Week 6-7
Wow, it’s been a while since my last post! Week 6 was a short week due to the Fourth of July holiday, but lots of good things still happened at the museum. While my main focus has been on completing the data dictionary project, I was able to take a break from it briefly when a scholar from Slovenia visited us to see a Parodi bust from the 17th century. If I can recall correctly, the scholar specialized in Italian sculptures and needed to see the Parodi bust in person to better understand the technique in its creation. Pictured below is the scholar with our conservator and the director of the museum discussing the previous restoration work that may have happened to the bust prior to the Chrysler’s accessioning.
After the scholar was done viewing the bust, my supervisor Ali and I took him to see the rest of our sculptures on view (specifically the Bernini sculpture), which was nice because the museum was closed to the public that day and the scholar was able to see the galleries in a more intimate setting. As expected, the scholar was very knowledgeable about Italian sculptures and provided us with a lot of background information as we were walking through the galleries. Before he left we also showed him the storage area where we keep the sculptures that are currently not on view, which he appreciated. While this experience may see simple, I actually enjoyed seeing how a registrar hosts a visiting scholar. From a registrar perspective, I think it’s wonderful that we are able to share our collection and the knowledge attached to it to the academic community because the findings that come out of the research will enhance our understanding of the object, which will also be shared publicly. And if there’s one thing to take away from this blog, it’s the importance of providing accessibility to the public!
Another fun experience I had during Week 6 was getting training on condition reporting from our conservator, Mark Lewis. From my previous posts, you’ve seen my first experiences in observing and then actually doing condition reports for works on paper and photographs. Mark Lewis specializes in conserving paintings, so this was an incredible opportunity to learn from an expert! During my lesson, Mark showed me that there are three separate things to report on when assessing the condition of a painting: the frame, the support (i.e. canvas), and the painting itself. I learned what to look for, potential causes of damages, and how to write a report on my findings. It was a very informative session and I’m glad I was able to learn about condition reporting with a real painting that had recently been restored. Below is the painting we used for the lesson and a printed photo copy of the image used to map specific areas of concern for a condition report.
Finally, this past week (Week 7) has been all about the data dictionary. A meeting with the registration department was set up so that I could update the staff on the progress of my project and clarify any questions I had in regards to the standardization of particular fields within the database. So far, I have just under 230 fields in the data dictionary, and even though we didn’t review each field, the meeting still took two hours! It was a long but productive meeting discussing how the department wanted to standardize certain elements within the database. I then edited the data dictionary according to the decisions made in the meeting and will continue to work on completing the project for the remainder of the internship!
I can’t believe I have two weeks left! Time has flown by!
