This is the first volume of Occasional Papers on the Samuel H. Kress Collection and is published in the memory of Mario Modestini who died on January 28, 2006 in New York. The book marks the tenth anniversary of the advanced training in Old Masters conservation sponsored by the Kress Foundation at the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University.
The first part of the book is an overview of historic approaches to the conservation of European paintings and the conservation history of the Kress collection of paintings (which was formed between 1929 and 1961). The second part gives the results of scientific and humanistic research gained in the process of conserving specific Italian and Dutch Old Masters.
Published in association with the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
Overview
The Samuel H. Kress Collection: conservation and context
Marilyn Perry
The Samuel H. Kress Program in Paintings Conservation at the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Margaret Holben Ellis
Introduction to the volume
Michele Marincola
Acknowledgements
Michele Marincola
Historical papers
Philosophies and tastes in nineteenth-century paintings conservation
Wendy Partridge
Stephen Pichetto, Conservator of the Kress Collection 1927-1949
Ann Hoenigswald
Mario Modestini, Conservator of the Kress Collection 1949-1961
Dianne Dwyer Modestini with Mario Modestini
Technical studies and treatment
A new leaf: recent technical discoveries in the Goodhart Ducciesque Master's Madonna and Child with Four Saints
Jennifer Sherman
Botticelli's Nativity
Charles R. Mack
The Re-use of a Desco da Parto
Mika Okawa and Dianne Dwyer Modestini
The Triumphs of Petrarch: an analysis of a Renaissance decorative cycle
Wendy Partridge
A portable triptych in El Paso
Dianne Dwyer Modestini
Guidoccio Cozzarelli's Scenes from the Life of the Virgin
Dianne Dwyer Modestini
School of Pietro Perugino, Saint Sebastian
Annette Rupprecht and Sheri Francis Shaneyfelt
The Master of the Manchester Madonna: restoration, technique, and a context for attribution
Molly March
Portrait of a Lady and techniques in the late paintings of Nicolaes Maes
Laurent Sozzani with Christopher McGlinchey
View of the Molo: a Canaletto attribution reinstated
Elise Effmann
Canaletto paints the Molo from the Ponte della Paglia
Katharine Baetjer
View of the Grand Canal with Dogana and Guardi studio practices
Helen Spande
Appendices and index
Appendix I: Kress Collection paintings treated in the Samuel H. Kress Program in Paintings Conservation at the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Appendix II: the distribution of the Kress Collection
Index
Reviews
In her introduction, Marilyn Perry describes one of the Kress Foundation's goals as bringing a fuller understanding of the original place and purpose for which art of previous centuries was created. This volume is an excellent contribution to that effort.
Studies in Conservation 56 (2011) 77-79
