analyzed the choices of using of materials considered innovative before, and immediately set aside later, on the other side have been made critical remarks about the solvents used today (enzymes, chelating agents, solvent gels ...), compared to a sustainability understood in the broadest sense of protection and conservation of artwork.

Key words: restoration, cleaning of paintings, history of conservation