New treatments for canvas consolidation and conservation

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop new, sustainable treatments for the consolidation and conservation of canvas of modern and contemporary art. Because of the diversity of painting types, two product groups which have polar and nonpolar character were developed. The treatment should be applicable to the back side of the canvas. The deacidification agents are sub-µm-particles of calcium carbonate or magnesium oxide which are dispersed in water or heptane. The polar components are hydroxyethyl methyl cellulose and nanocrystalline cellulose which are biopolymers derived from renewable raw materials. The nonpolar products were obtained by the silylation of the raw materials and allow the solubility in nonpolar solvents as heptane. Each product was applied to highly degraded, acidic model cotton canvas as well as canvas from real paintings. The application of these products showed a good increase of breaking force at a low increase of the mass of the canvas and also had only slight optical changes of the canvas. The deacidification of canvasses is a good preventive measure and can protect canvasses from future damage by acidity. The deacidification agents showed an increase of pH from acidic to alkaline after the treatment and a deposition of an alkaline reserve.

Novel nanomaterials to stabilise the canvas support of paintings assessed from a conservator’s point of view

“…The deacidifying agents, ZFB 1a and ZFB 2a, were developed and produced by ZFB and are sub-µm dispersions in water and heptane, which means that the calcium carbonate and magnesium oxide used have a particle size of under 1 µm [34].…”

“…The consolidants ZFB 1b, ZFB 2b, ZFB 1c and ZFB 2c contain hydroxyethyl methyl cellulose (Tylose ® MH), purchased from Shin Etsu, and cellulose nanocrystals (CelluForce NCC ™ ), obtained from CelluForce Inc. For the solvent-based products, a silylation reaction was carried out [34].…”

“…This was a subjective type of evaluation, where conservators compared their experience of the new products with that of the materials they have already used in conservation. The quantification of the mechanical improvement and of the deacidifying ability of the products has been analysed elsewhere [31][32][33][34].…”

“…The conservators' opinions are important because if they consider that a product lacks good handling properties or has undesired effects on the object, they will not use it. These same new nanoparticle-based products have also been tested by other researchers regarding aspects such as mechanical improvement and deacidifying capacity [31][32][33][34].…”

Nanorestart: Nanomaterials for the restoration of works of art

“…The conservation of the supports of painted artifacts is also addressed, as illustrated by three papers included in the selection [5][6][7]. The first paper reports on the development and evaluation of sustainable treatments for the consolidation of canvasses in modern and contemporary art [5].…”