Hermitage Days in Yekaterinburg. The “Preserving Cultural Heritage Together” programme: master class on the restoration and conservation of tempera painting
From 9 to 12 October 2018, as part of the Hermitage Days in the Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, a master class was held on the restoration and conservation of tempera painting, a continuation of the joint project between the State Hermitage and the Coca-Cola system in Russia – “Preserving Cultural Heritage Together”.
The “Preserving Cultural Heritage Together” programme that began in 2010 is intended to bring advanced international experience and innovative technologies into restoration processes carried out both in the State Hermitage and elsewhere. Under the programme, restorers from the Hermitage had internships at some of the world’s foremost museums and are now sharing the knowledge and skills they acquired there with colleagues from other Russian museums.
The master classes in the restoration of tempera painting were conducted by specialists from the State Hermitage’s Laboratory for the Scientific Restoration of Tempera Painting: head of the laboratory Igor Permiakov, artist-restorer of the first category Irina Gefding, and artist-restorer Olga Dzheniya.
This year the Hermitage experts gave theoretical and practical lessons to colleagues from the Urals area, Siberia and the Russian Far East. In the master class, various methods were demonstrated for the consolidation of the primer and the paint layer, and also the joints in examples of wood supports. Recommendations were given, too, on the storage and transportation of exhibits. For Yekaterinburg, where museum stocks include unique works of Nevyansk Old Believer icon-painting, the master class on the restoration of tempera painting was of particular significance to increase the restorers’ level of training.
The master classes were followed by a round table, in the course of which the museum workers and colleagues from the State Hermitage discussed current problems in restoration practice, questions relating to the completion of restoration documentation for the attestation of restorers and other aspects connected with the preservation of the rich historical and cultural legacy of the Urals area.
“The master class organized by colleagues from the State Hermitage is a genuinely important event not just for our museum, but for all museums in the Urals. We thank the administration of the State Hermitage for expanding the efforts being made to develop the school of restoration in this country,” said Nikita Korytin, the Director of the Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts.
The Coca-Cola company in Russia has been actively supporting projects in the sphere of culture and art since 1993. Over the past eight years, the programme for the restoration of museum treasures has covered nine museums: in 2012 master classes on restoration were held in Kazan, Veliky Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk and Rostov-na-Donu. In 2015–16, Hermitage restorers who had had internships in foreign museums gave master classes in Kaliningrad, Ulan-Ude, Omsk and Vladivostok. In 2017 master classes on restoration took place in Ulan-Ude, Vladivostok, Omsk and Yekaterinburg. Before the end of 2018, such events are due to be held in the Primorye State Art Gallery in Vladivostok and the Omsk Regional Art Museum.
