A more scientific approach was introduced to the treatment of paintings at the National Gallery, London, after the Second World War. It was an approach that tended to be aligned with the complete removal of varnish in cleaning, which provoked controversy first nationally, then internationally. This talk describes the resulting emergence of a conflict between scientific and aesthetic authority in conservation and considers the roots of the conflict.
Dr Hero Lotti is an independent scholar. After taking the Postgraduate Diploma in the Conservation of Paintings at The Courtauld, Hero completed her PhD in ‘Practical Developments in English Easel-Painting Conservation, ca. 1824-1968, from written sources’ in 1999. She was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in The History and Theory of English Easel-Painting Conservation, 2000-2004. She is the author of A Short History of IIC, published in 2000 to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Institute. She is presently an independent researcher preparing a history of English painting conservation in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Organised by Aviva Burnstock, Professor of Conservation, The Courtauld.
