The Model of the Dominican Church and Cloister of Sopron

09/2009

According to a small piece of paper sticked on its wall, the model of the Museum of Sopron (no.: Ip.59.8.1) „was made by Josef Kluiber in 1837, teacher of the 3rd years’students, with only one knife, without any plan. To the glory of the Dominican Order.”

 The object is therefore not an architectural model, but it was prepared for pleasure. Its rate measures are not the same with those of the Dominican Church of Sopron built between 1719 and 1725 designed by Eisenkölbl Lőrinc. The model is made of wood, its roof and walls are painted and the windows are divided by metal plates. In the inside part an altar, a pulpit with hangings covering its door and a chandelier was placed and the walls were covered by prints about the life of St Paul the Hermit. The floor is covered with paper.

The artefact is on display until 13th September 2009, in the exhibition Preserved Art Treasures. Exhibition of Diploma Works.

About the restauration:

The model was placed in a storage for years, so its state needed restaurating which was a complex task given the different kinds of material used (wood, metal, paper, textile). The joints of the heavily dusty objects opened and its structure loosened. Different pieces, fragments peeled off and some elements of the lathed, carved wood parts were missing. The painted surface darkened in patches, the grounding and the coat was defective and it was peeling as well. Some plates were missing from the pearly cross decorating the wall. The paper pictures were dirty, damaged and ragged, peeling off the wood base. The rigid  sheets showed dark brown discolourations with marks of water, or in some cases, glue or paint. The courtain covering the entrance of the pulpit was torn and dusty.  Some of the metal plates of the windows and the outern stools were damaged, the surfaces were partly corroded, their coat peeled off. The pieces made of wire (bellholder stick, chandelier, hinges, pelmet) were all rusty.

The examinations (FTIR, EMA) before the beginning of the restauration revealed that the main pieces were made of pine wood and the carved and lathed decorations of lime wood. For the painting of the the side walls and the grey roofs, the paint they used contained barium sulfate, white lead, chalk and parget. The paint used for covering the red roof contained lead oxide. The adhesive of the coat of paint was mixed: it contained collagen, oil and resin. For sealing the maker used a collagen-based material. The papers were handmade, containing fibres of cotton, hemp and flax. The material of the courtain is canton crape. The iron pieces were galvanized or tinned.

The restauration needed the partial disassemblement of the model which was naturally  limited to the loosened sections. The cleaning of the painted and unpainted wood took place in several steps: firstly it was undusted, then dry-cleaned and finally cleaned with the foam of the surfacant’s solvent. The darkened, patchy coat was thinned with the 1:1 mixture of  Bouton Boudet solvent and ethanol. For the replacement of the missing wooden parts, adequate types of woods were used; they were glued with gelatine.

During the recollation of the model, the pieces misplaced at times of previous repairs were replaced correctly. For the peeling paint ichthyocolla was used. The supplementing and the retouch of the imperfections of paint was done with fresco paint mixed with plextol. After that  solvent of 10 percentage B67 Paraloid was used as sealing. The inside prints had to be removed first from their wooden base and after that they were cleaned in hot water. As for the monochrome images the dipping caused no problem, but the coloured pieces had to be protected before contacted with water. The foxed papers were whitened lightly with solvent of 2 percentage hydrogene peroxid, the neutralisation was done with the solvent of 10 percentage calcium hydroxide. This method was only applied for the monochrome images since the coloured papers are unable to tolerate it. For complementing the papers torn and coloured washi. It was glued with solvent of methyl cellulose. In the inside of the church some pieces of graph paper were found and it was supposed that these pieces belonged to the floor cover. After examining the object in UV light it turned out to be so. After that, it was possible to create the reconstruction of the floor cover from coloured acid-free paper in which the original pieces were also placed.

The torn silk curtain of the pulpit was unfolded and after that it was washed out in a tull net. After drying the loose silk was strengthened with kreplin properly coloured to support the original material.

For the renovation of the pearly cross, pearly plates were used, in which the motives were carved.

The metal parts were cleaned first mechanically and treated with mildew killer and tannin. The replacements for the missing stools and plates were made from iron covered with tin. After all of these, they were covered with toneless lacquer to protect their surface.

The restauration of the model needed a wide range of knowledge on the one hand, since the object consisted of different materials. On the other hand, the original solutions of the maker had to be taken attention.

The model was restaured as a diploma work for the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Department of Conservation, Specialization for  Wooden Furnitures in the Hungarian National Museum (Rezső Oláh, supervisor: Petronella Kovács).

Compiled by Petronella Kovács  from the thesis of Rezső Oláh.