Training in the Conservation of Paintings - Calouste Gulbenkian ...

TRAINING IN THE CONSERVATION OF PAINTINGS
restoration; and this tendency, which is likely to continue, has
advantages in broadening the culture of the restorer. Once specialisation
has begun, however, it is normal for the practical and
theoretical training to be carried out simultaneously; and for the
simpler processes as well as such background work as the copying
of paintings, and the study of science and art history, to be taught
from the beginning. This we would consider correct, although
some witnesses have spoken to us of the danger of allowing any of
the technical skills to be learnt until the student has given adequate
evidence of his vocation. We have even been told of a proposed
course of training which, in order to avoid the risk of launching
half-trained restorers, would begin with three years of formal
instruction in art and art history, in which no practical training
in restoration would be provided until specialisation in the fourth
and fifth years. It is true, as all agree, that the half-trained restorer
can be a most dangerous enemy to paintings but we consider that
the proper way of meeting the danger of half-trained restorers
operating independently is not by deferring the technical training
but by instituting a generally accepted award for those who are
properly trained (see paragraph 55). The importance of craftsmanship
is so cardinal that we are convinced that it should be
cultivated from the beginning.
52. This is the method of most of those courses which take place
in institutes of conservation. Those which are held in institutes
primarily devoted to training, Stuttgart, the Institute of Fine Art,
New York University and Cooperstown, are able to provide practical
instruction only on paintings specially obtained for the purpose;
consequently the true apprenticeship, in which the students work
beside expert restorers engaged on paintings of quality, must be
taken in some other institution during the vacations or for longer
periods, sandwiched between sections of the course, or as a final
year. Thus the Stuttgart Institut requires three years work in one or
more conservation studios before entry to the main course, and in
the United States the award of a certificate requires a penultimate
year (at the Conservation Centre, New York) or final year (at
Cooperstown) of 'internship' at another institution. In our view
the separation of the training, as such, from the apprenticeship is
an expedient made necessary by circumstances; and in the case of
restorers of paintings it means that the student begins his apprenticeship
before he has had time to be of use to the receiving institution,
and leaves before he has had time to create the confidence between
his master and himself which would enable him to profit fully from
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