To restore or preserve?

​The spring issue of The Hunt magazine features Winterthur’s conservators (and WUDPAC faculty) and the very important work they do. From the article "No Easy Fix" by Roger Morris:

In the textiles labs, conservator Laura Mina works on a printed fabric that needs cleaning. "A rule of treatment is to never do anything you can't reverse," she says. As natural light streams from a canted window in Wintherthur's library buidling, Mina Porell hovers over an ailing 18th-century canvas. At times, the conservator uses a medical surgeon's scalpel to remove flecks of flaking paint, the high-magnification lenses of her eyeglasses extending mantis-like from her face. For the moment though, she's gently applying a mild solvent with a Q-Tip. Her patient is David Hall Jr., frozen in the same stare since the 1760s, when painter William Williams first put brush to canvas. Repairing works of art and craft is an art form in itself—one that also employs science and philosophy. The former allows for an accurate diagnosis. The latter comes into play in the attempts to resolve the conservator's eternal dilemma of whether to restore or preserve. Finally, there's the skill and the vision needed to adhere as closely as possible to what the original artist or craftsperson intended.

You can read the full story online at: http://digital-editions.todaymediacustom.com/hunt/spring-2021/index.html#p=25