Conserving Stradanus

CONSERVING STRADANUS

Specialized conservation work led to a remarkable number of new discoveries in Cooper Hewitt’s Stradanus holdings. Over the span of several years, conservators from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum Conservation Institute (MCI), and the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) have conducted innovative technical research, imaging, and material studies and pursued conservation treatments that have facilitated new interpretations of Stradanus’s working methods.

Fig. 1 Conservator Becca Pollak viewing one of Cooper Hewitt’s Stradanus drawings through transmitted light.

Fig. 2 Conservator Becca Pollak and curator Julia Siemon viewing two Stradanus sheets previously cut apart together on a light sheet. The drawings feature designs for two different prints, Communion at Home from the series The Eucharist and Bird Hunt with Owls from the series Hunts of Wild Animals, Birds, and Fish.

Fig. 3 Paper Conservator Becca Pollak working on the mechanical removal of a lining (tertiary support) from a Stradanus drawing.

Fig. 4 Conservator Heather Hendry of Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts preparing to test the iron gall ink on a Stradanus sketch.

Fig. 5 Conservator Heather Hendry preparing to remove a lining (tertiary support) from a Stradanus drawing.

Fig. 6 Conservator Heather Hendry removing a lining (tertiary support) from a Stradanus sheet, revealing inscriptions on the verso.

Fig. 7 Curator Caitlin Condell (left) and conservator Heather Hendry (right) review drawings after removal of linings (secondary and tertiary supports).

Fig. 8 Conservator Heather Hendry viewing two treated sheets that were once cut from a full sheet, revealing a letter by Stradanus to his publisher Philips Galle.

Fig. 9 Imaging scientist E. Keats Webb investigating the use of infrared imaging to determine whether lined Stradanus drawings have black chalk drawings on the verso.

The Stradanus Project is made possible with support from Getty through The Paper Project initiative; and received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.