The Care Of Bronze Sculpture

Care and Protect Your Bronze Sculpture If you own a bronze sculpture, it's essential to understand this complex material to prevent its condition from declining. Advice on the internet about bronze cleaning can yield disastrous results, often causing irreversible damage to your bronze. Lucy Branch, an expert who has worked on many of the most famous bronze statues and monuments in the UK, will ensure this is not the fate of your treasured sculpture. This guide is designed to be user-friendly and is packed with easy-to-follow advice you can trust. It covers both indoor and outdoor sculptures and provides clear instructions on maintenance and cleaning. It also includes tips on what to watch out for and how to prevent damage. This book is for you if you want answers to questions like these: Which Protective Coating Should I Use? Should I Be Worried About This Corrosion? When Is Restoration Necessary? Is this Patina Original? Why Does My Bronze Keep Tarnishing? Should I Use Smart Water To Protect My Sculpture? Do I Need To Worry About Ultra-violet Light? Is It Normal For Patina To Flake? What Materials Should I Use To Clean My Bronze? What Time of Year Should My Sculpture Be Maintained? How Often Should My Sculpture Be Maintained?

"This book was written for the collector of newer sculpture that has been cast and/or fabricated in bronze. Step by step instructions have been given in order to guide the collector through the various steps of maintaining bronze surfaces and their patinas (colorations) for indoor as well as outdoor environments, in order that these surfaces and their existing patinas may be protexcted and enjoyed for many years. This book is not intended as a guide for maintenance of antique bronze sculpture nor those of antiquity."--Page 5

Learn The Principles of Bronze Conservation Lucy Branch runs a bronze conservation company, Antique Bronze Ltd, in London and has worked on some of the most well-known bronze statues, monuments and architectural features in the UK. In this book, she teaches the principles of bronze conservation for those who have had no formal training in the field. She brings her practical expertise together with academic knowledge in an easy and relatable way that will guide you towards a better understanding of how to care for outdoor bronze. This book is for you if: You want to be confident about bronze conservation so that you don’t have to rely on others to advise you You’d like to be able to write specifications and guide conservation contractors You’d like to be able to use the right language and ask the right questions of contractors and discern whether they know their subject You need to understand why your bronze is behaving badly and be able to shape a plan to do something about it You want to build your professional development You want to ensure you are doing the best for the bronzes in your care Areas covered in the book: Key definitions The Significance of Bronze Bronze in Context How Bronze Features are Made Science around bronze and its degradation Corrosion: The ways bronze corrodes Common Causes of Degradation Ethics of Bronze Conservation Ethics of Repatination Practical Techniques Protective Coatings Preventive Conservation Conservation Reports & Documentation

For the general public and specialists alike, the Hellenistic period (323–31 BC) and its diverse artistic legacy remain underexplored and not well understood. Yet it was a time when artists throughout the Mediterranean developed new forms, dynamic compositions, and graphic realism to meet new expressive goals, particularly in the realm of portraiture. Rare survivors from antiquity, large bronze statues are today often displayed in isolation, decontextualized as masterpieces of ancient art. Power and Pathos gathers together significant examples of bronze sculpture in order to highlight their varying styles, techniques, contexts, functions, and histories. As the first comprehensive volume on large-scale Hellenistic bronze statuary, this book includes groundbreaking archaeological, art-historical, and scientific essays offering new approaches to understanding ancient production and correctly identifying these remarkable pieces. Designed to become the standard reference for decades to come, the book emphasizes the unique role of bronze both as a medium of prestige and artistic innovation and as a material exceptionally suited for reproduction. Power and Pathos is published on the occasion of an exhibition on view at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence from March 14 to June 21, 2015; at the J. Paul Getty Museum from July 20 through November 1, 2015; and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, from December 6, 2015, through March 20, 2016.

The archaeological finds at Herculaneum and Pompeii have rendered Naples an especially rich field for the study of the history of restorations, particularly of ancient bronzes. Bringing together the research of an international group of curators, conservators, archivists, and scientists, this extensively illustrated online volume examines the evolving practice of bronze restoration in Naples and other European centers from the eighteenth century to today. Presenting the results of new investigations, this collection of essays and case studies addresses the contexts in which the restorations took place, the techniques and materials used, the role of specialists, and changing attitudes to the display of these statues. Along with a rich selection of images, these texts offer a significant contribution to the history of restoration and conservation, providing valuable information regarding the evolution of taste and museum practices at a formative stage of modern archaeology. The essays collected here were written following a series of presentations at a one-day conference, “Restoring Ancient Bronzes in the Nineteenth Century,” held at the J. Paul Getty Museum on May 6, 2011. Each illustrated essay is accompanied by a separate gallery of large-format images to facilitate study and analysis. Edited by Erik Risser, associate conservator in the Department of Antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum, and David Saunders, assistant curator in the Department of Antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum, this collection is part of the Getty’s ongoing commitment to the online publication of scholarly conferences and symposia.