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Conservation of wall paintings - video specification of 28 treatments

The inspiration behind this video about wall painting conservation came from a desire to make Capitolati Speciali d’Appalto more understandable*.
We believed that by translating them into images, the items described would be clarified and made real in a way that is rarely achieved by jargon. However, in developing the project, we realized that the video could have further uses, as a teaching tool for example or, more generally, to promote knowledge and understanding of the activities involved in art conservation.
The desire to make the visual material suitable for such a variety of purposes resulted in a specific model. On the one hand, we wanted to avoid producing a sort of user manual, which would have provided a simplistic, inadequate account of the objective complexities of conservation treatments; on the other hand, we did not wish to give an excessively general and shallow representation of this professional practice for the sake of reaching a more general audience. Consequently, each operation described –with the related materials, tools and methodologies- is no to be considered as exhaustive of all cases of the type of degradation tackled, but rather as a general procedure. Similarly, precisely because each visually documented phase is shown as an example, the procedures filmed were not performed on a single artefact, but on several works and samples made available by the ISCR. The treatments are shown in the right order, thereby accurately reproducing a complete conservation process.
The video is divided into 28 sections, each corresponding to a specific treatment. The materials and tools needed for each operation are clearly displayed at the beginning. Each section is also introduced by a short text listing methodological guidelines and requirements, as well as referring to other sections with related contents. The images are accompanied by a spoken commentary that describes the steps, the purpose and operating conditions of each treatment whose process is fully illustrated.
The video is available both in Italian and English.

*Restauro dei dipinti murali, su tavola e tela. Linee guida per la redazione dei Capitolati Speciali d’Appalto, Roma, DEI, 2007