This volume is the first comprehensive collection of texts on the conservation of art and architecture to be published in the English language. Designed for students of art history as well as conservation, the book consists of forty-six texts, some never before translated into English and many originally published only in obscure or foreign journals. The thirty major art historians and scholars represented raise questions such as when to restore, what to preserve, and how to maintain aesthetic character. Excerpts have been selected from the following books and essays: John Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture; Bernard Berenson, Aesthetics and History in the Visual Arts; Clive Bell, The Aesthetic Hypothesis; Cesare Brandi, Theory of Restoration; Kenneth Clark, Looking at Pictures; Erwin Panofsky, The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline; E. H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion; Marie Cl. Berducou, The Conservation of Archaeology; and Paul Philippot, Restoration from the Perspective of the Social Sciences. The fully illustrated book also contains an annotated bibliography and an index.

Ever since its original publication in Germany in 1938, Max Schweidler's Die Instandetzung von Kupferstichen, Zeichnungen, Buchern usw has been recognized as a seminal modern text on the conservation and restoration of works on paper. To address what he saw as a woeful dearth of relevant literature and in order to assist those who have 'set themselves the goal of preserving cultural treasures, ' the noted German restorer composed a thorough technical manual covering a wide range of specific techniques, including detailed instructions on how to execute structural repairs and alterations that, if skilfully done, can be virtually undetectable. By the mid-twentieth century, curators and conservators of graphic arts, discovering a nearly invisible repair in an old master print or drawing, might comment that the object had been 'Schweidlerized.' This volume, based on the authoritative revised German edition of 1949, makes Schweidler's work available in English for the first time, in a meticulously edited and annotated critical edition. The editor's introduction places the work in its historical context and probes the philosophical issues the book raises, while some two hundred annotati

Shortlisted for the 2014 SAHGB Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion. Certainly, ancient structures have long been treated with care and reverence in many societies, including classical Rome and Greece. But only in modern Europe and America, in the last two centuries, has this care been elaborated and energised into a forceful, dynamic ideology: a 'Conservation Movement', infused with a sense of historical destiny and loss, that paradoxically shared many of the characteristics of Enlightenment modernity. Miles Glendinning's new book authoritatively presents, for the first time, the entire history of architectural conservation, and traces its dramatic fluctuations in ideas and popularity, ending by questioning whether its recent international ascendancy can last indefinitely.

It is clear that working with historic structures is both more environmentally sustainable and cost effective than new architecture and construction—and many believe that the best design occurs at the intersection of old and new. Françoise Astorg Bollack presents 28 examples gathered in the United States and throughout Europe and the Middle East. Some are well known—Mass MOCA, Market Santa Caterina in Barcelona, Neues Museum in Berlin—and others are almost anonymous. But all demonstrate a unique and appropriate solution to the problem of adapting historic structures to contemporary uses. This survey of contemporary additions to older buildings is an essential addition to the architectural literature. “I have always loved old buildings. An old building is not an obstacle but instead a foundation for continued action. Designing with them is an exhilarating enterprise; adding to them, grafting, inserting, knitting new pieces into the existing built fabric is endlessly stimulating.” —Françoise Astorg Bollack

A History of Architectural Conservation expands knowledge about the conservation of ancient monuments, works of art and historic buildings. It includes the origins of the interest in conservation within the European context, and the development of the concepts from Antiquity and the Renaissance to the present day. Jokilehto illustrates how this development has influenced international collaboration in the protection and conservation of cultural heritage, and how it has formed the principal concepts and approach to conservation and restoration in today's multi-cultural society. This book is based on archival research of original documents and the study of key restoration examples in countries that have influenced the international conservation movement. Accessible and of great interest to students and the general public it includes conservation trends in Europe, the USA, India, Iran and Japan.

This open access book offers a comprehensive overview of the role and potential of microorganisms in the degradation and preservation of cultural materials (e.g. stone, metals, graphic documents, textiles, paintings, glass, etc.). Microorganisms are a major cause of deterioration in cultural artefacts, both in the case of outdoor monuments and archaeological finds. This book covers the microorganisms involved in biodeterioration and control methods used to reduce their impact on cultural artefacts. Additionally, the reader will learn more about how microorganisms can be used for the preservation and protection of cultural artefacts through bio-based and eco-friendly materials. New avenues for developing methods and materials for the conservation of cultural artefacts are discussed, together with concrete advances in terms of sustainability, effectiveness and toxicity, making the book essential reading for anyone interested in microbiology and the preservation of cultural heritage.

Once a forest has been destroyed, should one plant a new forest to emulate the old, or else plant designer forests to satisfy our immediate needs? Should we aim to re-create forests, or simply create them? How does the past shed light on our environmental efforts, and how does the present influence our environmental goals? Can we predict the future of restoration? This book explores how a consideration of time and history can improve the practice of restoration. There is a past of restoration, as well as past assumptions about restoration, and such assumptions have political and social implications. Governments around the world are willing to spend billions on restoration projects – in the Everglades, along the Rhine River, in the South China Sea – without acknowledging that former generations have already wrestled with repairing damaged ecosystems, that there have been many kinds of former ecosystems, and that there are many former ways of understanding such systems. This book aims to put the dimension of time back into our understanding of environmental efforts. Historic ecosystems can serve as models for our restorative efforts, if we can just describe such ecosystems. What conditions should be brought back, and do such conditions represent new natures or better pasts? A collective answer is given in these pages – and it is not a unified answer.