美国国家公共电台 NPR With Chemistry And Care, Conservators Keep Masterpieces Looking Their Best

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

That painting you see on the wall of an art museum is the product of the artist and the times in which he or she lived. It is also the result of today, no matter how old it is, a major museum's conservator's work to keep the art looking its best. Their methods are meticulous¹ and sometimes surprising.

As part of our summer series we're calling Backstage Pass, NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg visits the conservation lab at the National Gallery of Art here in Washington, D.C.

SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE²: Go in a main entrance. Walk to a door that opens with a passkey and down a long hallway. It looks like a school that you might have attended in 1904 - beige fake tile walls, darker beige linoleum³ floor. You're on the ground floor, but it feels like the basement.

It doesn't look like a museum. I'm going into painting conservation G115. We don't have to show you our passports? Or...

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: We've already scanned you coming down the hall - no.

STAMBERG: I got scanned?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: No.

STAMBERG: Well, it's for security. The conservation room is filled with priceless paintings sitting on row after row of tall wooden easels or lying on big, white-top work tables. I head down the long room to senior conservator Ann Hoenigswald. I'd met her years ago on my very first trip to this backstage lab. Then, she was working on one of Monet's series of impressions of the Rouen - that's R-O-U-E-N - Cathedral in France, filling in tiny dots of sky that had flaked⁴ off over time.

And I watched and watched. It was like being in the artist's studio because it was so available. There it was, no frame, no fancy lighting⁵. And I said to you, oh, please, could I just paint in one little blue dot? And you said...

ANN HOENIGSWALD: No (laughter).

STAMBERG: She had to protect the Monet - also her reputation and her job. She knew I'd tell. Ann had to mix her blue to match Monet's. Conservators must take classes in studio art, art history and chemistry for their repair work. Sometimes guidance comes from artists themselves.

HOENIGSWALD: Vincent Van Gogh writes back to his brother, Theo, and says, will you send me Prussian blue and ultramarine and three large tubes of lead white and things like that?

STAMBERG: Earlier painters - 300 years earlier, say - leave no clues at all.

Could I try your glasses?

MICHAEL SWICKLIK: Yeah, you can try them.

STAMBERG: Conservator Michael Swicklik peers through thick lenses that give him a 3-D view of a 15th-century canvas the Italian Fra Angelico may have painted. They can't be sure because "The Entombment Of Christ" is in awful condition, freckled⁶ with pocks where paint flecked off, gold on the saint's halos worn away, dulled all over from varnish⁷ that has aged⁸ to the color of caramels. Swicklik gets to work with cotton and a stick.

SWICKLIK: So we roll a little swab on a bamboo skewer⁹ kind of thing and then...

STAMBERG: Yeah. And then you dipped it in water.

SWICKLIK: No. This is actually a solvent¹⁰ mix...

STAMBERG: Oh, that's the solvent.

SWICKLIK: ...A solvent mixture. Yeah.

STAMBERG: Sometimes they just spit - gets grime off nicely.

You're going after the caramel on the saint's robe.

SWICKLIK: Yup.

STAMBERG: And you're gently touching¹¹ it with the solvent...

SWICKLIK: Very lightly.

STAMBERG: ...In circles, light circles.

SWICKLIK: A lot of time, just a rolling action. So you - what you want to do is minimize any chance of abrading¹² the surface as you go.

STAMBERG: Varnish is the enemy here. Painters or dealers¹³ or buyers put a clear coat of it on to preserve a painting or give it a nice sheen. Jay Krueger, the head of painting conservation, says, over time, the varnish ages and actually changes the colors of the painting.

JAY KRUEGER: You know, you remember that sky being blue, and it's kind of green now. Or you'd remember, you know, this is a lovely, silvery dress, you know? And it's yellow now. It's just a matter of that surface, that transparent¹⁴ layer, discoloring over time. So it'll turn reds more orange. It'll turn blues¹⁵ kind of greenish, darkens the light colors. And in an odd way, it kind of flattens¹⁶ out and lightens the dark colors.

STAMBERG: Conservators work to restore the artist's original vision, so they remove the darkened varnish.

Not so fast. First, they switch on one of the seven big blue tubes. They look like elephant's trunks suspended from the ceiling. They are vacuums curling kind of creepily down over various workspaces. They suck up fumes¹⁷ and smells and get rid of them. Whoosh¹⁸.

KRUEGER: You know, you don't want to have a 40-year career cut short because you're in a room full of open solvents¹⁹.

STAMBERG: Conservators tailor the solvents to meet the needs of a particular painting. Joanna Dunn is dealing²⁰ with solvents so strong she needs blue rubber gloves to use them. Looking through a very fancy microscope, she bends over a 16th century Tintoretto, "Allegory Of Summer." The big canvas - it's more than 3-by-6-feet big - shows a zaftig blonde reclining in a field, her right breast just peeking²¹ out from her pretty pink drape. For some reason, a parrot turns his back on her. Armed with cotton swabs, skinny stick and solvent, Joanna Dunn goes after the usual suspect - varnish.

JOANNA DUNN: This coating is so old, I can't dissolve it without harming the paint. So the way to do it is to soften²² it with the chemicals that I'm using. And then I'm going back with a scalpel. And it actually sort of becomes gelatinous. And I can kind of push it off with the scalpel.

STAMBERG: Very carefully. At some point, she will put down the scalpel, pick up a paintbrush and fill in any spots that are missing paint.

DUNN: I'm only going to put my inpainting in the area where the paint is missing. I'm not going to cover any of the original paint.

STAMBERG: Conservators also need to get rid of paint that was applied²³ in earlier restorations and then replace it with colors that match sometimes centuries-old originals and do it so that future conservators have an easier time when their turn comes. So I guess Ann Hoenigswald was right not to let me play Monet that day. But these professional conservators get to do it every day, going from one century, one style to another for future art lovers.

A few years ago, Ann had a Mary Cassatt - 19th-century American - on one easel and an El Greco - 16th century, Spain. El Greco was on another easel. The juxtaposition²⁴ made Ann philosophical²⁵ and something else.

HOENIGSWALD: Mary Cassatt admired none of the old masters the way she did El Greco. And I was practically in tears thinking, oh, my God. If she ever thought she'd be, literally²⁶, side-by-side - it was very emotional, really. That's what happens in a conservation studio.

STAMBERG: That's what happens. In Washington, I'm Susan Stamberg.

1 meticulous   

adj.极其仔细的，一丝不苟的

参考例句：

• We'll have to handle the matter with meticulous care.这事一点不能含糊。
• She is meticulous in her presentation of facts.她介绍事实十分详细。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 linoleum   

n.油布，油毯

参考例句：

• They mislaid the linoleum.他们把油毡放错了地方。
• Who will lay the linoleum?谁将铺设地板油毡？

4 flaked   

精疲力竭的，失去知觉的，睡去的

参考例句：

• They can see how its colours have faded and where paint has flaked. 他们能看到颜色消退的情况以及油漆剥落的地方。
• The river from end to end was flaked with coal fleets. 这条河上从头到尾处处都漂着一队一队的煤船。

5 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

6 freckled   

adj.雀斑；斑点；晒斑；（使）生雀斑v.雀斑，斑点( freckle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Her face was freckled all over. 她的脸长满雀斑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Her freckled skin glowed with health again. 她长有雀斑的皮肤又泛出了健康的红光。 来自辞典例句

7 varnish   

n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰

参考例句：

• He tried to varnish over the facts,but it was useless.他想粉饰事实，但那是徒劳的。
• He applied varnish to the table.他给那张桌子涂上清漆。

8 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

9 skewer   

n.（烤肉用的）串肉杆；v.用杆串好

参考例句：

• I used a skewer to make an extra hole in my belt.我用扦子在腰带上又打了一个眼儿。
• He skewered his victim through the neck.他用扦子刺穿了受害人的脖子。

10 solvent   

n.溶剂；adj.有偿付能力的

参考例句：

• Gasoline is a solvent liquid which removes grease spots.汽油是一种能去掉油污的有溶解力的液体。
• A bankrupt company is not solvent.一个破产的公司是没有偿还债务的能力的。

11 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

12 abrading   

v.刮擦( abrade的现在分词 )；（在精神方面）折磨（人）；消磨（意志、精神等）；使精疲力尽

参考例句：

13 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

14 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

15 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

16 flattens   

变平，使（某物）变平( flatten的第三人称单数 )； 彻底打败某人，使丢脸； 停止增长（或上升）； （把身体或身体部位）紧贴…

参考例句：

• After Oxford the countryside flattens out. 过了牛津以远乡村逐渐平坦。
• The graph flattens out gradually after a steep fall. 图表上的曲线突降之后逐渐趋于平稳。

17 fumes   

n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体

参考例句：

• The health of our children is being endangered by exhaust fumes. 我们孩子们的健康正受到排放出的废气的损害。
• Exhaust fumes are bad for your health. 废气对健康有害。

18 whoosh   

v.飞快地移动，呼

参考例句：

• It goes whoosh up and whoosh down.它呼一下上来了，呼一下又下去了。
• Whoosh!The straw house falls down.呼！稻草房子倒了。

19 solvents   

溶解的，溶剂

参考例句：

• It is resistant to borohydride reduction in alcoholic solvents. 在醇溶剂中，它不能被硼氢化物还原。
• Strains require special treatments for removal such as spotting with organic solvents. 要清除这些着色物质，需要特殊处理，例如：滴加有机溶剂。

20 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

21 peeking   

v.很快地看( peek的现在分词 )；偷看；窥视；微露出

参考例句：

• I couldn't resist peeking in the drawer. 我不由得偷看了一下抽屉里面。
• They caught him peeking in through the keyhole. 他们发现他从钥匙孔里向里窥视。 来自辞典例句

22 soften   

v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和

参考例句：

• Plastics will soften when exposed to heat.塑料适当加热就可以软化。
• This special cream will help to soften up our skin.这种特殊的护肤霜有助于使皮肤变得柔软。

23 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

24 juxtaposition   

n.毗邻，并置，并列

参考例句：

• The juxtaposition of these two remarks was startling.这两句话连在一起使人听了震惊。
• It is the result of the juxtaposition of contrasting colors.这是并列对比色的结果。

25 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

26 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。