CONSERVATION OF THE FLOWERS CANVAS PAINTING (1) AT THE EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM

Abstract

The present study aims to examine and treat the flowers canvas painting at the Egyptian Agric-ultural Museum. It is divided into three parts: a) USBDM, SEM-EDX, XRD, GC and FTIR studies, which revealed that the object is suffering from deterioration forms, e.g. ruptures, dust, cracks, missing parts, brittleness, fragility, acidified canvas, and incompatible treatments. The coloring materials are: The green is celadonite (K(Ca, Mg, Fe2) (Fe3Al) [Si4O10](OH)2), the red is hematite (Fe2O3), the blue is lazurite (Na,Ca)8(AlSiO4)6(SO4,S,Cl)2), the beige is hematite (Fe2O3) mixed with barite (BaSO4) and zincite (ZnO), and the gray is carbon black (C). Additionally the ground layer consists of hydrocerussite PbCO3.(OH)2, cerussite Pb3CO3 and zincite ZnO binded with animal glue. The oil media is the poppy seed oil. b) The experimental part showed that 7% Beva371 in toluene is more suitable than the fish glue for object consolidation. c) The applied part covered cleaning, consolidation, patching, lining, completing the missing parts in the painting and ground layers and varnishing.