COURSE HERITAGE PRESERVATION - BRIEF

U.A.U.I.M. – FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE

COURSE HERITAGE PRESERVATION (BRIEF)

Prof.dr.arh. Sergiu NISTOR

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COURSE HERITAGE PRESERVATION - BRIEF


Moto:

“Nature is renewing itself constantly – therefore it is customary for

mankind to create new from old” OVIDIU (Publius Ovidius Naso)

Structure of the course:

Section I

THE EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ARCHITECTURAL

WORKS OF THE PAST

Section II

MAJOR CONTRIBUTION TO THE THEORY OF HISTORIC MONUMENTS AND TO THE RESTORATION

DOCTRINE IN THE XIXth AND XXth CENTURY

Section III:

THE CONTEMPORARY DOCTRINE OF THE RESTORATION OF MONUMENTS AND SITES

Section IV:

ROMANIA: CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF RESTORATION,

THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF THE CULTURAL HERITAGE PRESERVATION




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Section I

THE EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH

THE ARCHITECTURAL WORKS OF THE PAST

Topics:

The relationship with the architectural works of the past: utility, concern, awareness, protection

(from Antiquity to Renaissance)

The use and the meaning of the terms Monument / Heritage (Patrimony) in the XVIIIth c. AD

Early restorations in the 1st half of the XIXth Century

Motto Section I

” The specificity of the monument rests upon its impact upon the Memory (...) For those who build them,

as well as for those who are sensible to their messages, the monument is a shield against the trauma of

everyday existence, a protection device. The monument provides us comfort, strength and confidence, by

making Time less rude. [The monument] is the trustee of our origins and calms us when we are confronted

with the uncertainties of new experiences. Defying the entropy and the dissolving action of time with

respect to both natural and manmade entities, it tries to overcome the anguish of death and dissolution.”

Fr. Choay, Alegoria patrimoniului, București, Ed. Simetria, 1998, p.7

ANCIENT ROME: the first proofs of interest for the artefacts of the Greek antiquity

Greek art is of interest for the Emperors Augustus and Hadrianus (Ist C B.C.)

Hadrianus declares exemplaria Graeca

500 Greek statuaries were moved from the Sanctuary of Delphi to the Villa Hadriana – Tivoli and

the Palace of Diocletian - Spalato

(apud Fr./ Choay, The Invention of the Historic Monument, Cambridge University Press, 2001)

The first expressions of interest for the artefacts of the past: the buildings of ancient Rome

The Ostrogoth king Theodoric (455-526 AD), king of Italy since 493 AD. „Theodoric came to Rome in 500

AD. His entrance in the city was similar with the triumph of former emperors: for the Romans it didn’t

seem that a stranger arrived among them, but rather Trajan (...) came back to life.”

Ferdinando Gregorovoius, STORIA DELLA CITTÀ DI ROMA NEL MEDIO EVO DAL SECOLO V AL XVI,

Giuseppe Antonelli E L. Basadonna Edit., Venezia e Torino, 1866, pag. 355

The Ostrogoth king Theodoric (455-526 AD)

Letter to Argolius: “all ruined buildings in Rome to be repaired. In Rome, blessed among all cities,

there has to be no derelict building.”

Letter to Sabinus): “it is important to preserve as well as it is important to create. We are interested

indeed in the proper maintenance of Rome’s walls, that is why we ordered the port Lucrino to




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provide 25.000 tiles annually for this purpose. Take care that this really happens, as the holes

wherefrom stones had fallen to be filled with tiles, for the protection of the walls, in order to merit

the gratitude of late kings, who’s work we provided an endless youth.”

Appoints a certain Cassiodorus curator statuarum – Custodian of the monuments of Rome (in

charge with the protection of the Roman statuary)

Aqueducts are repaired, as well as the Colosseum, the Mausoleum of Hadrian and the

fortifications erected by Emperor Aurelian

THE MIDDLE AGES

The ancient architectural structures and sculptures are not destroyed / demolished if they can satisfy new

uses, if they are fit with the utilitarian or symbolic needs of the period.

Examples:

608 A.D.: the Pantheon (Ist C. B.C.) becomes "St. Maria Martira"

630 A.D.: In the Roman Forum Curia Julia becomes “St. Adrian” church.

The Senate’s Curia Julia – The Roman Forum - turned into St. Adrian church (630)

The Roman amphitheatre in Arles is used during the Middle Ages as a citadel and fortified settlement.

The Roman amphitheatre in Nimes, idem

The Palace of the Knights of Malta uses one of the exedrae of the Forum of Augustus as foundation;

The Trajan’s Arch in Rimini is used as a gate in the mediaeval fortification,

The Rome Colosseum: turned into a fortification by the Frangipani family (middle. sec. XIII)

The Hadrian Mausoleum is turned into a Castle (San Angelo)

The central Plaza of Lucca is erected over the Roman amphitheatre.

Charles the Great / Charlemagne (emperor of the francs 771 - 814):

In his chapel of Aachen, the emperor replicates the inner space model of San Vitale of Ravenna,

in order to illustrate his political aim: the rebirth of the Roman Empire.

The same reason leads to the transfer from Ravenna to Aachen of the statue of Theodoric,

together with many other artefacts (i.e. mosaics, marble columns, etc.)

Appoints a certain Eginhard as superintendent of public buildings

The exceptional case of the Trajan Column, preserved as symbol of the civic rights obtained by the

Commune of Rome (1143)

A.D. 1162 - The Roman Senate Decree: integra et incorrupta dum mundus durat.

“(…) never be destroyed or mutilated, but on the contrary, preserved for the honour of Roman people, for

as long as world will exists”




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RENAISSANCE - Quattrocento

Flavio Biondo (1392 – 1463), Counsellor and Secretary to the Pope writes “Roma Instaurata” (published

1466), with a description of Rome and Italy, being the first to use the concept of Middle Ages, to

encompass the period after the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Involvement of the Papacy

1462 – Brief of Pope Pius II CUM ALMAM NOSTRAM URBEM

The first document to forbid all forms of destruction of the artefacts of the Antiquity, no matter if they

belong to the public or private realm, and sanctioned these facts by prison, excommunication, fine and

confiscation

Pope Paul II restores the Arch of S. Sever, the Trajan’s Column

Pope Sixtus IV restores the temple of Vesta in Rome

RENAISSANCE - Cinquecento

The historic monument is examined, surveyed, interpreted theoretically and artistically

„Hence, given that all men owe respect to their parents and their homeland, (…), an image may survive—

barely more than a shadow—of what is, in fact, the universal homeland of all Christians and which, at one

time, was so noble and powerful that men began to believe that she alone, of all earthly things, was above

fate and, contrary to the natural course of things, not subject to death and destined to last forever.”

„For, bearing in mind the divine quality of the ancients’ minds as revealed in the remains still to be seen

among the ruins of Rome, I do not find it unreasonable to believe that much of what we consider impossible

seemed, to them, exceedingly simple.”

(...) I think that I have managed to acquire a certain understanding of ancient architecture. This is

something that gives me, at once, enormous pleasure—from the intellectual appreciation of so excellent

a matter—and enormous grief—at the sight of what you could almost call the corpse of this great, noble

city, once queen of the world, so cruelly butchered.”

„by preserving the example of the ancients, may Your Holiness seek to equal and better them (...)”

Rafael Sanzio letter to Leon X, 15251

The art of Antiquity had to be examined not for its preservation, but mainly in order to inspire and lead

to perfection, to be surpassed and improved by the works of the Renaissance

1 https://courseworks2.columbia.edu/courses/10532/files/579172/preview.

https://courseworks2.columbia.edu/courses/10532/files/579172/preview




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Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), De Re Aedificatoria (1485), vol. 10: “correcting the mistakes“ - mental

mistakes and manual mistakes are worth correcting in order to display to the beneficiaries a new and

flawless artefact.

Examples:

L. B. Alberti, San Francesco-Rimini, ”improved” according to the Alberti’s theory.

L. B. Alberti: The façade of Santa Maria Novella, Firenze

Michelangelo, Sta. Maria degli Angeli, Roma, the transformation of the Diocletian Termae into a church

throughout the re-modelling and the redecoration of the interior

A. Palladio, Basilica-Vicenza, “una suave armonia”

MONUMENT AND HERITAGE (PATRIMONY) UP TO THE XVIIITH CENTURY:

The first collections, the first museums

The Papacy collections

SS Paul IInd (1464 -71) the first Papal collection,

SS Sixtus IVth (1471-84) moves the collection in the Pallazo dei Conservatori – Capitol,

SS Julius IInd (1503-13) hires Bramante to accommodate the papal collections and sculptures in the

Belvedere wing of the Vatican Palace – the birth of the Vatican Museum

Private collections

Medici (Florence), d’Este (Ferrara), Sforzesco (Milano), Borghese, Barberini (Roma)

Royal collections

Francois I (XVI C), Louis XIV (XVII C)

The Great Geographical Discoveries (XVI-XVIIth c.AD) lead to:

An endowment of the art collections with the recently discovered exotic artefacts,

(replenishing the collections lacking the classical antiquity)

The end of the monopoly of Greek - Roman classical antiquity over the artistic interest of the

Europeans

The Vatican Collection – Rome, 1506: the first public collection

Ashmolean Museum – Oxford, 1677: the first European museum

Brukenthal Museum – Sibiu, 1817: the first Romanian museum

Museum (ICOM definition) “the cultural entity (…), that collects, conserves, investigates, restores,

communicates and displays, for the benefit of knowledge, education and enjoyment, the material and




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spiritual testimonies of the existence and evolution of human communities, as well as of the natural

environment;”

The impact of the discovery and research of the antique settlements of Herculanum (1738) and Pompei

(1748)

The retrieval of new and valuable artifacts refilled the western European art collections and refueled the

interest for ancient art

Johann Joachim Winkelmann (1717-1768)

Librarian to cardinal Albani, he visits and studies the discoveries made in Herculanum and Pompei

Considered as ”the father of archaeology” and the founder of the discipline of art history.

Appointed Chief Commissioner of Antiquities in Rome (1763)

Works

• Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture – 1755

“The only way for us to become great, and, if possible, inimitable, lies in the imitation of the Greeks”

• The History of Ancient Art – 1764

J.J. Winkelmann considers that Greek antique sculpture reached the “ideal beauty” through Fidias and

its climax in Praxitele, Lisip and Apelles works. He describes how a scientific analysis is to be performed

upon ancient art: ” the description of a statue must demonstrate the reason for its beauty and indicate

the particular features of the artistic style”.

In his analysis of ancient Greek and Roman statues he reveals that ”I noticed statues that have been

transformed through restoration and taken another character” and considers that interventions have

to be marked distinctly, with different materials and documented through descriptions.

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1716-1799)

Sculptor, friend with Winkelmann, restorer of cardinal Albani’s sculptures

• Following Winkelmann’s theory, he presents his interventions in detail, starting with the

description of the original artifact, followed by the expert’s opinions, and finally, based upon a

consistent knowledge of the work of art, its restoration.

”Restoration…does not consists of knowing how to make a beautiful arm, a beautiful head, a beautiful

leg, but in knowing how to imitate, and, shall I say, extend the manner and the skill of the antique

sculptor of the statue to the parts that are added new.(…)”2

• Reccommends to avoid new addition in completion of the ancient part if not precisely determined

with respect to the initial form.

2 Raccolta d'antiche statue, busti, teste cognite ed altre sculture antiche restaurate da Cav. Bartolomeo

Cavaceppi scultore romano, Roma, 1768-72




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• According to Cavaceppi, the limits of the completion of the ancient statues are:

”It would be ridiculous to want to compose a head having only a nose or little more (…) I agree that

an antiquity can be found to have been ill-treated, but my desire is that a work should contain at least

two-thirds that is antique and that the most interesting parts should not be modern…”

• He recommends the conservation of the sculptures without completion when there is little

historic material discovered.

”A fragment of half a head, of a foot, or of a hand, is much better to enjoy as it is, than to form out of

it an entire statue, which can then only be called a perfect imposture.”

XVIIIth Century

ALBANI, WINCKELMANN, AND CAVACEPPI: The transition from amateur to professional antiquarianism3

XVIIIth century reveals

a) a process of professionalization of the art collector, of the antiquarian and of the art restorer4

as well as

b) a process of academic explanation of the term MONUMENT

Throughout the elaboration of their Encyclopaedia, the target of the scholars of the Enlightment was

to comprehensively define the natural and social environment. Their belief was that knowledge frees

the people and helps the society to prosper thru a good governance5.

Monument : S. m. (Arte) we call monument any work of Architecture or Sculpture, created for the

preservation of the memory of illustrious men or for great events, as a mausoleum, a pyramid, a triumphal

arch or similar(…)

D. Diderot et alii, Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences,

des arts et des métiers , Tome X, 1751

The word Monument has its origins in Monumentum < monere (lat.) = to recall, to warn.

MONUMENTAL, supplementary to the memorial function of the MONUMENT designate:

• A building of important dimensions

• A structure of scale greater than the human one

3 Title of Seymour Howard’s paper in Journal of the History of Collections, Vol. IV, 1992, Oxford University Press (NA) 4 In 1745, the Duke of Milan issues a decree establishing - under a penalty of 20 ecus - that no painter, or sculptor or architect, or of any other profession, either academic or not, is not allowed to destroy or to modify publicly owned antique or modern paintings or sculptures, without the Academy approval. (NA) 5 ”(…) the birth and the lineage of our knowledge, the reasons of their emergence and their specific characteristics ; briefly, to find the origin and the genesis of ideas (…) « Enciclopedie, ou dicționnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers, Vol. I, Foreword, d’Alembert, 1751




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• The use of compositional or spaceal effects to subdue the visitor

• A grand, impressive design

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789-1794)

Main events:

14. 07. 1789 – The siege of the Bastille - Paris

26. 08. 1789 – The Declaration of the Civil Rights (establishing the fundamental human rights, the Nation

State and the elected bodies)

2. 11. 1789 – the transformation of the clergy into public servants, the confiscation of their assets

22. 12. 1789 – the setting up of a new administrative structure of the territory (83 departments)

21. 06. 1791 – The King’s failed attempt to dessert France

31. 10. 1791 – Decree allowing the confiscation of the assets of exiled noblemen

10. 08. 1792 – The fall of Monarchy

21. 01. 1793 – The execution of Louis XVI

27. 07.1794 – The fall of Robespierre, end of the Terror

The destruction of the properties belonging to the noblemen and clergy

“(...) a rich pray appropriated by the Revolution, the 40.000 palaces, residences and castles of France.”

Camille Desmoulins - 1789

“the destruction of all monuments that symbolize the past existence of serfdom and the ban upon anything

capable to recall the memory of tyranny”

Decree of the National Assembly, 1792

Notre Dame, Paris

• It loses its gallery of kings due to the confusion between the kings of the Old Testament and the

French monarchy

Strassbourg Cathedral

• > 200 statues destroyed

Laon Cathedral

• > 70 statues destroyed

“In violent times, the monuments and the works of art share the fate of the symbols they are linked to.“

J. P. Babelon, A. Chastel, La notion de patrimoine, 1994

Reactions against destructions and vandalism

13.X.1790

The Constitutional Assembly sets up a special committee – the Committee for Monuments – in charge ”to

forecast the destiny of the monuments to science and art coming from the churches and the abbeys and

belonging to the nation”




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9. 12.1790

Aubin-Louis Millin presents to the National Assembly Vol. I (out of 6 vol. in total, 1790-96) of

Antiquités Nationales, ou Recueil des Monuments, Pour servir a l’Histoire générale et particulière de

l’Empire Français

”These are the precious monuments that I selected to spare from the destructive scythe of Time”

A.-L. Millin, op. cit. 1790, p.2

The term monument: an administrative content

a) The political discourse

”the monuments to tyranny fall down everywhere in the old kingdom, but those of interest for art deserve

to be protected and preserved.”

J.J. Dussault, Constitutional Assembly, 4.08.1792

“(…) condemning the monuments that recall the tyranny, it is important, nevertheless, to preserve and

conserve the artistic masterpieces, so useful for the enjoyment of a free nation.”

Declaration of the Constitutional Assembly, 16.IX.1792

b) The administrative document

”(…) the directors of departaments should ask for reports upon the state of monuments…”

Decree of the National Assembly setting up the Monuments Commission, 13.10.1790

A new concept: the national patrimony

”(…) the important monuments are everyone’s patrimony (…) they have to be maintained and enhanced

on everybody’s expenses.”

Discourse about the public monuments, Paris Departmental Council, 15.12.1791

”You are no more than the custodians of a wealth for which the great family [the Nation] asks you to be

accountable. Part of this heritage you will find cowardly abandoned by your enemies (…) everyone has to

behave really responsibly for these treasures the nation handed us for care.”

Instructions sur la maniere d’inventorier

”All monuments belong to the Nation. It is necessary, therefore, that all individuals to be able to take profit

of their existence (…) nothing will contribute more to that than de establishment of a deposit in each of

the 83 departments (…) museums: that’s the name these deposits can bare.”

1790 – Constitutional Assembly, Commission for deposits




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A new term: ”vandalism”

”The Barbarians and the slaves hate knowledge and destroy the works of art; free men love them and

protect them”

Abbot Gregoire, Report upon vandalism, 1794

New public uses for religious, royal and aristocratic old buildings

• Alexandre Lenoir, 1795, Musée des Monuments Français, Couvent des Petits Augustins

• Musee Republicain (Musee National du Louvre), 1793

• Sainte Genevieve > Pantheonul

The French Revolution considered MONUMENTS and NATIONAL PATRIMONY worth preserving with

respect of their contribution to :

• Education, knowledge

• The enhancement of democracy and national pride,

• Public use (administrative, economic, cultural functions)

• New models of civic participation and liberties

THE FIRST RESTORATIONS IN THE EARLY XIXTH CENTURY

I. Prussia & K. Fr. SCHINKEL

• The Prussian Civil Code (1794) forbids the mutilation of public monuments

• The maintenance of public monuments is the responsibility of the Koenigliche Ober-Bau-

Deputation, agency that has to be informed with respect to any substantial modification of public

buildings or public monuments.

• Guidelines were elaborated by the OBD with respect to the conservation of different types of

monuments (1819, 1823, 1824, 1830)

Guidelines for the Conservation of Monuments and Antiquities in Our Country, 1815:

“our homeland has lost a huge number of its most beautiful gems; this is to regret, and if general and

radical measures are not implemented for reversing this process, we will soon be lost and void as a

colony in a desert territory.”

• 1835 – The Ministry of Culture is entitled to verify all interventions on buildings of ”historic,

scientific or technical merit”.

Friedrich Schinkel (Principles ...):

1. Explains that the monuments belong to the public, therefore their maintenance is of public

interest and its financement from the public budget is justified.




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2. Asks for the setting up of an institution charged with the listing, inventory and conservation of

monuments.

3. Proposes the listing as monuments not only of individual buildings, but also ensembles and open

air structures.

4. Considers that the success of a conservation strategy rests upon the existence of a specialized

institution, with specialized staff in conservation,

5. Restoration supposes the conservation of old parts, the preservation of the original material and

a minimum of strictly necessary interventions.

6. Pleads for the in situ conservation, for keeping the specific objects and decoration within the

monument and the setting up of local museums.

RESTORATION UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF K. Fr. SCHINKEL

Restoration (1823 - 1830) and completion of Koln Cathedral (1842 - )

Run by Sulpiz Boisseree and monitored by K. Fr. Schinkel.

The original but derelict elements were replaced with new ones (roof, carpentry).

A new nave and the two western towers of neo-gothic appearance were erected.

Restoration of the Teutonic Castle of Marlbork / Marienburg

Monitored by K. Fr. Schinkel (1817 - 1822).

The lack of similar historic and architectural cases makes Shinkel consider “the risk to be tempted by the

imagination”.

2 types of spaces and interventions are considered:

1. Areas were ”the satisfactory state of conservation and the availability of data allow the reproduction of

elements that disappeared, in their purest form”,

2. Areas were, due to the doubts with respect to the form and use of spaces, a comprehensive research

and a cleaning of harmful elements is needed ”so the destroyed or lost elements to be precisely recreated”.

II. ROME - HOLY SEE

The legal protection of monuments:

• 1796 – 1814 the instruments for the protection of monuments established by the French

revolution (Comission for monuments, inventory) are adopted

• 1802 – The first legal document (Decree) with respect to the conservation of objects of art in the

Papal State – Card. Doria-Pamphili




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• 1820 – The first local agencies for the protection of monuments are set up in the cities of the

Papal State

• 1820 – Decree of Cardinal Pacca, establishing centralized rules for the inventory, conservation and

administration of monuments

1802 – Decree of Card. Doria-Pamphili:

« These precious remains from the times of Antiquity provide the city of Rome with an ornament which

distinguishes it from all the other more famous cities of Europe.

They are important subject of meditation for the scholars, as well as valuable models of inspiration for

artists in their attempt to reach the Beauty and the Sublime.

They attract foreigners that find pleasure in the study of these rare artefacts.

They will inspire those that deal with the arts to produce new items that will promote new artisanal and

commercial activities.

More than anything else, this latter aspect will be for the benefit of the public as well as for the State.”

Provisions

• Monuments are of public interest and in State ownership

• The conservation of the monuments should be done in situ together with all their components.

Raffael Stern restorations:

1803 – Trimphal Arch of Constantin (erected in 315),

• Cleaning of the neighbouring areas, exposing the roman pavement,

• Iron anchors used for the statues threatening collapse

1806 – consolidates the eastern side of Colosseo (commissioned by SS Pius VII, as the proposal of D.

Schiavoni, implying a partial demolishment of the upper levels is rejected)

• Erects a brick masonry buttress over a travertine basement

• Conserves the desorders of the ancient structure

Giuseppe Valadier restorations

1810 – the restoration of the Temple of Hercules in Forum Boarium, used during the Middle Ages as the

church of St. Stephen

• Demolishment of the masonry between the columns of the peristylum

• Consolidation of the column of the cella




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1821 -23, The Arch of Titus (the Triumphal Arch erected by Domitian (81 AD) in the memory of the

conquest of Jerusalim by his brother Titus )

• Used as a entrance gate into the fortification of family Frangipani (XII-XIII AD)

• R. Stern, commissioned in 1817 to restore the Arch, dies in 1820 and is replaced by G. Valadier.

• G. Valadier demolishes and rebuilds the Arch around a brick core, and replaces the ancient parts

that he carefully extracted before the demolishment.

• Its completion was inspired by Trajan’s Triumphal Arches in Ancona and Benevento

• The finishing of the recomposed parts is made of travertine instead of marble, the ancient

material

• The decoration of the recomposed parts is simplified

• The restoration is highly appreciated by Quatremere de Quincy in his Dictionnary of Architectură

(1825-34) : ”the visitor has no doubts about what is authentic and what was added in order to give

the sensation of entirety.”

• Criticized by other scholars (Stendhal among them) for demolishing and reconstructing.

1824-26 – the consolidation of the SW part of Colosseo

• Recomposes the arcades in a decreasing number from ground-floor to the last level, so to make

a arcaded buttress

• Uses the travertine (the original material) only for the bases and the capitals of the columns

• Structure and finishang material: brick masonry

III. ATHENS / GREECE

• 1834 – a law for the preservation of monuments (inspired by Schinkel’s principles) elaborated in

Bavaria, the Greece’s king Otto I birthplace, is enforced .

• Thru law protection is granted to ”all objects belonging to the Greek Antiquity, as a legacy on

behalf of the forefathers of the Greek people, a common national patrimony for all Greeks.”

• 1835-1836 – The first restoration of the Temple of Athena Nike by Christian Hansen, Gustav

Schaubert, Ludwig Ross. The temple was restored thru anastylosis, recomposed with simplified,

unfluted marble elements for columns, and with terracotta tiles in the frieze area.

1835 - Leon von Klenze proposes a restoration program of the Acropolis of Athens:

• The demolishment of the mediaeval fortifications having no historic or pictoresque interest

• The cleaning of the surroundings of the Parthenon and its restoration beginning with the Northern

side, the most visible part from the city.




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• The anastylosis will use marble from ancient quarries for the recomposed columns, but with a

visible marking of the intervention

• Similarly will be restored the Propilea and the Erechteion

• The use of advanced engines, possibly procured from the German states

• Land will be cleared for the erection of a museum

• The former ground level and ancient platforms will be revealed

• Some of the mediaeval constructions near the Propilae will be retained.

IV. FRANCE

Report to King Louis Filip by Francois Guizot, Minister of the Interior, 1830

„The monuments that the soil of France is so well covered makes the civilized Europe envious. So numerous

and so diverse in comparison with the ones of neighbouring countries, [our monuments] do not belong just

to one historical period, but together form a comprehensive serial without exceptions; beginning with the

epoch of the druids and up to the present day, there is no important period in the development of art and

civilization not to be represented by monuments that explain and illustrate it.”

(…)

„On the basis of a comprehensive inspection the General Inspector of the Historic Monuments will prepare

a precise and detailed catalogue of the buildings and individual monuments that have to be taken care by

the Government; he will accompany this catalogue, as much as possible, with drawings and plans, and will

successively transmit this to the Ministry of the Interior, where these documents will be classified and

consulted if needed.”

Fr. Guizot

Ludovic Vitet, the first Inspector general for monuments (1830-1834)

• performed the first inspection on site of the mediaeval monuments of France (1831)

• formulated the principle ”primum non nocere”

• discovered the polychromic of the mediaeval monuments

• saved the Abbey of Moissac from demolishment

• Member and vice-president of the Comission for Historic Monuments (established in 1837)

About his mission as Inspector General for Historic Monuments he wrote:

”to confirm the existence and to elaborate the detailed description of all the building of the kingdom that,

because of their age, or because of their architectural character, or because of the events they were

witnesses, are of interest for the archaeologist, or for the historian, this is the first task assigned to me;

secondly, to look after these buildings and their conservation, explaining the Government and the local

authorities which are the means for preventing and halting their decay.”




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Prosper Merimee, IInd Inspector general for Historic Monuments 1834-53, ad. int.-1860

"(…) as far restoration is concerned, the first and most Important principle is not to innovate, even when

we are driven by the honest intention to embellish and accomplish [the monument].

It is better to leave unfinished and lacking perfection what we find unfinished and lacking perfection. We

do not have to correct what is uneven, nor to straighten the irregularities, because the deviations, the

irregularities or the lack of symmetry are historic facts full of meaning, that often provide us the

archaeological criteria for the determination of a certain period, or a craftsmanship identity, an idea or a

symbol. Nothing to be added, nothing to be removed6.„

Criticism with respect to the demolishments of the period in Paris

“There are two things in a building: the use and its beauty. The use belongs to the owner, whereas the

beauty belongs to everybody. Therefore to demolish it means an abuse.”

Victor Hugo, 1825/1832, Guerre aux demolisseurs, Revue des deux mondes

”Regarding ancient monuments, it is better to consolidate than to repair, better to repair than to restore,

better to restore than to rebuild, better to rebuild than to embellish; in no case must anything be added

and, above all, nothing should be removed.”

Adolphe Didron, 1839

« There shall not be void space surrounding our cathedrals, to dwarf their magnificent dimensions,

endowment from their creators. They [the cathedrals] were not designed for the desert as the Pyramids of

Egypt, but to shade the crowded homes and narrow streets of our cities.»

Montalambert, 1845

THE EARLY RESTORATIONS OF E.E. VIOLLET-LE-DUC (1814-79)

St. Madelaine, Vezelay (XIIth c.)

Built in the specific Burgundy Romanesque style, with gothic modifications, of an outstanding interior

decoration richness. In 1840 Prosper Merimee discovered the cathedral in a serious state of degradation

which threatened its existence (the N tower was demolished by the protestants in XVIIth century, the

sculptures of the western portals were destroyed in the Revolution, the vaults presented infiltration and

risk of collapse).

The restoration is commissioned to Eugene Emmanuel Viollet le Duc in 1840.

The consolidation of St. Madelaine–Vezelay (1840-44) - E.E. Viollet-le-Duc

As for the cracked vaults of the nave:

• EE Viollet le Duc reconstructs 3 of the vaults and arches of the nave

6 Guidelines, 1837




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• Reconstructs in the Romanesque style the last 3 gothic vaults of the nave towards the choir

As for the leaning exterior walls:

• EE Violet le Duc adds 13 buttresses and rebuilds in a new shape 12 flying buttresses

As for the aisles roof obstructing the windows of the nave:

• EE Viollet le Duc rebuilds the roof in its initial position

The Restoration (post 1850) of St. Madelaine –Vezelay by E.E. Viollet-le-Duc

• Recomposes with another theme (The Last Judgement) the sculptures of the central portal.

• For structural reasons, he replaces some of the capitals of the columns in narthex and in the nave.

• Modification of the upper part of SW tower

• Partial replication of the NW corner

The Restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral – Paris, (1845-64), Jean Baptiste Lassus / E.E. Viollet-le-Duc

The interventions were meant to generate a stylistic unity and a structural perfection according to the

gothic logic, the replacement of the materials of poor quality with other of better performances, the

cleaning of the interior of its baroque decoration.

The West facade:

• The sculptures of the portals where replaced with copies,

• The door openings of the central portal were changed,

• New sculptures in the gallery of kings where the originals were destroyed in the Revolution

• New pinnacles / statues embellishing the facades

The South Facade:

• The pointed windows of the XIIIth c. were replaced by round windows from the XIIth century.

• A sacristy was erected,

• Chapels were reconstructed

• Flying buttresses with added pinnacles were rebuild.

“(…) forgetting his tastes, preferences and instincts must have as his only, constant aim to conserve,

consolidate and add as little as possible and only when it is a matter of urgency. During a restoration it is

essential that the artist constantly bears in mind the need for his work to be forgotten and all his efforts

should ensure that no trace of his passage can be found on the monument. We see it, this is merely

science, this is just archaeology. .”

Lassus, J-B., De l’art et de l’archéologie, Annales Archéologiques, 1845




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THE LEGACY OF THE FIRST RESTORATIONS EARLY XIXth CENTURY

Restoration in the first half of the XIXth Century raised the following issues that will challenge the theoretic

approaches and the praxis in the century to come

• The consolidation (how?)

• The study of the monument (what for?)

• The specialization in monument conservation (what kind?)

• The marking of the intervention (how, if visible?)

• The profoundness of the intervention (limits?)

• The symbolic message of restoration (restoration: art or science?)




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Section II

MAJOR CONTRIBUTION TO THE THEORY OF HISTORIC MONUMENTS AND TO THE

RESTORATION DOCTRINE IN THE XIXth AND XXth CENTURY

I. FRANCE - STYLISTIC RESTORATION

Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879)

“The term Restoration and the thing itself are both modern. To restore a building is not to preserve it, to

repair, or to rebuild it; it is to reinstate it in a condition of completeness which may never have existed at

any given time.”

Sur la restauration, Dictionnaire raisonne de l’architecture française du XIème au XVIème siècle, Paris,

1864

“every building and every part of building should be restored in its own style, not only as regards

appearance but structure”

«What is then, the style? The style is the illustration of an ideal based on a principle.”

«If we deepen our analysis into the great principles of the universal order, we discover quickly that all

creation emerges from a logic approach and submits itself to pre-existent laws.»

«The Architecture of the Middle Ages has style because (...) it emerges from that logical order that we see

in nature’s creations. Therefore, while analysing a leaf, we can imagine the hole plant, analysing a bone –

the whole animal, the same with the analysis of a moulding, we can imagine the architectural members

and the architectural monument.»

Le style, Dictionnaire raisonne de l’architecture française du XIème au XVIème siècle, Paris, 1864

„Our age has adopted an attitude towards the past in which it stands quite alone among historical ages.

It has undertaken to analyse the past, to compare and classify its phenomena, and to construct its veritable

history, by following step by step the march, the progress, the successive phases of humanity.»

« If the European has reached this phase in the development of the human intellect, that while advancing

with redoubled speed towards the destinies of the future, and perhaps even because he advances thus

rapidly, he feels the necessity of collecting all that belongs to his past,—just as we collect a large library to

prepare for future labours,— (…) »

«In restorations there is an essential condition which must always be kept in mind. It is, that every portion

removed should be replaced with better materials, and in a stronger and more perfect way. As a result of

the operation to which it has been subjected, the restored edifice should have a renewed lease of existence,

longer than that which has already elapsed. (…)

“the best plan is to suppose one’s self in the position of the original architect, and to imagine what he

would do if he came back to the world and had the program with which we have to deal laid before him.”




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« An important principle has to be respected in restoration. With no exception attention has to be paid to

all the remains that documents a certain architectural disposition. The architect shall not be satisfied (…)

until he didn’t discovered the explanation that corresponds with the ancient characteristics of the building:

to decide from the start a certain architectural disposition without putting together all the relevant

information means hypothesis; or, in restoration there is nothing more dangerous than hypothesis.”

”In the mediaeval building every part of it undertakes a function and carries a load. The arhitect has to

search and determine the characteristics of these two, before proposing the intervention. He has to act

like a surgeon, skilled and experienced, who is not touching an organ until he hasn’t acquired

comprehensive knowledge about its function and without having assessed the immediate and long term

consequences of the operation. Better not to carry the intervention than to perform it carelessly. Better

accept the patient’s fate than to kill him.”

E.E.Viollet-le-Duc, Sur la restauration, Dictionnaire Raisonné de l’Architecture, Paris 1868-74

E.E. Viollet le Duc restorations :

• Cathedral Saint Sernin, Toulouse

• Cathedral Notre-Dame, Vezelay

• Cathedral Notre-Dame, Paris

• Castle Pierrefonds

• Citadel Carcassone

Stylistic restoration movement:

Constant Dufeux – Ch. St. Laurence, Paris, reconstruction of the classical facade in gothic style

Paul Abadie – Angouleme Cathedral, subjective completion of the upper part

Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-78):

• Chichester Cathedral: reconstruction of the Spire

• Rippon Cathedral (1862): cleaning of the W façade and towers from their XIVth century elements,

replaced by XIIIth century ones

• Westminster Abbey (1849-61): Stylistic reconstruction of the N transept

Stylistic restoration criticism

“Just as no poet would want to undertake the completion of the unfinished verses of the Eneid, no painter

would complete a picture by Raphaël, no sculptor would finish off one of Michelangelo’s works, so no

reasonable architect can consent to the completion of the cathedral.”

Adolphe Didron, about Reims Cathedral, 1851

“I am among those who believe that decay suits a monument. It gives it a human aspect, shows its age

and by bearing witness to its sufferings reveals the spirit of those generations it passed by in its shadow.”

Jules - Antoine Castagnary, Libres propos, Paris 1864




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Stylistic Restoration in Romania: Andre Lecomte du Nouy

• Bishopric Cathedral, Curtea de Arges

• Trei Ierarhi, Iasi

• Sf.Dumitru, Craiova

• Princely Court Church, Targoviste

II. GREAT BRITAIN, THE CONSERVATION MOVEMENT

Great Britain in the XIXth century

Politically - The world’s greatest economic and military power, the Victorian Empire

Design: Reaction against the mass production of the industrial revolution (Arts & Crafts)

Architecturally - Romanticism: return to the gothic style regarded as the national style,

Augustus Welby Pugin (1812-1852)7, The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture (1841)

“1st, that there should be no features about a building which are not necessary for convenience,

construction, or propriety ;

2nd, that all ornament should consist of enrichment of the essential construction of the building.”

John Ruskin (1819-1900)

Philosopher, art historian and critic

Quoted works:

The Seven Lamps of Architecture, 18498

The Stones of Venice, 1851-539

Lectures on Architecture and Paintings, delivered at Edinburgh, 185310

John Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, 1849

- the role of architecture

“We can live without her, and we can worship without her, but we cannot remember without her.”

“our God is a household God”

7 Together with Charles Barry, won the competition for the London House of Parliament in 1836 (NA) 8 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35898

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15200/15200-h/15200-h.htm#Memory 9 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30754 10 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23593/23593-h/23593-h.htm

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35898



http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15200/15200-h/15200-h.htm











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- the mission of the architect

“(…) respecting national architecture whose importance it is impossible to overrate: the first, to render the

architecture of the day historical; and, the second, to preserve, as the most precious of inheritances, that

of past ages”.

- the values of old buildings

“for indeed the greatest glory of a building is not in its stones, nor in its gold. Its glory is in its Ages, and in

the deep sense of voicefullness, (…)in the quiet contrast with the transitional character of all things (…) in

that golden stain of time (…)”

“The idea that a house must be large in order to be well built is altogether of modern growth, and is parallel

with the idea that no picture can be historical except of a size admitting figures larger than life.”

“Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning. There should

not be a single ornament put upon great civic buildings without some intellectual intention”

- about conservation and EE Viollet le Duc definition and practice of restoration

“Take proper care of your monuments and you will not need to restore them. A few sheets of lead put in

time upon the roof, a few dead leaves and sticks swept in time out from the water-course will save both

roof and walls from ruin. Watch an old building with an anxious care; guard it as best you may and at any

cost from every influence of dilapidation.”

“[Restoration] means the most total destruction which a building can suffer: a destruction out of which no

remnants can be gathered: a destruction accompanied with false description of the thing destroyed. Do

not let us deceive ourselves in this important matter; it is impossible, as impossible as to raise the dead, to

restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture. ”

« Do not let us talk then of restoration. The thing is a Lie from beginning to end. You may make a model of

a building as you may of a corpse, and your model may have the shell of the old walls within it as your cast

might have the skeleton, with what advantage I neither see nor care: but the old building is destroyed, and

that more totally and mercilessly than if it had sunk into a heap of dust, or melted into a mass of clay.”

“ I must not let the truth unstated, that is again no question of expediency or feeling whether we shall

preserve the buildings of past times or not. We have no right whatever to touch them. They are not ours.

They belong partly to those who built them, and partly to all generations of mankind that will follow us.

The dead have still their right in them: that which they labored for (…) we have no right to obliterate. What

we have ourselves built, we are at liberty to throw down; but what other men gave their strength and

wealth and life to accomplish, their right over does not pass away with their death (...)”




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- responsible development

“God has lent us the Earth for our life; it is a great entail. It belongs as much to those who are to come

after us and whose names are already written in the Book of Creation, as to us; and we have no right, by

any thing that we do or neglect, to deprive them of the benefits of which was in our power to bequeath. »11

William Morris – 1877, The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB)

“It is for all these buildings, therefore, of all times and styles, that we plead, and call upon those who have

to deal with them, to put Protection in the place of Restoration, to stave off decay by daily care,

to prop a perilous wall or mend a leaky roof by such means as are obviously meant for support or covering,

and show no pretence of other art, and otherwise to resist all tampering with either the fabric or ornament

of the building as it stands; if it has become inconvenient for its present use, to raise another building

rather than alter or enlarge the old one; in fine to treat our ancient buildings as monuments of a bygone

art, created by bygone manners, that modern art cannot meddle with without destroying.”

W. Morris, “Manifesto” - S.P.A.B., 1877

III. ITALIA, PHILOLOGIC RESTORATION

The process of the unification of Italy Risorgimento (1860-71) finds in the restoration and reconstruction

of historic monuments a national symbolic support.

The old buildings had to provide the symbol for the unity, the splendour, the magnificence, the integrity

of the new Italian nation-state.

Camillo Boito (1835 – 1914)

Architect, restorer, university professor and theorist

Restorations:

Porta Ticinese a Milano (1861-1865);

Altare di Sant'Antonio da Padova (1895);

Palazzo Cavalli-Franchetti a Venezia (1878)

Quoted works:

I nostri vecchi monumenti: Conservare o restaurare (1886), în Questioni pratiche di belle arti: restauri,

concorsi, legislazione, professione, insegnamento (Milan, 1893)

Carta del restauro, în Voto conclusivo del 3° Con-gresso degli Ingegneri e Architetti Italiani -189312

11 “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Brundtland Report , “Our common future” - UN, 1987 (NA) 12 https://denkmalpflege.tuwien.ac.at/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Boito-Carta-del-restauro-1883-ital.-u.-engl..pdf

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porta_Ticinese_(medievale)

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altare_di_Sant%27Antonio_da_Padova

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Cavalli-Franchetti

https://denkmalpflege.tuwien.ac.at/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Boito-Carta-del-restauro-1883-ital.-u.-engl..pdf








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C. Boito, I nostri vecchi monumenti: Conservare o restaurare

upon the legitimacy of restoration

„(…) the art of the restorer resembles with the one of the surgeon. It would be preferable, nobody denies,

that our human body to have no need of surgery; but only few think that it is desirable to leave the parent

or the friend dying instead seeing them without a finger ore with one wooden limb.”

upon the historic authenticity of monuments

„Generally speaking we can say that the monument is made of several layers, as is the Earth surface, and

that every one of this layers, from the most profound to the superficial one has a [specific] value that we

must respect.”

upon the profoundness of the intervention in restoration

„The historic monuments must retain

Their ancient and pictoresque character;

If completions or reconstructions

Prove to be mandatory,

I would rather perform them so it is obvious

That this interventions are the contribution of the contemporary.”

upon the marking of the intervention in restoration

“…I prefer failed restorations to the successful ones. The failed restorations, due to the grace of a honest

ignorance allow me to distinguish clearly the historic part from the contemporary one, while the

successful restorations, making throughout the capacities of an outstanding science and technique the

new resemble to the historic, paralyse my judgement and makes me unable to feel the pleasure of admiring

the monument, turning its study in an extremely difficult attempt.”

8 ways to mark the intervention :

1. Distinction of the style

2. Distinction of the material

3. Simplification of the statuary, mouldings and ornaments

4. Display of the old / replaced parts in a space accessible to the public (Ex.: Ducal Palace of Venezia,

the old columns displayed in the museum)

5. Inscriptions of the date of the restoration

6. Historic descriptions about the monument

7. The description of the intervention, its successive phases and works, in a written and

photographic form

8. The reputation of the restoration (Ex. E. de Fabris completion of SS. Maria del Fiore in Firenze)

upon the 3 types of restoration :

Restauro archeologico: proper to the ancient monuments, performed thru anastylosis with a clear

difference between old and new material.




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Restauro pittorico: proper for the mediaeval buildings, performed thru a discrete intervention, with a

minimum of additions.

Restauro architettonico: proper to the buildings from the period of Renaissance and later, performed thru

the replacement of the lacking parts by additions distinctively marked.

Philological restoration: the principles of C. Boito

1. The conservation of the patina and the historic testimony

2. The conservation of the historic interventions upon the monument .

3. The refusal of the stylistic restorations as proposed by Viollet-le-Duc.

4. The prevalence Present over Past, source of the legitimacy of the restoration of monuments.

5. The complementarity between Conservation and Restoration in the preservation of monuments.

6. The visible marking of the contemporary interventions.

7. The description of the intervention performed .

8. The hierarchy of the complexity of the interventions linked to the period of the erection of the

monument

IV. AUSTRIA – Alois Riegl and the theory of monumental values

Alois Riegl (1858 – 1905)

Art historian, curator of the Imperial decorative art museum in Wien.

Appointed in 1902 General Conservator (President) of the Central Commission (for Historic Monuments)

and asked to elaborate a new law for the preservation of historic monuments in the Habsburg Empire.

Quoted work:

The Modern Cult of Monuments, its essence and its origin (Der Moderne Denkmalkultus,

sein Wessen und seine Entstehung)(1903)

About the difference between monument and historic monument

“Monument (…) means a manmade creation erected with the precise purpose to preserve for eternity,

alive for the consciousness of future generation the memory of a certain action or destiny or a combination

between the two (…) The erection and the care of such “intentional” monuments, is a process that exists

since the most remote epochs of the civilization and hasn’t ceased to exist until today.”

„Due to the fact that the authors of the works that we call today historic monuments were essentially

seeking to satisfy their own needs and idealistic expectations (…); and because generally they didn’t




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thought not a single minute to convey to future generations the testimony of their artistic and cultural

endeavour, the term "monument" has no objective meaning, but only a subjective one (…) Intentional or

not, the monument benefits of a commemorative value, that is the reason we speak in both cases about

"monuments".

- Monument – artefact bearing apriori a precise significance

- Historic Monument – artefact loaded with a significance a posteriori with respect to its design and

construction process.

“Both intentional and unintentional monuments are characterized by commemorative value, and in both

instances we are interested in their original, uncorrupted appearance as they emerged from the hands of

their maker and to which we seek by whatever means to restore them. In the case of the intentional

monument, its commemorative value has been determined by the makers, while we have defined the

value of the unintentional ones.”

The Values of the historic monuments

I.- Commemoration values (essential for a proper use of the term monument)

a) Age-Value

“The age-value of a monument displays firstly by its non-modern aspect of the building. (…) The way the

age-value opposes to the contemporaneity values rests mainly in their unaccomplished character, in the

lack of integrity, in the tendency of dissolution of forms and colors, opposite to the characteristics of the

modern new artifacts, of bright appearance.”

b) Historic Value

“The historic value of a monument rests in the fact that it represents for us the particular stage, the unique

way that the human creativity developed in a certain domain. From this point of view, what interests us is

not the effect of the destructive forces of nature, as they have marked the monument since it was created,

but its initial stage as the work of man.”

c) Intentional memorial value

“The role of the intentional memorial value is linked to the actual erection of the monument: it doesn’t

allow the monument to drown into the past and it keeps it for ever alive in the consciousness of future

generations. This 3rd class of values makes the transition to the contemporaneity values. ”

II.- The contemporaneity values

“Instead of considering the monument as in its uniqueness, the contemporaneity value tends to find its

equivalent in a similar recent, modern creation and expects the old building to display the characteristics

of any manmade artefact, at its creation: in conclusion, to present a perfect integrity, not affected by the

destructive action of nature.”

a) Use value




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b) Artistic Value

- Newness artistic value

- Relative artistic value

“(…) a monument presents for ourselves an artistic value only if it satisfies our modern Kunstwollen

(artistic will).”

“(…) all modern work of art have to present themselves in a perfectly accomplished aspect, with forms and

colors that present no marks of degradation.”

The relationship between monumental values and between values and the conservation of monument

Alois Riegl discovers that it exists both a complementarity and a conflict between the requirements of the

different types of monumental values with respect to the conservation intervention:

• Age-value vs. Historic Value

• Age-Value vs. Use Value

• Age-Value vs. Artistic Value

• Age-Value vs. Memorial Value

• Historic Value vs. Use Value

“Whereas the age-value rests exclusively on the process of degradation, the historical value wishes to stop

any such process, (…) the memorial value requires no less than immortality, the eternal today, the

everlasting original status.”

In fact, Alois Riegl proves that the conflict between the monumental values is neither important nor

unavoidable in restoration, as values are to be found in different parts of the monument (i.e. in the

exterior vs. the interior of the building).

V. Gustavo Giovannoni - Monument, restoration, urban patrimony, towards a scientific

philological restoration ("restauro filologico scientifico")

Gustavo Giovannoni (1873 – 1947)

Architect, urbanist, engineer, architecture critic and historian, restorer, university professor

”The architect has to be an historian, a builder and an artist, all in one.”13

Restoration:

Chiesa di Sant'Andrea, Orvieto 1930

Chiesa di Santo Stefano degli Abissini, Città del Vaticano 1931

Chiesa di San Domenico, Orvieto 1934

Quoted works:

G. Giovannoni, Restauro di monumenti, Bollettino d'Arte, 1-2, 191314

G. Giovannoni, Vecchie citta’ ed edilizia nuova, Torino 1931

Ministero della Educazione Nazionale, Norme per il restauro dei monumenti, 1932

13 G. Giovannoni, I restauri dei monumenti e il recente congresso storico, Roma, 1903 14http://www.bollettinodarte.beniculturali.it/opencms/multimedia/BollettinoArteIt/documents/1344509031124_

02-Gustavo_Giovannoni_p._1.pdf

https://orvieto.valconi.it/

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orvieto




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Upon restoration

”The intention to restore the monuments, both in order to consolidate them repairing the injuries of time,

and to bring them back to a new living function, is a completely modern concept, parallel to the attitude

of philosophy and culture, which conceives in the constructive and artistic testimonies of the past,

whatever period they belong to, a subject of respect and of care.”15

Giovannoni established 4 types of restoration interventions :

1. Restoration thru consolidation

2. Restoration thru reconstruction (anastilosis)

3. Restoration thru removal,

4. Restoration thru completion and renewal/innovation

Ministero della Educazione Nazionale, 1932

Norme per il restauro dei monumenti

(Ellaborated by the Superior Council of Antiquities and Arts, inspired by G. Giovannoni)

1. Paramount importance granted to maintenance and consolidation.

2. Reconstruction, when motivated by artistic or architectural reasons, must be associated with the

historic criteria and performed on basis of an absolutely certain information, provided by the monument,

and not based on hypothesis.

3. Anastylosis alone, with no completions, might be considered in the case of ancient monuments.

4. In order to avoid major alterations, the so called living monuments must receive uses as close as

possible with respect to their original function.

5. All elements of artistic or historic merit must be conserved, no matter the period they belong to,

without achieving a stylistic unity or returning to the original form, or excluding some elements in favor

of others, only the parts lacking importance or significance being removed; the assessment on that issue

and the decision of removal must be performed and taken with great care and can’t rely exclusively on

the responsibility of the one in charge with the restoration project.

6. The care for the monument and for each of the phases of its existence is more important that the

environmental aspects, which, nevertheless, can’t be altered thru unsuitable isolations, new distorting

buildings by their volume, color or style.

7. Completions that prove to be necessary on structural, formal or functional reasons, must follow the

essential criterion of simplicity and respect for the building’s composition; similar stylistic solutions might

15 G. Giovannoni, in Enciclopedia italiana, XXIX, 1936, p. 127




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be adopted only by the continuation of the existing morphology by geometric expression lacking

decorative character.

8. In order to avoid a forgery of an historic document, completions must be marked precisely and visible

(…) for the profit of researches.

9. For the consolidation of the substance of the monument any modern means might be used, when

produced by scientific research, when the traditional techniques are ineffective (…)

10. In the case of archaeological research that reveal ancient works, the digging has to be immediately

and thoroughly followed by the systematization of the ruins, and by their protection, as well as of the

artifacts that are to be preserved in situ.

11. In the case of archaeological research as if in the one of the restoration of monuments the elaboration

of a precise written, graphic and photographic documentation is mandatory.

VI. CHARTER OF ATHENS - ATHENS CONFERENCE (1931),

(organized by the International Museum Organization to cellebrate the ending of the anastylosis

interventions on the Athens Acropolis by eng. Nicolaos Balanos)

Conclusions of the Conference / CHARTER OF ATHENS

I. Doctrines. General Principles

- to abandon restorations in totto, in favor of initiating a system of regular and permanent maintenance

calculated to ensure the preservation of the buildings.

-the historic and artistic work of the past should be respected, without excluding the style of any given

period.

- buildings should be maintained but they should be used for a purpose which respects their historic or

artistic character

II. -- ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGISLATIVE MEASURES REGARDING HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

- recognizes a certain right of the community in regard to private ownership.

III. -- AESTHETIC ENHANCEMENT OF ANCIENT MONUMENTS

- the neighborhood of ancient monuments, should be given special consideration. Even certain groupings

and certain particularly picturesque perspective treatment should be preserved.

IV. -- RESTORATION OF MONUMENTS

- approved the judicious use of all the resources at the disposal of modern technique and more especially

of reinforced concrete.

- work of consolidation should whenever possible be concealed




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V. -- THE DETERIORATION OF ANCIENT MONUMENTS

- monuments throughout the world were being threatened by atmospheric agents

- with regard to the preservation of monumental sculpture, (…) the removal of works of art from the

surroundings for which they were designed is, in principle, to be discouraged. (...) the preservation of

original models whenever these still exist or if this proves impossible, the taking of casts.

VI. -- THE TECHNIQUE of CONSERVATION

- In the case of ruins, scrupulous conservation is necessary, and steps should be taken to reinstate any

original fragments that may be recovered (anastylosis), (…); the new materials used for this purpose

should in all cases be recognizable.

- close collaboration between the archaeologist and the architect

VII. -- THE CONSERVATION OF MONUMENTS AND INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

- the conservation of the artistic and archaeological property of mankind is one that interests the

community of the States, which are wardens of civilization

The C.I.A.M. 1933 Charter of Athens

The International Congress of Modern Architecture - CIAM IV – was organized by Le Corbusier in 1933 at

Athens. The Congress adopted a document called « The CIAM Charter of Athens – 1933 ».

This document should not be confused with the 1931 « Charter of Athens ».

The considerations of the modern movement in architecture and urbanism with respect to the

architectural heritage are obviouly in favor for the modern architecture and urbanism, because the

modernists considered that :

”Architecture is responsible for the well being and for the beauty of the city”

and

”Architecture is the key [of all processes].”

Even though « History is inscribed in the layouts and in the architectures of cities” , “the CIAM considers

that fundamental for the modern city are the functional aspects (habitation, leisure, work and circulation)

together with the sanitation requirements (sun, air, space), and the impact of the speed of the modern

transport.”

There is a conflict between the preservation of the past and the modernization of the city.

Modernization with the razing of the past is imposed by functional and sanitation motifs no matter the

historic, architectural and picturesque of the heritage that is sacrificed.

The C.I.A.M. 1933 Charter of Athens promotes a “statistic” concept of preservation :

– ”The whole of the past is, by definition, not entitled to last forever; it is advisable to choose wisely

that which must be respected.”




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– ” In the case where one is confronted with structures repeated in numerous examples, some will

be preserved as documents and the others will be demolished.”

– “ In certain exceptional cases, complete transplantation may be envisaged for elements that prove

to be inconveniently located but that are worth preservation for their important aesthetic or

historical significance”.

VII. C. BRANDI THEORY OF RESTORATION

Cesare Brandi (1906 – 1988) Art critic and historian, specialized in the theory of restoration. The founder of the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro (Central Institute for Restoration)

THE THEORY OF RESTORATION (1972)

Restoration of common goods

“ (…)” any operation that aims to put back into effective order a product of human activity

The specificity of the work of art

“(…) The human product that deserves this recognittion is there, before our eyes. But it can be generically

classified among the products of human activity only so long as the conscious appreciation of it as a work

of art does not definitely exclude it from the community of other products.”

The relationship between restoration and the work of art

“(…) any behavior towards the work of art, including the intervention of restoration, depends on whether

or not the recognition of the work of art as a work of art occurs. Therefore, also the quality and modality

of the restoration intervention will be closely linked with this recognition (…)

“Consequently, we have come to recognize the inseparable link between restoration and the work of art,

in that the work of art conditions the restoration, and not vice versa”




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C. Brandi definition of restoration “the methodological moment in which the work of art is recognized, in its physical being, and its dual

aesthetic and historical nature, in view of its transmission to the future”

The principles of restoration

i. The first principle

“you only conserve the material of the work of art(…)”

“the uniqueness of the work of art compared to other human products does not depend on its material

being, or on its dual historic nature, but on its artistic nature. Once the artistic nature is lost, nothing but

the relic remains.”

ii. The second principle:

“Restoration should aim to re-establish the potential oneness of the work of art, as long as this is possible

without committing artistic or historical forgery, and without erasing every trace of the passage through

time of the work of art.”

III. The third principle:

“each restoration should not prevent but, rather, facilitate possible future restorations”

The work of art: unity of the whole

“(...) if a the work of art, which is not composed of parts, is physically fragmented, it will continue to exist

as a potential whole in each of its fragments. This potential will be present and can be expressed in a form

that is directly related to what has survived of the original artistic features on each fragment of the

material that has been disintegrated.

(...) if the “form” of each work of art is indivisible, where the work of art is materially split up, we will have

to attempt to develop the original potential unity contained within each fragment. This is proportional to

the extent that the original form is still preserved within the fragments themselves”.

The restoration of the work of art: the use of analogy

“(...) the analogy should be rejected (...) because analogy supposes reaching the unity of the work of art

thru a process based upon the logical unity we use in the everyday reality.”

“(...) it is mandatory that the intervention aimed to attend the original unity of the work of art (...) has as

grounds exclusively the suggestions contained in the fragments or in the authentic remains of the original

state.”

The restoration of the work of art: integration / completion

“Thus at the distance from which the work of art will be viewed, the integration should be invisible. From

a closer viewpoint it should be immediately recognizable, without the aid of a special equipment.”




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“(...) the material from which the image emerges is ireplaceable only when it contributes directly to the

essence of the image, meaning that it is also aspect, not only structure. Thus, according to the historic

assesment, a less constrained liberty of intervention is granted to such material backgrounds and

structures.”

Restoration of ruins

“(...) Consequently, the preservation of a work of art that is reduced to a state of ruin depends to a great

extent on the historical significance that is assigned to it ...When dealing with ruins, restoration can only

be a consolidation and preservation of the status-quo.”

Historic and aesthetic assessment

“(...) the legitimacy of conservation is based exclusively on the historical significance of the work of art. If

this were so, swe should have to respect unconditionally both the barbaric vandalisms and the integration

carried out on artistic, not restoration grounds, that a work of art may have been subjected to over the

centuries.”

Additions to the work of art

“From a historical point of view, an addition to a work of art is nothing more than a new testimony to

human activity and thus, is part of history. In this context, an addition is not different from the original

stock and has the same right to conservation.

On the other hand, removal, although also the result of human action and thus also part of history, in

reality destroys a document and does not document itself (...) lead to the negation and destruction of a

historical process and would falsify evidence.

Therefore, from a historical point of view, only the conservation of an addition is unconditionally

legitimate, while its removal always needs justification, or should at least be done in a manner that will

leave a trace both of itself and on the work of art.”




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Section III:

THE CONTEMPORARY DOCTRINE OF RESTORATION OF MONUMENTS AND SITES

I. INTERNATIONAL CHARTER FOR THE CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION OF MONUMENTS AND SITES (THE VENICE CHARTER 1964) Adopted at the IInd International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historic Monuments, Venice, 1964. Adopted by ICOMOS in 1965.16

Preamble Imbued with a message from the past, the historic monuments of generations of people remain to the present day as living witnesses of their age-old traditions. People are becoming more and more conscious of the unity of human values and regard ancient monuments as a common heritage. The common responsibility to safeguard them for future generations is recognized. It is our duty to hand them on in the full richness of their authenticity. It is essential that the principles guiding the preservation and restoration of ancient buildings should be agreed and be laid down on an international basis, with each country being responsible for applying the plan within the framework of its own culture and traditions. By defining these basic principles for the first time, the Athens Charter of 1931 contributed towards the development of an extensive international movement which has assumed concrete form in national documents, in the work of ICOM and UNESCO and in the establishment by the latter of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and the Restoration of Cultural Property. Increasing awareness and critical study have been brought to bear on problems which have continually become more complex and varied; now the time has come to examine the Charter afresh in order to make a thorough study of the principles involved and to enlarge its scope in a new document. Accordingly, the IInd International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historic Monuments, which met in Venice from May 25th to 31st 1964, approved the following text:

16 The following persons took part in the work of the Committee for drafting the International Charter for the

Conservation and Restoration of Monuments: Piero Gazzola (Italy), Chairman, Raymond Lemaire (Belgium), Reporter

José Bassegoda-Nonell (Spain), Luis Benavente (Portugal), Djurdje Boskovic (Yugoslavia), Hiroshi Daifuku (UNESCO),

P.L. de Vrieze (Netherlands), Harald Langberg (Denmark), Mario Matteucci (Italy), Jean Merlet (France), Carlos Flores

Marini (Mexico), Roberto Pane (Italy), S.C.J. Pavel (Czechoslovakia), Paul Philippot (ICCROM), Victor Pimentel (Peru),

Harold Plenderleith (ICCROM), Deoclecio Redig de Campos (Vatican), Jean Sonnier (France), Francois Sorlin (France),

Eustathios Stikas (Greece), Gertrud Tripp (Austria), Jan Zachwatovicz (Poland), Mustafa S. Zbiss (Tunisia).




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DEFINITIONS Article 1. The concept of a historic monument embraces not only the single architectural work but also the urban or rural setting in which is found the evidence of a particular civilization, a significant development or a historic event. This applies not only to great works of art but also to more modest works of the past which have acquired cultural significance with the passing of time. Article 2. The conservation and restoration of monuments must have recourse to all the sciences and techniques which can contribute to the study and safeguarding of the architectural heritage. Article 3. The intention in conserving and restoring monuments is to safeguard them no less as works of art than as historical evidence. CONSERVATION Article 4. It is essential to the conservation of monuments that they be maintained on a permanent basis. Article 5. The conservation of monuments is always facilitated by making use of them for some socially useful purpose. Such use is therefore desirable but it must not change the lay-out or decoration of the building. It is within these limits only that modifications demanded by a change of function should be envisaged and may be permitted. Article 6. The conservation of a monument implies preserving a setting which is not out of scale. Wherever the traditional setting exists, it must be kept. No new construction, demolition or modification which would alter the relations of mass and colour must be allowed. Article 7. A monument is inseparable from the history to which it bears witness and from the setting in which it occurs. The moving of all or part of a monument cannot be allowed except where the safeguarding of that monument demands it or where it is justified by national or international interest of paramount importance. Article 8. Items of sculpture, painting or decoration which form an integral part of a monument may only be removed from it if this is the sole means of ensuring their preservation.




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RESTORATION Article 9. The process of restoration is a highly specialized operation. Its aim is to preserve and reveal the aesthetic and historic value of the monument and is based on respect for original material and authentic documents. It must stop at the point where conjecture begins, and in this case moreover any extra work which is indispensable must be distinct from the architectural composition and must bear a contemporary stamp. The restoration in any case must be preceded and followed by an archaeological and historical study of the monument. 17 Article 10. Where traditional techniques prove inadequate, the consolidation of a monument can be achieved by the use of any modern technique for conservation and construction, the efficacy of which has been shown by scientific data and proved by experience. Article 11. The valid contributions of all periods to the building of a monument must be respected, since unity of style is not the aim of a restoration. When a building includes the superimposed work of different periods, the revealing of the underlying state can only be justified in exceptional circumstances and when what is removed is of little interest and the material which is brought to light is of great historical, archaeological or aesthetic value, and its state of preservation good enough to justify the action. Evaluation of the importance of the elements involved and the decision as to what may be destroyed cannot rest solely on the individual in charge of the work. Article 12. Replacements of missing parts must integrate harmoniously with the whole, but at the same time must be distinguishable from the original so that restoration does not falsify the artistic or historic evidence. Article 13. Additions cannot be allowed except in so far as they do not detract from the interesting parts of the building, its traditional setting, the balance of its composition and its relation with its surroundings. HISTORIC SITES Article 14. The sites of monuments must be the object of special care in order to safeguard their integrity and ensure that they are cleared and presented in a seemly manner. The work of conservation and restoration carried out in such places should be inspired by the principles set forth in the foregoing articles.

17 “Whereas the conservation of the substance of a monument tries, as much as possible, to technicaly stabilize parts of itself and to eliminate the threats and the causes of decay, restoration is concerned by the historic witnesses and the artistic load of the historic building in its entirety. (…) Restoration brings to light new elements of the monument without diminshing its original substance.” Michael Petzet, past President of ICOMOS




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EXCAVATIONS Article 15. Excavations should be carried out in accordance with scientific standards and the recommendation defining international principles to be applied in the case of archaeological excavation adopted by UNESCO in 1956. Ruins must be maintained and measures necessary for the permanent conservation and protection of architectural features and of objects discovered must be taken. Furthermore, every means must be taken to facilitate the understanding of the monument and to reveal it without ever distorting its meaning. All reconstruction work should however be ruled out "a priori". Only anastylosis, that is to say, the reassembling of existing but dismembered parts can be permitted. The material used for integration should always be recognizable and its use should be the least that will ensure the conservation of a monument and the reinstatement of its form.

PUBLICATION

Article 16.

In all works of preservation, restoration or excavation, there should always be precise documentation in

the form of analytical and critical reports, illustrated with drawings and photographs.

Every stage of the work of clearing, consolidation, rearrangement and integration, as well as technical and

formal features identified during the course of the work, should be included.

This record should be placed in the archives of a public institution and made available to research workers.

It is recommended that the report should be published.

II. ICOMOS Charters and resolutions

CHARTER FOR THE CONSERVATION OF HISTORIC TOWNS AND URBAN AREAS (WASHINGTON CHARTER

1987)

PREAMBLE AND DEFINITIONS

This charter concerns historic urban areas, large and small, including cities, towns and historic centres or

quarters, together with their natural and man-made environments.

Beyond their role as historical documents, these areas embody the values of traditional urban cultures.

(…)

PRINCIPLES AND OBJECTIVES

1. In order to be most effective, the conservation of historic towns and other historic urban areas should

be an integral part of coherent policies of economic and social development and of urban and regional

planning at every level.

2. Qualities to be preserved include the historic character of the town or urban area and all those material

and spiritual elements that express this character. Any threat to these qualities would compromise the

authenticity of the historic town or urban area:




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a) Urban patterns as defined by lots and streets;

b) Relationships between buildings and green and open spaces;

c) The formal appearance, interior and exterior, of buildings as defined by scale, size, style,

construction, materials, colour and decoration;

d) The relationship between the town or urban area and its surrounding setting, both natural

and man-made; and

e) The various functions that the town or urban area has acquired over time.

HISTORIC GARDENS (THE FLORENCE CHARTER 1981/1982)

DEFINITIONS AND OBJECTIVES

Article 1.

A historic garden is an architectural and horticultural composition of interest to the public from the

historical or artistic point of view.

As such, it is to be considered as a monument.

Art.3.

As a monument, the historic garden must be preserved in accordance with the spirit of the Venice Charter.

However, since it is a living monument, its preservation must be governed by specific rules (…).

Art.4.

The architectural composition of the historic garden includes:

• Its plan and its topography.

• Its vegetation, including its species, proportions, colour schemes, spacing and respective heights.

• Its structural and decorative features.

• Its water, running or still, reflecting the sky.”

CHARTER FOR THE PROTECTION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE (1990)

DEFINITION AND INTRODUCTION

Article 1

The "archaeological heritage" is that part of the material heritage in respect of which archaeological

methods provide primary information.

It comprises all vestiges of human existence and consists of places relating to all manifestations of human

activity, abandoned structures, and remains of all kinds (including subterranean and underwater sites),

together with all the portable cultural material associated with them.

Article 2.

The archaeological heritage is a fragile and non-renewable cultural resource.




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Land use must therefore be controlled and developed in order to minimise the destruction of the

archaeological heritage.

Policies for the protection of the archaeological heritage should constitute an integral component of

policies relating to land use, development, and planning as well as of cultural, environmental and

educational policies.

INVESTIGATION

Article 5. (…)

It must be an overriding principle that the gathering of information about the archaeological heritage

should not destroy any more archaeological evidence than is necessary for the protectional or scientific

objectives of the investigation.

Non-destructive techniques, aerial and ground survey, and sampling should therefore be encouraged

wherever possible, in preference to total excavation.

As excavation always implies the necessity of making a selection of evidence to be documented and

preserved at the cost of losing other information and possibly even the total destruction of the

monument, a decision to excavate should only be taken after thorough consideration.

Excavation should be carried out on sites and monuments threatened by development, landuse change,

looting, or natural deterioration.

In exceptional cases, unthreatened sites may be excavated to elucidate research problems or to interpret

them more effectively for the purpose of presenting them to the public. In such cases excavation must be

preceded by thorough scientific evaluation of the significance of the site. Excavation should be partial,

leaving a portion undisturbed for future research.

MAINTENANCE AND CONSERVATION

Article 6. (…)

Any transfer of elements of the heritage to new locations represents a violation of the principle of

preserving the heritage in its original context.

This principle stresses the need for proper maintenance, conservation and management. It also asserts

the principle that the archaeological heritage should not be exposed by excavation or left exposed after

excavation if provision for its proper maintenance and management after excavation cannot be

guaranteed.

CHARTER ON THE BUILT VERNACULAR HERITAGE (1999)

GENERAL ISSUES

Examples of the vernacular may be recognised by:

a) A manner of building shared by the community;

b) A recognisable local or regional character responsive to the environment;




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c) Coherence of style, form and appearance, or the use of traditionally established building types;

d) Traditional expertise in design and construction which is transmitted informally;

e) An effective response to functional, social and environmental constraints;

f) The effective application of traditional construction systems and crafts.

PRINCIPLES OF CONSERVATION

3. The vernacular is only seldom represented by single structures, and it is best conserved by maintaining

and preserving groups and settlements of a representative character, region by region.

4. The built vernacular heritage is an integral part of the cultural landscape (…)

5. The vernacular embraces not only the physical form and fabric of buildings, structures and spaces, but

the ways in which they are used and understood, and the traditions and the intangible associations which

attach to them.

TRADITIONAL BUILDING SYSTEMS

The continuity of traditional building systems and craft skills associated with the vernacular is fundamental

for vernacular expression, and essential for the repair and restoration of these structures.

Such skills should be retained, recorded and passed on to new generations of craftsmen and builders in

education and training.

PERIOD CHANGES AND RESTORATION

Changes over time should be appreciated and understood as important aspects of vernacular

architecture.

Conformity of all parts of a building to a single period, will not normally be the goal of work on vernacular

structures.

INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL TOURISM CHARTER: Managing Tourism at Places of Heritage Significance

(1999)

INTRODUCTION

(...) A primary objective for managing heritage is to communicate its significance and need for its

conservation to its host community and to visitors.




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PRINCIPLE 1

Since domestic and international tourism is among the foremost vehicles for cultural exchange,

conservation should provide responsible and well managed opportunities for members of the host

community and visitors to experience and understand that community's heritage and culture at first hand.

The natural and cultural heritage is a material and spiritual resource, providing a narrative of historical

development. It has an important role in modern life and should be made physically, intellectually and/or

emotively accessible to the general public.

PRINCIPLE 2

The relationship between Heritage Places and Tourism is dynamic and may involve conflicting values. It

should be managed in a sustainable way for present and future generations.(...)

The retention of the authenticity of heritage places and collections is important. It is an essential element

of their cultural significance, as expressed in the physical material, collected memory and intangible

traditions that remain from the past.

PRINCIPLE 3

Conservation and Tourism Planning for Heritage Places should ensure that the Visitor Experience will be

worthwhile, satisfying and enjoyable.

PRINCIPLE 4

Host communities and indigenous peoples should be involved in planning for conservation and tourism.

PRINCIPLE 5

Tourism and conservation activities should benefit the host community.

PRINCIPLE 6

Tourism promotion programmes should protect and enhance Natural and Cultural Heritage

characteristics.

PRINCIPLES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF HISTORIC TIMBER STRUCTURES (1999)

(...) INTERVENTIONS

5. Any proposed intervention should for preference:

a) follow traditional means;

b) be reversible, if technically possible; or

c) at least not prejudice or impede future preservation work whenever this may become necessary; and

d) not hinder the possibility of later access to evidence incorporated in the structure.




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6. The minimum intervention in the fabric of a historic timber structure is an ideal. In certain

circumstances, minimum intervention can mean that their preservation and conservation may require the

complete or partial dismantling and subsequent reassembly in order to allow for the repair of timber

structures. (…)

13. Contemporary materials, such as epoxy resins, and techniques, such as structural steel reinforcement,

should be chosen and used with the greatest caution

REPAIR AND REPLACEMENT

Art. 9

New members or parts of members should be made of the same species of wood with the same, or, if

appropriate, with better, grading as in the members being replaced(...)

Craftsmanship and construction technology, including the use of dressing tools or machinery, should,

where possible, correspond with those used originally. Nails and other secondary materials should, where

appropriate, duplicate the originals.

If a part of a member is replaced, traditional woodwork joints should, if appropriate and compatible with

structural requirements, be used to splice the new and the existing part.

Art. 10.

It should be accepted that new members or parts of members will be distinguishable from the existing

ones. To copy the natural decay or deformation of the replaced members or parts is not desirable.

Appropriate traditional or well-tested modern methods may be used to match the colouring of the old

and the new with due regard that this will not harm or degrade the surface of the wooden member.

Art. 11.

New members or parts of members should be discretely marked, by carving, by marks burnt into the wood

or by other methods, so that they can be identified late

PRINCIPLES FOR THE ANALYSIS, CONSERVATION AND STRUCTURAL RESTORATION OF ARCHITECTURAL

HERITAGE (2003)

PREAMBLE

Structures of architectural heritage, by their very nature and history (material and assembly), present a

number of challenges in diagnosis and restoration that limit the application of modern legal codes and

building standards. Recommendations are desirable and necessary to both ensure rational methods of

analysis and repair methods appropriate to the cultural context.




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1 GENERAL CRITERIA(...)

1.3 The value of architectural heritage is not only in its appearance, but also in the integrity of all its

components as a unique product of the specific building technology of its time. In particular the removal

of the inner structures maintaining only the façades does not fit the conservation criteria.

(...)

1.5 Restoration of the structure in Architecture Heritage is not an end in itself but a means to an end,

which is the building as a whole.

3 REMEDIAL MEASURES AND CONTROLS (...)

3.3 Safety evaluation and an understanding of the significance of the structure should be the basis for

conservation and reinforcement measures.

3.4 No actions should be undertaken without demonstrating that they are indispensable.

3.5 Each intervention should be in proportion to the safety objectives set, thus keeping intervention to

the minimum to guarantee safety and durability with the least harm to heritage values.

(…)

3.7 The choice between “traditional” and “innovative” techniques should be weighed up on a case-by-

case basis and preference given to those that are least invasive and most compatible with heritage values,

bearing in mind safety and durability requirements.

3.8 At times the difficulty of evaluating the real safety levels and the possible benefits of interventions

may suggest “an observational method”, i.e. an incremental approach, starting from a minimum level of

intervention, with the possible subsequent adoption of a series of supplementary or corrective measures.

3.9 Where possible, any measures adopted should be “reversible” so that they can be removed and

replaced with more suitable measures when new knowledge is acquired.

3.10 Where they are not completely reversible, interventions should not limit further interventions.

3.11 The distinguishing qualities of the structure and its environment, in their original or earlier states,

should not be destroyed.

3.12 Each intervention should, as far as possible, respect the concept, techniques and historical value of

the original or earlier states of the structure and leaves evidence that can be recognised in the future.

(…)

3.15 Deteriorated structures whenever possible should be repaired rather than replaced.

3.16 Imperfections and alterations, when they have become part of the history of the structure, should

be maintained so far so they do not compromise the safety requirements.

3.17 Dismantling and reassembly should only be undertaken as an optional measure required by the very

nature of the materials and structure when conservation by other means impossible, or harmful.

(...)

3.20 Measures that are impossible to control during execution should not be allowed.




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PRINCIPLES FOR THE PRESERVATION AND CONSERVATION - RESTORATION OF WALL PAINTINGS (2003)

INTRODUCTION AND DEFINITION

(...) Wall paintings are an integral part of monuments and sites and should be preserved in situ.

Many of the problems affecting wall paintings are linked to the poor condition of the building or structure,

its improper use, lack of maintenance, frequent repairs and alterations. (...)

CONSERVATION-RESTORATION TREATMENTS

Wall paintings are an integral part of the building or structure. (…) their conservation should be considered

together with the fabric of the architectural entity and surroundings. Any intervention in the monument

must take into account the specific characteristics of wall paintings and the terms of their preservation.

All interventions, such as consolidation, cleaning and reintegration, should be kept at a necessary minimal

level to avoid any reduction of material and pictorial authenticity.

Whenever possible, samples of stratigraphic layers testifying to the history of the paintings should be

preserved, preferably in situ.

The aim of restoration is to improve the legibility of form and content of the wall painting, while respecting

the original creation and its history.

Aesthetic reintegration contributes to minimising the visibility of damage and should primarily be carried

out on non-original material.

Retouching and reconstructions should be carried out in a way that is discernible from the original.

All additions should be easily removable. Over-painting must be avoided.

ARTICLE 6: EMERGENCY MEASURES

Detachment and transfer are dangerous, drastic and irreversible operations that severely affect the

physical composition, material structure and aesthetic characteristics of wall paintings. These operations

are, therefore, only justifiable in extreme cases when all options of in situ treatment are not viable. Should

such situations occur, decisions involving detachment and transfer should always be taken by a team of

professionals, rather than by the individual who is carrying out the conservation work.

Detached paintings should be replaced in their original location whenever possible.

(...) The application of a covering layer concealing an existing decoration, carried out with the intention of

preventing damage or destruction by exposure to an inhospitable environment, should be executed with

materials compatible with the wall painting, and in a way that will permit future uncovering.

III. AUTHENTICITY AND HERITAGE PRESERVATION

Motto




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“Authenticity will be the buzzword of the twenty-first century. And what is authentic?

Anything that is not devised and structured to make a profit. Anything that is not

controlled by corporations. Anything that exists for its own sake, that assumes its own

shape. But of course nothing in the modern world is allowed to assume its own shape.

The modern world is the corporate equivalent of a formal garden, where everything is

planted and arranged for effect. Where nothing is untouched, where nothing is

authentic. (…)

Where, then, will people turn for the rare and desirable experience of authenticity?

They will turn to the past. The past is unarguably authentic. The past is a world that

already existed before Disney and Murdoch and Nissan and Sony and IBM and all the

other shapers of the present day. (…) The past is real. It’s authentic. And this will make

the past unbelievably attractive. (…)

People...want to visit not other places, but other times...medieval walled cities,

Buddhist temples, Mayan pyramids, Egyptian necropolises...the vanished world. And

they don't want it to be fake. Theydon't want it to be made pretty, or cleaned up. They

want it to be authentic.”

Michael Crichton, Timeline (1999)

“People are becoming more and more conscious of the unity of human values and regard ancient

monuments as a common heritage. The common responsibility to safeguard them for future generations

is recognized. It is our duty to hand them on in the full richness of their authenticity.”

The Venise Charter, preamble

AUTHENTICITY : it generally means the opposition between

True vs. False,

Real vs. Counterfeit,

Original vs. C opy,

Honest vs. Corrupt,

Sacred vs. Secular,

Thus, AUTHENTICITY is NOT ONLY A FEATURE, BUT A VALUE IN ITSELF

The word AUTHENTICITY comes from the latin and greek term designating

1. something that was issued by an AUTHORITY, as wel as

2. the ORIGINAL (from the origin, from the moment of birth, of creation, etc.).

Both, originating from the AUTHORITY, or being ORIGINAL were the ultimate quality of an artefact in the

Middle Ages.

Customary, in architecture and heritage, authenticity is considered to rest upon the preservation of the

material, of the context and of the original message of the building.




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1. Material authenticity

„The ship on which Theseus sailed with the youths and returned in safety, (…) was preserved by the

Athenians down to the time of Demetrius Phalereus. They took away the old timbers from time to time,

and put new and sound ones in their places, so that the vessel became a standing illustration for the

philosophers in the mooted question of growth, some declaring that it remained the same, others that it

was not the same vessel. ”

Plutarh. Lives, The Life of Theseus, Vol 1, XIII

2. Message authenticity

“The guarantee of authenticity on a work of art created for religious devotion, does not only pertain to the

conservation of the material, but also that of its availability for sacred rites.”

Carlo Chenis, Secretary to the Pontifical Commission

for the Cultural Patrimony of the [Catholic] Church

3. Context authenticity

Daniel Lowenthal demonstrated that the authenticity is perceived not only with respect to the physical

characteristics of the artefact, but also in conjunction with its environment, (sculptures admired on a

historic façade provide the visitor with a credible authenticity character), as well as with respect to its

function.

„(...) the relics materialized the past as a living force of the present. What made in the Middle Ages a relic

authentic relied on what it did and was still able to do. A relic that was not able to produce [miracles] loses

its credibility.”

D.Lowenthal, CRM Journal

Authenticity in the XIXth century

“The Victorian period changed the paradigm: nothing that has happened in the past was not lost, it was

deposited in rocks, in oceans, in the air, and it is only a matter of time until all the past will be revealed.

This capacitaty of total retrieval of the past lead to a huge responsibility.”

D. Lowenthal, CRM Journal

„Architecture is an art while conservation is a science”

G. Dehio, What is the architect?

RESOLUTION OF THE III-rd CONGRESS OF ENGINEERS AND ARCHITECTILOR, ROMA 1883

Taking in consideration that the architectural monuments of the past are important not only for the study

of architecture, but, as witnesses, [the monuments] have an essential contribution in illustrating the history

of the different peoples, and therefore, must be respected as documents that, if altered and confused with

the original, might lead to wrong conclusions.”




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(Camillo Boito, Questioni pratiche di belle arti, restauro, concorsi, legislazione, professione,

insegniamento, Hoepli, Milano,1893)

The Authenticity as relationship between the cultural value and the subject - man

Cultural environment

Influences, development, changes

Artefact tangible and intangible characteristics such as:

Form, design

Material, substance

Use, function

Techniques, skills

Place, environment

Feelings, beliefs

Language, intangible heritage

Values

Communication: comprehension perception, truthfulness, credibility

Subject (Man)

OPERATIONAL GUIDELINES – WHC, UNESCO, ART. 82

“Depending on the type of cultural heritage, and its cultural context, properties may be understood to

meet the conditions of authenticity if their cultural values (…) are truthfully and credibly expressed

through a variety of attributes including:

1. form and design;

2. materials and substance;

3. use and function;

4. traditions, techniques and

5. management systems;

6. location and setting;

7. language, and other forms of intangible

heritage;

8. spirit and feeling;

9. other internal and external factors.”

CASE STUDIES ON AUTHENTICITY

St. Mark’s Square Bell Tower,

Venice, Italy

Ypres Market Hall, Belgium

Mostar Bridge, Bosnia

Frauenkirche,

Dresden, Germany

Rasnov Citadel, Romania

Saschiz, Romania




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IV. HISTORIC MONUMENT ANALYSIS: HISTORICAL & ARCHITECTURAL STUDY

The Scope of the Historical & Architectural Study:

• To set the objective basis of the restoration decision making process.

• The historical & architectural study is part of the feasibility study, i.e. that it presents the major

technical solutions and costs

The targets of the H&A study:

Assesment

• The assessment of the state of conservation

• The assessment of the historic and aesthetic values

Reccommendations

• Reccommendations for the intervention: restrictions, mandatory & optional interventions

Phases of the H&A study

• Investigations on site and research

• Synthesis 1: Structural Expertise & State of Conservation

• Synthesis 2: The historic building timeline and its phases of construction

• Synthesis 3: The historic and aesthetic values

Research:

1. Documentary research:

• Bibliography about the monument

• Descriptions of the building or of its setting

• References in architectural studies

• References in historic studies

• Studies published in specialized magazines

• Historic documents deposirted in public or private archives

• Literature

2. Cartography

• Old plans and maps

• Cadastral plans




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• Local guide-books

2. Cartography

• Old plans and maps

• Cadastral plans

• Local guide-books

3. Juridical research and real estate transaction investigation

• Land Register

• Building permits

4. Iconography

• Prints, engravings and paintings

• Photos

• Architectural drawings, sketches and surveys

Investigation:

5. Archaeological survey

Targets:

• Construction phases

• Proof of earlier constructions on site

• Period of construction for the different parts of the building

• Original / ancient ground level (exterior) and ground floor level (interior)

6. Architectural investigation

Goals:

• Establish the building phases

• Assesment and positioning of the historic substance

• Assesment of the state of conservation

• Proposal of intervention

Architectural investigation objectives:

6.1 Checking the authenticity of the information provided by other means of investigation:




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• Inscription that might refer to renovation instead of construction;

• Decoration might be a later neo-style;

• Documents might refer to the date of purchase instead of construction;

• Documents might refer to another building on the site;

• Documents might refer to only a part of the building;

• Documents might be false

6. 2 Architectural investigation targets:

• Identification of the construction phases

• Explanation of the building’s particularities

• Evaluation of the building’s particularities

• Identification of the building materials and the reason for their use

• Identification of testimonies of earlier and disappeared parts of the building

• Distinction between earlier and later decoration

• Identification of the building materials and where they came from

• Explanation of the functional composition for each phase of construction

• Identification and assessment of the special composition and hierarchy

• Identification of the earlier special distribution, with respect to the architectural typology of the

architectural building type.

• Identification of testimonies that might lead to a precise construction date.

• Identification of the elements that need special investigation methods.

V. THE PRINCIPLES OF RESTORATION OF HISTORIC MONUMENTS

1. Cautiousness:

"primo non nocere«

• A prior investigation in order to identify the problems,

• > CONSERVATION…..

• > or RESTORATION?




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• Appeal to specialists

• Appeal to verified techniques

• Focus the intervention upon the mitigation of threats and elimination of risks,

2. The minimal & usefull intervention

• To focus on the places that, due to their status, require a contemporary action

• To focus on interventions that preserve the original substance and historic structure, and avoid

their dismissal or replacement

• To use the techniques that cause a minimum nuisance to the historic substance

3. The prevalent use of traditional materials and techniques

• The conservation of fixtures and construction elements made of traditional materials with

traditional techniques.

• The use of traditional materials and techniques whenever reconstruction is needed

4. The reversibility of intervention

• The contemporary interventions shall be carried in such a way so to allow future dismantling

and new solutions.

5. Marking the contemporary interventions

• Contemporary interventions shall be marked whenever one replace, recomposes or

complement historic elements or adjoins new materials to old ones.

• The distinct marking of the contemporary intrevention shall not disturb the formal unity and

artistic integrity of the monument.

6. Conservation

• Any contemporary intervention is supposed to have the conservation of the historic substance

as its top priority …

• No contemporary intervention is supposed to subordinate the preservation of the historic fabric

to the modern functional requirements.

7. Authenticity

A. The substancial authenticy

• Supported by the original building material or by the replacement during past intervention with

the same material

It might be preserved thru:




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• The conservation of the original materiakls or their replacement with similar materials

recuperated from similar historic buildings

• New building materials obtained from old locations and thru traditional technologies.

B. Authenticity of the concept

The respect of the original design as well as the later contribution to it.


• The identification of the different historic architectural contributions,

• The respect of the original spacial composition as well as the ones of the ones added later,

• The proper implementation of the Charter of Venice

C. The authenticity of craftmenship

• Consists of the scrupulous conservation of the building parts that witness the original /

traditional techniques


• The use of traditional craftmenship in the contemporary interventions

D. The autenticity of the site

• Rests in the existence of the traditional setting


The conservation of the traditional setting and the respect of the traditional ratio of volumes, colour and

building mass proportions between old and new constructions.




52

Section IV:

ROMANIA: CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF RESTORATION,

THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF THE CULTURAL HERITAGE PRESERVATION

RESTORATION IN ROMANIA XIXth CENTURY & XXth CENTURY




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BIBLIOGRAPHY

BRANDI, Cesare, Teoria restaurării, Editura Meridiane, București 1996

CHOAY, Francoise - Alegoria patrimoniului, Editura Simetria, București, 1998;

CURINSCHI-VORONA, Gheorghe - Restaurarea monumentelor istorice, Ed. Tehnica, Bucuresti,

1968;

CURINSCHI-VORONA, Gheorghe - Arhitectura. Urbanism. Restaurare, Ed. Tehnică, București

1996;

FITCH, James Marston - Historic Preservation, Curatorial Management of the Built World,

University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville 1992;

FEILDEN, Bernard M. - Conservation of Historic Buildings, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1994;

NISTOR, S., Protecția patrimoniului cultural în România. Culegere de acte normative, Ed.

Universitară "Ion Mincu", București, 2002

PEARCE, David - Conservation Today, Routledge, London, 1989.

RIEGL, Alois, Cultul modern al monumentelor, esența și geneza sa, Ed. Impress, București, 1999

Webography:

BOITO, Camillo, Carta del Restauro

https://denkmalpflege.tuwien.ac.at/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Boito-Carta-del-restauro-

1883-ital....

GIOVANNONI, G., Restauro di monumenti, Bollettino d'Arte, 1-2, 1913

http://www.bollettinodarte.beniculturali.it/opencms/multimedia/BollettinoArteIt/documents/1

344509...

ICOMOS, International Charters for Conservation and Restoration

http://openarchive.icomos.org/431/1/Monuments_and_Sites_1_Charters.pdf

JOKILEHTO, Jukka, A History of Architectural Conservation, ICCROM, 1986

https://www.iccrom.org/publication/history-architectural-conservation

LE DUC, Eugene Emmanuel Viollet,

https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Livre:Viollet-le-

Duc__Dictionnaire_raisonn%C3%A9_de_l%E2%80%99arch...

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http://www.bollettinodarte.beniculturali.it/opencms/multimedia/BollettinoArteIt/documents/1344509031124_02-Gustavo_Giovannoni_p._1.pdf

http://www.bollettinodarte.beniculturali.it/opencms/multimedia/BollettinoArteIt/documents/1344509031124_02-Gustavo_Giovannoni_p._1.pdf

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