PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Discussing principles of conservation
and age values that can be attributed to monuments, unintentional
monuments are usually characterized by historical and
artistic values.
According to the perception at the beginning of the 20th
century, all human activity and all human fate of which we have
evidence or knowledge might claim historical value. 242 Artistic
value could be attributed to any tangible, visible or audible work
of man. The value depended on the extent to which it met the
requirements of contemporary artistic volition (Kunstwollen), 243
which in fact could never be formulated clearly, since the requirements
of a work of art were subjective and might change over
time. According to Riegl, any object with artistic and/or historical
value should be considered a monument. 244
Moreover, as historical and artistic value are strongly bound
together, every work with artistic value is also a historical monument,
since it represents a particular stage in the development
of the fine arts. Conversely, every historical monument is a
monument of art, 245 since its separate properties may refer to a
whole series of artistic developments. Therefore, since a wallpaper
is tangible and visible evidence of human activity, it is a
monument with historical and artistic value.
The Italian conservation theorist Cesare Brandi (1906–1988)
also viewed artistic and historical value as the two main values
attributed to a conservation object. According to Brandi, conservation
consisted of a methodological moment in which the work of
art was recognized in its physical being, and in its dual aesthetic
and historical nature, in view of its transmission to the future. 246
Aesthetic value is of foremost importance, and it must necessarily
be taken into account when making a conservation decision. 247
However, an object’s aesthetic value can be separated from its
historical value. Even if a wallpaper loses a part of its aesthetic
appearance, it can still be dealt with as a historical document.
242
Riegl, “The Modern Cult of Monuments:...”, 70.
243
Ibid., 71.
244
Muños Viñas, Contemporary Theory of Conservation , 37.
245
Riegl, “The Modern Cult of Monuments: ...”, 70.
246
Brandi, Theory of Restoration, 48.
247
Ibidem.
140