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I

 the Getty Conservation Institute and the J. Paul Getty

Museum sponsored an international symposium, “The Structural

Conservation of Panel Paintings,” at the J. Paul Getty Museum in

Malibu, California. Initially the idea of Andrea Rothe, head of Paintings

Conservation at the Museum, and enthusiastically supported by Kathleen

Dardes, senior coordinator in the Institute’s Training Program, the confer-

ence was attended by more than two hundred participants from some

twenty countries, who gathered for five days of papers and discussions.

During pauses, participants were able to meet informally with old

and new colleagues in the galleries and gardens of the Museum. This com-

bination of formal and informal exchanges greatly encouraged the flowof

ideas and contributed significantly to the success of the symposium.

The purpose of the symposium was to document the techniques,

both traditional and contemporary, of panel stabilization. This book

encompasses the wide range of topics covered by the speakers. After an

introductory examination of wood characteristics, the papers go on to

consider the technological aspects of wood, the history of panel-making

techniques, and the various methods of panel stabilization that have been

developed and refined over the course of many centuries. Indeed, as the

reader will discover, many of the techniques described are the products of

a long and venerable tradition developed by generations of master arti-

sans, who then passed along an understanding of and sensitivity to the

properties of wood. Other articles focus on the modern scientific and tech-

nical advances that conservation has made in the second half of the twen-

tieth century—advances that have helped conservators solve, often by

innovative methods, the most challenging structural problems.

In sponsoring this symposium, the Museum and the Conservation

Institute hoped to contribute to a wider understanding of the historical, prac-

tical, and scientificaspects of panel stabilization. We are grateful to Andrea

Rothe and Kathleen Dardes for the dedication they have shown in the organi-

zation of the symposium and in the publication of these proceedings.

Miguel Angel Corzo John Walsh

 

The Getty Conservation Institute The J. Paul Getty Museum

Foreword