The conservation of a work of art does not confine
to its sole protection against the further destruction.
As its equally important objective is to be considered
the restoring of the lost artistic values, or, as is the
case with conservation of an usable object, the recovering
of its function. However, while carrying out
the conservating treatments an unique character and
individual features of an original work should not
bo lost, for it is the restorer’s task to give the new
birth to it in its original form and to safeguard it at
the same time making the choice of the most appropriate
method. And it is exactly at that point that he
faces a decision to what extent he can intervene. The
work of art suffered natural ageing and it happens
sometimes that in the course of its varying fortunes
it changed its appearance or even its character. Thus,
every outlining of programme of conservation must
be supported by a many-sided investigating of the
object itse lf and by the knowledge of period of its
cration as well. An object subjected to conservation
may always cause controversial assessments as to the
way in which some its elements have been handled
or to solutions applied by the restorer. This follows
from the nature alone of the restorer’s work on an
ancient object at wchich, although the processes are
subdued to certain rules, an extra-material element
is to be found that is being nearly newly created by
the restorer. The more the restorer’s action is subdued
to that leading function aimed at safeguarding
of the work of art and conforms the character of an
object the more possible it is to achieve both artistic
and style unity of the object restored.
The celestial atlas of John Hevelius „Firmamentum
Sobiescianum sive Uranographia...” forms the third
part of work of that famous astronomer titled „Prodromus
astronomiae cum Catalogo fixarum et Firmamentum
Sobiescianum...”. Published already after
Hev e lius’s death in 1690 thanks to endeavours made
by his widow Elizabeth née Koopman it was printed
in the printing shop of Jan Zacharias Stolle in Gdańsk
and is devoted to the King of Poland John III Sobieski
who for many years was the astronomer’s
patron. The atlas contains 80 leaves of which the
number 58 are the copper plates representing the maps
of various constellations, scenes of panegyrical character
and the portrait of Hevelius. The copper plates
were prepared in the years 1686—1690 and with an
exception of the astronomer’s portrait which was made
by Lombert Visscher all they are the works of Carl
de la Haye who used the drawings of Andreas Stech.
The remaining leaves are bearing the Latin (20) and
German texts (2) praising the astronomer’s merits for
his birthplace — the town of Gdańsk.
The celestial atlas under discussion was partly defective
as it was deprived of its original binding that
was replaced by a provisional file cover.
Leaves „bearing the copper plates and those bearing
the text were seriously damaged, rotten, covered
with brownish-coloured spots and exhibited both
numerous losses of paper support and of image portions.
The poorly executed pastings have grown to a
cause of further damages. Moreover, the separate
leaves of atlas varied as to their sizes, these bearing
the texts being only half as wide as those covered
with images which has additionally grown to a cause
of folding and damaging of paper material.
While preparing the programme of restoration, in
addition to problems of disinfection, cleaning or reinforcing
of paper a number of controversial problem
have arisen as to inanners in which the materials,
techniques and structural solutions should be applied.
To the number of the above problems are to be
added also those connected with filling the losses of
paper and images, and the determining of the size of
atlas. Upon an appropriate solution was greatly
depending the final shape of the object under discussion.
It is well known that the supplementation of paper
losses, quite irrespectively of method applied, should
exhibit some esthetical values. A supplementation
integrated with the object, forming a harmonious
entity, makes it possible to focus the v iw e r ’s attention
on artistic side of the exhibited work of art.
However, the manner in which supplementation is
being done is to a great extent conditioned by the
kind of the object, its state of preservation and the
localization of the loss.
The leaves bearing the copper plates were supplemented
at their cut edges and at the spine (i.e. structural)
part with the hand-made paper; with the same kind
of paper were also supplemented the tex t leaves in
their margins outside the matter.
In view of a considerable weakening of paper support
in central portions of the copper plate images
the losses situated within these fields were filled
with the unsized China paper the twro or three layers
of which, depending upon the thickness of support,
were glued one on another. Losses in tex t leaves
situated within the matter were supplemented with
the Japanese tissue paper. As the copper plate images
exhibit considerable damages an ideal solution would
consist in placing of the separate restored plates of celestial atlas in the passe partout mountings protecting
them against mechanical damages. It has been
resigned of such a solution as the objective of restoration
consisted in bringing the whole set of maps back
to their original state and, in addition, together with
texts they constitute an integral entity. Thus, the
only treatment applied consisted in an additional
reinforcing of each leaf of atlas through its lining
(glueing on) with the Japanese tissue paper layer.
Supplementation of losses in image forms one of
the final measures within the restoration process that
restores to a work of art its lost artistic values.
The manner in which the losses in image are to be
supplemented is suggested by the work itself, its
character and the function it has to perform.
It happens sometimes that in the object restored
the losses in image are being left not supplemented.
It is possible when the image composition does not
dominate over its background and the supplemented
portion remains in harmony with the general colour
tone of the object. The damaged fragments of
a drawing can be supplemented by partial restoration
as, for instance, the supplementation of the damaged
shape. Sometimes it is sufficient to fill the framing,
an ornamental border of an illustration to properly
enclose the composition with its other damaged places
left without any treatment.
Entirely different is the problem consisting in filling
of minor losses scattered throughout the whole area
of an object which, for example, may be required in
illustrations having the nature of a painting — as are
the aquatints and mezzotints — where the damaged
composition is predominated by losses.
In celestial atlas in question two kinds of damages
to image were found and thus two different
manners of their supplementation had to be adopted.
The minor losses, in many cases disfiguring the image,
were fully supplemented. Those covering bigger
fragments of image in constellation maps were
supplemented schematically through the application of
thin lines linking the fragments preserved and
through an imperceptible . re-arranging of compositions.
The absence of original binding and thev arying sizes of
the separate leaves could suggest that the original format
of atlas was quite different, for instance, half that
actual, with the bigger leaves folded. However,
taking into account an appropriate protection of the
restored leaves and also the esthetical reasons there
was le ft the size of atlas with its plates unfolded. Only
one additional element has been introduced in back
cover, i.e. its negligible thickening which allowed to
place the leaves of varying widths on the same plane
and to prevent the deformation of paper. The restoration
described above could, of course, be carried out
in another way, too. However, the above procedure
was adopted, for it allowed to preserve all values
of object and its essential features at the same time
enabling to achieve the desirable result, i.e. an
esthetical shape of the restored work of art.
The celestial atlas of J. Hevelius was subjected to
restoration »in the atelier of restoration of graphic
art and old books, Warsaw Branch of The Ateliers
for Conservation of Cultural Property within the
period from March 1970 to September 1971. The
restoration was carried out by T. Tuszewski, Ass.
Prof., who restored the text leaves and Z. Pieniążek,
M.A., who restored the copper plates and made the
binding. In 1972 an annual prize “For the distinguished
achievements in conservation” was awarded
to those employed at the above restoration.