This blog post has been written by Krystina Parker, a second-year MSc student in conservation practice at Cardiff University.
Conserving
the base
During the summer
of 2022, a team of seven Cardiff University MSc Students (including myself) had
the privilege to finish working on the plaster cast of Djedhor statue base
(W302), which had been previously worked on by the second-year BSc students
during their 2021–2022 academic year. Micah Ellis wrote a blog
post for the Egypt Centre detailing the
work that their year had been doing on the object (fig. 1).
Fig. 1: Conservation team with the Djedhor statue base |
Our team took up
the mantle of completing the work on the object so that it could be returned
home to the Egypt Centre and reunited with its statue, which is housed at the Petrie
Museum in London. This will be the first
time the statue has been reunited since the Wellcome Collection was dispersed
in 1971. The object was first cast in 1933 from the original, which is housed
in the Cairo Museum. This 89-year-old replica has transitioned from a replica
for display to an antique in and of itself. When our team took over the work,
there was little conservation left to be done to get the object ready for
display. The previous students worked hard with the cleaning or the plaster and
the fills, while our team filled some small holes with a plaster of Paris mix
and finished the object off with the some inpainting. For this blog post, I
will discuss the inpainting work that was done by our team and the importance
of the conservation of plaster replicas.
After considering the best paints to use, we decided to go with gouache paints. These worked really well as not only could we layer this paint to get the right opacity, but we could also leave the colours mixed overnight and rehydrate them for future use. A previous group had attempted inpainting on one corner of the object which, unfortunately, had the wrong pigments and was too dark (figs 2–3).
Fig. 2: Back of the statue base before treatment |
Fig. 3: Side of the statue base before treatment |
While the base may
seem black, it is actually far more polychrome than one may guess. We used tiles
to combine paints; shades that include black, white, green, red, and yellow
ocher to make the correct shades. Different areas required different variations
in shades. In order to make sure the colours would not look too different on
the object, we tested them on plaster of Paris squares. Once we got the colours
to the correct shades we applied them to the base; each zone took a varying
amount of time to mix, which meant that colours were applied at different
times. In figure 4 you can see an example of the tiles that were used and the plaster
of Paris squares (fig. 4).
Fig. 4: Front of the statue base before treatment |
As a team, it took
us a few hours to mix and fill the small areas that required paint. With the
work done we were able to cover the base with a dustsheet and get it ready to
be shipped back to the Egypt Centre for display (figs 5–9).
Fig. 5: Back of the statue after treatment |
Fig. 6: Working of the treatment |
Fig. 7: Side of the statue base after treatment |
Fig. 8: Back of the statue base after treatment |
Fig. 9: Side of the statue after treatment |
Importance
of conserving the base
The base is important
for two reasons. Firstly, it will be reunited with its statue giving the public in Swansea a look at a famous statue, which
they may otherwise not get the opportunity to see. Secondly, these statues
represent an era that opened the art history of the
world to various locations without removing the
originals from their home countries. Plaster replicas allowed museums, world
fairs, and collectors to access and display life-size exact copies of famous
pieces. Replicas also allowed cultures to maintain and display their heritage
artefacts without the fear of misrepresentation, something that has been a
problem that museum specialists have been tackling for the last decade or so
consulting with people of the cultures they are representing.
Having the statue at Swansea will allow the students and the public to come and view the object. This allows students who may not have the ability to travel to Egypt to view, study, and work with the statue. Furthermore, the benefit that comes with the statue being a plaster cast replica is that people are able to physically interact with the object without damaging the surface too much. (Though I would still recommend the use of gloves provided by the museum to reduce skin oils damaging the paints).
As a previous volunteer
of the Egypt Centre, I know that Ken and the team will make great use of the
statue base and its statue when they are reunited, to educate people on Djedhor
and the amazing life that he lived!
Further
reading:
Marie, M. (2020) ‘What you might not know about Djedhor’s black basalt
statue in Egyptian Museum in Tahrir’, Retrieved October 18, 2022, from EgyptToday
website: https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/4/89133/What-you-might-not-know-about-Djedhor%E2%80%99s-black-basalt-statue
Nichols, M. (2006) ‘Plaster cast sculpture: a history of touch’, Archaeological
Review from Cambridge, 21(2), 114–130.
Reynolds-Kaye, J. (2022) ‘Museum replicas; recovering the work of making
plaster casts of preColumbian art’. In The Oxford Handbook of Museum Archaeology.
Oxford University Press.
Sherman, E. J. (1981) ‘Djedhor the Saviour Statue Base oi 10589’, The
Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 67(1), 82–102.
Simon, J. (2011). Plaster figure makers: a short history - National
Portrait Gallery. Retrieved from www.npg.org.uk website: https://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/plaster-figure-makers-history
Really interesting article Kitty, enjoyed hearing about the conservation process of this object! Well done to all of you!
ReplyDeleteGreat article, I want to learn more now about Djehdor as I hadn't heard this before.
ReplyDeleteGood work, Krystina & the rest of the team! A very interesting article, thanks for sharing. 👏🏻😊
ReplyDelete