LaunchPad: Conserving Ancient and Byzantine Art at the Art Institute of Chicago

While the Art Institute of Chicago's ancient and Byzantine collection was off view during the construction of the Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, numerous objects underwent extensive conservation. The following video chronicles the conservation processes used to prepare several ancient and Byzantine artworks for display, including the restoration of a Greek vase, the cleaning of Roman and Byzantine mosaics, the metallurgical analysis of a bronze sculpture, and the laser-cleaning of a marble statue.
This video was produced with the generous support of a Long Range Fund grant provided by the Community Associates of the Art Institute of Chicago. It was created for LaunchPad, a program of digital interpretive materials that supplement the viewing of works of art on display in the Art Institute of Chicago's galleries.

[@nikhilsrajan]

I don’t know why KZbin started recommending me art restoration videos starting with Baumgartner, but I don’t complain. The process is really fascinating.

[@yasminoladapo9062]

Fr🤣I started today and I'm intrigued

[@ellenwaldorf]

This happened to me as well and now I am hooked.😅

[@stefania8468]

same 😂😂

[@p0pcie]

Yep same here

[@JohnLCadelina]

same here

[@GoodOleCybertron]

Conserving/restoring art: dream job Moving/installing art: nightmare job Watching any piece be moved, no matter how careful the efforts are, always makes my stress level shoot through the roof. lol

[@denwiessimo6088]

No wonder, when a stone head is lying on a round pile without support and being moved.

[@RebeckaSarkozy]

I was glad to see the giraffe mosaic displayed less high for all to enjoy!

[@deckard43]

I love all the restoration videos

[@jjo5375]

Restoration/Conservation....what a fascinating world! Bravo! : )

[@ed_leonardi]

Love these videos! More, please!

[@readmycomment3157]

Back in roman times a slave would have scrubbed those mosaics with a stiff brush, i wonder what they would think of gentle steam cleaning

[@herecomemacOnTT]

Man, when I visit back home again I need to come back to see this exhibit. It has been there since i was a child, and the last time i saw it was nearly five years ago for my birthday ❤ LOVE the Art Institute!

[@melody3741]

If youre about to ask about gloves: literally just look it up theres a great video on it.

[@todoeice89]

0:35 He's sleeping

[@eugeneaniar7232]

Was able to visit the Art Institute in 2017 and the greek and roman collections are my faves. Considering those pieces are totally ancient relics plus the precise detailness of the sculptural works of the early times.

[@coffeecake114]

Helps restore my faith in humanity

[@deer563]

I hate you and your puns

[@GooseMessiah]

If you look closely, that pot is the same one Kratos broke so that his son would not see the link to his past

[@loading1345]

So detailed thank you

[@museumedeirosealmeida1327]

Amazing work!

[@robertafierro5592]

Oooo my kind of topic!!

[@kateka518]

Brawo Andrzej Dajnowski. Totalny profesjonalizm

[@estersouzavitor3708]

Que trabalho extraordinário o que fazem ,as obras são lindas ,e fazerem elas retornarem a sua beleza original e maravilhoso, PARABÉNS.

[@janeday9148]

A wonderful video more please

[@rustee00]

If I have time I will go to this art museum

[@bevandarke2300]

I could never do that job I would be to worried about destroying something so old and important

[@JacobafJelling]

7:22 the way it should be. Very Nice job 🇩🇰

[@Wulffchri]

My dream job ❤️

[@srfrg9707]

Simone Christiansen I hope you will fullfill it. Greetings from Greece.

[@dshe8637]

I thought it had been established that many Ancient Roman statues were originally painted? It seems quite brutal to laser it off. Also, who polishes ancient silver coins? That's scary!

[@wannabe_assassin]

All statues plus temples were painted bright colours. Starting from ancient Greece and then Rome. Most common were red, blue, green and yellow if I'm not mistaken. In some statues you can still see the colours but the have mostly faded because of time

[@heatherwhite3881]

They are lasering off burial accretions, not remnant paint. The paint is long gone; all that would be left are minute traces not visible to the eye. And they are polishing off a thin layer of tarnish from the silver coin, using the gentlest/most appropriate method possible. Followed by preventive measures to inhibit further tarnishing.

[@angelicaamora11]

Yeah but did you use fully reversible heat, moisture, solvent activated synthetic resin varnish?

[@TyDurr1]

Why do they call it deinstalling instead of uninstalling?

[@kitthearty]

The original buyers got taken for a ride, by the sounds of it. How much does a grecian urn....cost.

[@alicelu5691]

wait this mosaic is normal?...

[@fernandocenteno7088]

NICE MUSEUM, I, AM VISIT MUCHT.

[@Mad9977]

you must love to puzzle 😎👍

[@AnApothecarysCorollary]

It seems counterproductive to mount the mosaic vertically while restoring, as the tesserae can fall out/down.

[@fparadise1979]

i totally wanted to see the fully conserved vase =//

[@The_Butler_Did_It]

In coin auctions or coin sellers catalogues you will often see one described as "has been cleaned". The sale price is always lower than the same coin would have been if it had not been cleaned. The lesson is *_Don't clean coins_*

[@jennyneedsmeds]

i always wonder if heavy works like these have been dropped before upon attempts to install them for viewing... god forbid such a tragedy would happen.

[@phoenixkittyq122]

I don't think I've ever heard someone use the phrase "deinstalled" as opposed to "uninstalled". 😂

[@pehrtammelander2628]

My guess is jargon. Both prefixes are valid, and in this usage, mean the same thing.

[@Dog.soldier1950]

I’ve heard it in the naval context

[@splehcar]

Yeah. I use subtitles and it reads “D installed” every time deinstalled is said. It took me until the second time to _oh! they’re saying deinstalled!_

[@heatherwhite3881]

In museums, it's always "deinstall"

[@craftingplaylists863]

Y not gloved hands?

[@gracebritz59]

that guy wearing a robe in the beginning is me

[@AnApothecarysCorollary]

With 3D printing technology, perhaps conservators can try to reproduce missing sherds for repair purposes.

[@alexthefox1175]

What museum is called?

[@lizziecoles91]

@simplynailogical - get a load of that peel porn at 8:52 XD

[@drawmywayhome2207]

We love a holosexual experimenting with their artsy side

[@ashleyfree2807]

Looking for someone,to guide me through excavation, help ect I was working on oyster boat last year ,in 3 foot of water,dredge wash bring up rocks ,sm tablets ,stone hand tools, so I set aside a few buckets now iam cleaning and relics are clearly aztec, only I know location

[@Cutondogor]

And it's just a co-incidence that the Xray Spectrometer looks like a hand-held ray-gun from the future. Because it is.

[@musicformed]

hows there byzantine art in chicago? Did someone fly it in and why?

[@josephpetrino1741]

You don't understand how museums get things?

[@markharris5771]

I definitely have neither the patience or adeptness to even consider putting together a 3D pot jigsaw, especially one that’s centuries old. That’s even before I consider obtaining the knowledge and other skill sets necessary.

[@startpage717]

190 POUNDS! WOW...! Interesting that they do not use a Safe Works respirator of some sort as airbrushing is a bit toxic and to be so close (on a constant that can create issues) Conserving and restoring is a dream job agree but we too must take care of our health in the process...standing to laser the statue is hard on the feet and back even worst with no special rubbing on the floor area that they work in...but that was 2013 perhaps it is better now...

[@Olcia27]

Start Page She literally put the vase under special vent before she started to airbrush it.

[@Kaytecando]

I was surprised the techs did not have safety googles on. Mosaic glass could have popped out, paint spray, even airbrush) has particles that can be inhaled and where are the gloves???? I guess the OSHA people don't inspect these places! Great dedication for such tedious and painstaking work, tho!

[@stel1000]

It is anforeas not anfora

[@melyz6297]

I wish they wouldn't paint a replica of the art on top, instead just leave it white. That way you could see where it broke and its history

[@battyboo3732]

yelm alavaz The point of it is to bring the painting back to the way that the artist originally meant for it to look. I see both sides but I think it still makes sense to have a painting look like it was intended to

[@battyboo3732]

yelm alavaz Plus, real professionals stick strictly to the area where the pigment was stripped or flaked off. They never “paint a replica on top”

[@jeffmorse6727]

it depends on what you want to display, either the piece as the artist intended or the piece that went through history. it's all reversible so a different curator could show it as it went through history

[@ashleyfree2807]

South texas

[@amberkv3263]

Why does it sound like bill(kill bill) is the person speaking throughout this 😂

[@melody3741]

This gives me anxiety, i could never ever bring myself to move a several hundred pound giant chunk of rock thats worth millions.... oops i dropped it..

[@Skinnymarks]

In a 1000 years what kind of art being produced now would have this kind of effort to preserve it???

[@sandwich382]

This specific video has somehow given me anxiety because the people working on the art pieces are just a little too reckless with what they're doing. They work too quickly for comfort tbh, but I do enjoy their work

[@InFltSvc]

High-pressure steam are they crazy they actually destroying it

[@heatherwhite3881]

No they aren't.

[@onefeather2]

Baumgartner in Chicago should have been called he is one of the best restoring art, even if it is not a painting he would know what to do and the method best to restore.

[@heatherwhite3881]

Disagree.....these are objects. Let the objects specialists take care of objects.

[@chiefbogo3282]

I’m no expert... but why isn’t everyone wearing gloves? Especially if they’re touching something old

[@pehrtammelander2628]

Not every old object requires gloves, it depends on the material.

[@marychristie4815]

Sometimes they don't wear gloves so they feel more detail, like when the pot was being put back together they need to be able to feel the dints and cracks so they can filled in and you can't do that when wearing gloves.

[@usertyhbsb]

AnKcient art?😂

[@phonotical]

The word is, Uninstall.

[@heatherwhite3881]

In museums, it's always "deinstall"

[@Chamomile369]

The girl doing the vase makes me so mad, her drawing was uneven. Everything she did looked sloppy.

[@CarlosLopez-hi3pk]

you're actually causing more damage to that to the steam moisture is going to stick inside

[@mandas677]

Carlos Lopez how would you clean a mosaic? Are you a conservator?

[@NuclearRoll]

God it makes me nervous watching a guy with a surfer like accent handle old, beautiful, fragile art work. No offense to him.

[@guccideltaco]

Sounds like a Chicago accent to me; not much surfing going on there.

[@heatherwhite3881]

That sounds like definite offense to him lol 🤦

[@DrBPhD]

Cleaning of that silver coin was completely unnecessary. It takes away so much of its natural character. Not unsurprising that the end-result looks lifeless, freshly minted and therefore unreal. To make matters worse, that delicate touch of nature which adds so much to the appearance of ancient coins and which was so ignorantly removed on this specimen won't even come back after the application of that protective coating (which itself is (again!) completely unnecessary (especially on a silver coin) and only gives an extra artificial look to the coin).

[@CentralNintendo1]

DrBPhD especially on a silver coin that protective layer is important. Whenever metal gets tarnished, a thin layer of the surface material turns into an oxide. The longer it sits like that, the more of the coin gets destroyed. So the cleaning and then protection of it was absolutely necessary. It's the same with a car. You don't leave rust on it because it's nature's delicate touch. And you don't just paint over it either. You need to remove the rust (which is iron's oxide) and then it gets painted for protection.

[@DrBPhD]

Cars are made of non-stainless steel, this coin is made of silver (perhaps with a little impurities). That's the difference. Exposed to air under normal conditions, silver coins are not destroyed at all by oxidation or corrosion. They just develop a very thin darker layer of silver-oxide referred to as a patina, which is often not even enough to hide the silver lustre completely, the coin rather becomes toned. It's this thin layer of patina which gives the coins an tremendous extra eye-appeal, by far superior to the clean polished surface of this coin which actually ruins it's appearance completely. Uncoated ancient silver coins have been in coin cabinets for centuries without any signs of destructive corrosion at all, only getting better with time.

[@larrywoodhouse4404]

DrBPhD water

[@DrBPhD]

Moisture has little to no effect on silver coins after having the earth and encrustations removed. It's indeed a different case for bronze coins, which may develop bronze-disease under the influence of moisture (water in general). But even in case of bronze coins the appropriate procedure is to leave the coin as is after dirt-removal and to intervene only when, after some time, it appears to be susceptible to bronze-disease. Silver is quite inert however and will only develop a thin oxide layer with time, no matter whether it's in a moist atmosphere or not.

[@raebaddings1521]

DrBPhD you actually don’t know what you’re talking about.

[@aserrodriguez6609]

They need to have the correct experts doing the restorations that theyARE EXPERTS IN AND NOTHING MORE! Obviously the lady doing the tracing IS NOT AN ARTIST! clearly the lady doing the gluing ISN'T AN EXPERT IN AIRBRUSHING! So much sloppiness

[@james-dt4ei]

I can not believe u are cleaning the tomb like that? Are u crazy? Do u know what the steam is going to do to that piece of art yrs later? U should be fired.

[@jeffmorse6727]

are you an expert?

[@james-dt4ei]

@@jeffmorse6727 Actually yes I am. Even though it's not any of your business. I am a geologist, historian and teacher at one of the best art schools in the country along with two other master, and bachelor degrees I have, I think I'm very qualified. Thank u for asking. Are u?

[@jeffmorse6727]

@@james-dt4ei So you have a masters or doctorate in the subject you teach AND two other masters AND a bachelor degree. I very much doubt that. Also none of this degrees are art conservation

[@james-dt4ei]

@@jeffmorse6727 its none of your business. U are very noisy. Im 62 yrs old. How old are u 15. I dont care if u believe me or not sir. I know what i have, and i know what i have done in my life. Im happily married with kids . my life education and business is not any of your concern since i do not know u. Your a stranger i only care what my family, friends, and god think. Stop asking personal questions to strangers. One thats rude and very creepy.

[@clownfromclowntown]

Oof

[@yyabay]

try to clean angain and again an thousand year object after serving to the art lovers after few years... The high prssure steam has HIGH pressure that already can dispatch tis pattersn, but yes gloves and soft tissues with breething aparatus will save its original .. just put it in a vacuum sealed transparent frame and DONT TOUCH IT... If it is so priceless, don lift it with a forklift and hang on a drywall with screws.. show lower, fool people