Week Three: Old Repaints

Hi. This is Marta Oriola at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Last week I went on removing the varnish on the figure of the Bishop.
	The green area on the Bishop's clothes might have many different layers of old repaints. These were done to cover big areas of damage. Very little of it is original paint. The repainted surface is very uneven and the color does not match with the original. Also, some of the repaint covers original paint. Covering original surface when repainting an area of damage is not acceptable nowadays. For these reasons, it was decided to remove the old repaints. In this digital photograph, the circles show how few of the green areas are original.
	Some of these old repaints can be removed with an organic solvent. In this image the varnish layer and some of the old repaints have been removed. However, some repaints are insoluble in the solvent and there are still a lot of old repaints left behind. These may have been done with oil paint, which becomes increasingly less soluble once it has dried. If it is decided to remove these oil repaints, a different approach will be needed.
Next week I will approach the pink areas of the throne of the Bishop and I hope to find out what is its condition. I hope to see you soon.
	On the right the varnish has been removed. Most of the old repaints made with oil are not soluble with the solvent. Areas of old damage can be seen in white.

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