Conservation and restoration of some icons from the collection of church objects of Agapia Monastery, Neamţ, Romania

Agapia Monastery – the remarkable Moldavian monastery painted by Nicolae Grigorescu – has a precious heritage of icons, books and documents, liturgical textiles, goldsmithing. Among these, the main place is occupied by the icons painted in the XV-XIX centuries, either in post-Byzantine style, in tempera technique, or in realistic style, in oil technique. Some icons from the XVIII-XIX centuries have been preserved and restored in the Icon Restoration laboratory of the Faculty of Theology in Iaşi. In time, the icons kept in the storage of the Monastery Museum have suffered of degradation caused both by the deficient author’s technique and by the exogenous, biotic and abiotic factors. The wooden supports of some icons were severely degraded by the attack of xylophagous insects, being affected both the mechanical resistance and the appearance of the wood. The numerous galleries immediately below the pictorial layer determined its deformation. The pictorial layer of some icons was degraded mainly due to the errors of the painters’ work technique: very thin and fragile preparation layer or excessive binder, which led to the formation of accentuated early cracks. The appearance of the icons was affected either by the chromatic alteration of the protective varnish, or by the deposits of dust and soot in the atmosphere. The interventions for the conservation of the icons consisted in biociding the painting support and in consolidating the pictorial layer detached from the wooden support. The restoration of the icons aimed at removing the dirt deposits from the painting by physico-chemical means, filling the gaps in the icons and their chromatic integration, with easily reversible materials. After conservation and restoration, the icons returned to the Agapia Monastery for use.