Restoration of the oily painting

The Kirillo-Belozersky museum-reserve keeps and exhibits various works of the Russian art and culture dating back to the 18^th-19^th centuries. The large collection includes several clerical portraits.

A provincial clerical portrait of the 18^th-19^th centuries in spite of the fact that it is distinguished by stable typology, specific image system, wide distribution, has never attracted attention of researchers. In the 20^th century portraits of church hierarchs never became objects of museum or private collecting. It was the art “of second plan” for art critics and employees of the art museums and visual agitation of an exhibition section for historians and organizers of expositions.

The first portraits of the Russian hierarchs appeared in the late 17^th century, and in the 18^th-19^th centuries they become a mass phenomenon. A demand for them was dictated by spread of portrait galleries in the houses of the higher clergy and largest Russian monasteries. It is known that in the 18^th-19^th centuries there was a small collection of pictures and icons painted in oil on canvas in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery. Portraits of local dignitaries were also represented in this gallery. They decorated the rooms of the Father Superior. It is evident that not life-time, but memorial portraits of the church hierarchs prevailed in the monastery collection. They represented “history of the Novgorod eparchy in persons”.

In 1924 after the official closing of the monastery as a functional one, some part of the church property was handed to the newly-opened museum. The first inventories registered clerical portraits among numerous objects of the monastery life. Inventory books of the museum in 1924-1929 recorded the state of pictorial canvases. Most of them were in bad or unsatisfactory state. There were numerous losses of the paint layer, patches and cracks of the canvas. It was impossible to distinguish depictions on the majority of the portraits because of darkened colours and varnish layer.

Bad state excluded exhibit and publication of portraits before serious restoration work which was started only in 1991 because of objective reasons. Museum administration decided to allocate the bigger part of necessary means for restoration from its own small budget. Portraits received a second life thanks to the employee of “Vladspetsrestavratsiya” Oleg Michailovich Revin and students of the oil-painting restoration department in the Suzdal Artistic and Restoration College. Revin Oleg Michailovich, the artist and restorer of the highest category with more than 20-year experience, has been cooperating with the Kirillo-Belozersky museum-reserve since 1978. He had to carry out difficult and painstaking work to restore the portraits. 

The previous rough renovating work made in the 19^th century by local masters, badly distorted the original painting. Trying to cover losses in the paint layer they applied colours and restoration primer over the original painting. Later on these paint layers irregularly darkened hampering perception of pictures, and therefore they were overpainted. As a result when the portraits were handed to the restoration workshop one could notice across the whole surface uneven thick film of darkened varnish and dust distorting the original colours. On some parts paint layer could be hardly seen. Old abrasions of paint layers were visible in other places. Besides, there were numerous tones made in different periods and obscuring the original painting. Specialists had to carry out painstaking work requiring incredible patience and skill to restore clerical portraits.

Restoration work included several methods. In most cases it was necessary to smooth turned-in edges of the canvas, to remove deformations, to fill up splits and losses of the primer, to remove the surface grime, to carry out minimal necessary tone of the ground.

In the 1970-s a principle of minimum interference in the original became especially urgent in our country and abroad. To put it into practice it was necessary to work out a method of joining edges and splits of a picture on canvases called “junction”. This method gave an opportunity to refuse patches deforming the painting surface with time, and in some cases to refuse redoubling.

A portrait of “Metropolitan Amvrosi (Podobedov)” was badly damaged from time and unskillful renovations of the 19^th century. There were many losses of paint layer. Some fragments were painted anew. The original canvas as it was mentioned in the museum conclusion about its state, was dilapidated, “the primer was thin, speckled with rough small craquelure with raised edges”, “painting is grimed with dust, soot, mould, excrement of birds and insects”. Restoration work of this portrait lasted for several months and became a graduation project of the student from the Suzdal Restoration College G.Y. Kozlov. Under the direction and with assistance of O.M. Revin the restorer filled up losses of the original canvas and splits, strengthened the paint layer and primer and removed deformation. The picture was duplicated and fitted on a new stretcher. Thanks to this large and painstaking work the portrait was returned to a displayable condition.

Research work on ascription of pictures was carried out simultaneously with restoration. A peculiarity of their study in the process of restoration was that a researcher had a maximum access to the canvas at that time and could carry out thorough investigation: to reveal traces of later renovations, individual methods of the master, his name and distinctive features of his artistic style. Sometimes it was possible to learn a name of the depicted person. Restoration gave an opportunity to attribute the work partly or fully.

Thus, the restoration workshop received a portrait which was registered in the museum documents as a 19^th century portrait of Metropolitan Gavriil. It could not be displayed because the varnish layer grew brown; the right sight of canvas was grimed. Numerous cracks of canvas and losses of paint layer impeded restorer’s work. Rough overpaintings of the 19^th century were revealed at the bottom of the picture. Thanks to the work of O.M. Revin the portrait received its original sizes; colours became deeper, rich and saturated. The depiction of the metropolitan was painted in an oval frame placed on a profiled foundation with an obtrusive central part. After the removal of surface grime an inscription in the oval and at the bottom of the picture became clearly readable: “Was born in June 29, 1737; member of the Holy Synod, teacher of Their Imperial Highness, court preacher, Right Reverend Platon, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kaluga and Archimandrite of the Trinity – St. Sergey Lavra”. And there was a separate line telling that this portrait was created when the represented person was 55 years old. Thus, it became obvious that the portrait was painted in 1793 and Metropolitan Platon (Levshin), one of the most outstanding church hierarchs of the second half of the 18^th century, was depicted on it.

In the course of restoration work O.M. Revin cleared from grime an inscription on the back of a portrait called in the museum documents “Unknown metropolitan” of the 19^th century. The inscription “Metropolitan Gavriil”, the next line “Monk Iakov” and lettering of the date “1800” were painted in black in Church Slavonic. The year 1800 was considered to be the date when the portrait was created. Unknown monk Iakov was probably a customer or a painter. And the name of the represented person was Metropolitan Gavriil (Petrov), one of the most famous church dignitaries under Catherine the Great, the first person among the clergy who was decorated with the highest order of the Russian Empire – the order of St. Andrew. Appearance of this portrait in the monastery was not accidental: Metropolitan Gavriil headed the Novgorod eparchy in 1775-1800 and the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery belonged to the Novgorod pulpit at that time.

In the collection of the museum there are two portraits of unknown archimandrites. Unfortunately, their names are not known yet. Supposedly, these are the Father Superiors who headed the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery in the 19^th century. Restoration gave an opportunity to attribute the portraits. They date back to the early – first half of the 19^th century.

Only after hard and painstaking work of O.M. Revin and his students we received a chance to see the original painting concealed under the darkened varnish and dust, deformed wrinkles of craquelures. They restored wonderful works of local masters almost from ruins. Restoration revealed in full measure artistic virtues of these portraits, created by talented artists often in imitation of famous court portraitists. The portraits continue to live. And for an artist-restorer it is the highest mark of his creative work. After restoration we can publish 11 portraits and their partial ascription.