Estudo e documentação de um conjunto de objetos técnicos e artísticos dos sécs. XIX e XX

: intervenção de conservação e restauro para a exposição "Aula de desenho"

Abstract

The internship in Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Porto, served as a preparatory moment for the exhibition “Aula de Desenho” that will happen in Edifício da Reitoria. Objects associated with artistic and technical teaching of the institutions that preceded the university, will be exposed to the public recreating the context of the educational activity in the XIX and XX centuries. The collection presents a wide range of materials and functions: plaster busts (copies of classical sculptures that were used as models for drawing classes), painting materials and several measuring and drawing instruments that served mainly studies of topography and engineering. The work developed was guided by the research and documentation, evaluation of states of conservation, choices of restoration treatments, their execution, and the defining of preventive conservation strategies. In these steps, it is intended to strive toward an understanding of materials, production methods, historical contexts, functions, and contributions to technical and artistic teaching. From this framing, emerges a valuing of the alterations and marks of the objects, indicative of their journey and interaction with the spatial and temporal environments they were in. The intention of preserving these elements contributes to an attitude of conservation focused on minimal intervention, highlighting the importance of preventive conservation. The collection presents multiple cases of objects with marks of use, vandalism and patinas, the interpretation of which, both in the academic context and by the museum, attributes importance to the alterations suffered by the materials as essential to their historical integrity, leading to a contemporary reflection on the practice of minimal intervention.

Date of Award	5 Apr 2024
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Joana Teixeira (Supervisor) & Marisa Monteiro (Co-Supervisor)