Medieval Painting on Parchment: Technique, Preservation and Restoration

Different materials and sometimes opposite methods of Byzantine and Western miniaturists provoke different kinds of deterioration in the paint layer. Analyzes the mechanisms of this destruction and indicates the necessary conditions for treatment. Explains the inefficiency and sometimes impossibility of using natural materials for the treatment of paintings on parchment. The Moscow Institute for Restoration and the newly organized department for conservation of manuscripts in the Grabar Conservation Center have had good experience with synthetic materials. -- AATA