As an artist and history nerd, I love it when conservators talk about their thought process behind their work. It's pretty hard to watch and hear the process when the music is in the foreground.
A brilliant video of a high standard conservation. We hope to see the painting in the gallery very soon. I am so glad that you had a copy of the book of the Iranian Crown Jewels. I have been fortunate to see these on several occasions (recently too) and to see them in reality is amazing and wonderful. There is a globe that when you see it you cannot quite believe it. Thank you so much.
He was in love with fashion, glamour, luxury, and of course women. Ge had numerous countless kids from his dozens of wives and concubines. He loved to be seen thin and tall and also he lost the whole Caucasian Iranian terrortories of nowdays Armenia, Azarbaijan, Georgia, Daghistan, and parts of current southern border terrortories of Russian lands to Tzars
Fascinating to watch this marvelous painting being restored....you breathed new life into it.... Congratulations and thank you for sharing your expertise and dedication...❤
I love to hear the restorer's voice, and perhaps the sounds of her machinations. In fact, many of the V&A videos have an ASMR component. Why add music? It's unnecessary and distracting.
It's fascinating to see how art history, political history and conservation techniques all come together to revive this painting - congrats on a really well rounded treatment of the subject, and a painstaking, successful conservation.
It's really beautiful! Three years is a long time to spend on one project. I think for me that it would be a sort of bitter sweet experience to finish it. On one hand the pride and pleasure in what you've accomplished, but then a sort of hopefully slight "postpartum depression" to have it done after such an intimate journey with the piece. I really wish I had made a career of Art restoration. I think I would have been very good at it, and certainly enjoyed it, but it wasn't even on my radar as something to consider when I was in art school.
This was totally interesting but I couldn't bear to watch it because the music was so obtrusive. This isn't entertainment; this is a really interesting class. In a school setting, there wouldn't be music accompanying a great professor, right? Please consider letting us focus on the material, and learning something. Thank you 🌸
could just look at those eyes and know it's persian. half my family has these features. very original persian features. causasian. this is so amazing. no one really knows the persian history even though it was the biggest empire in history. thank you this was awesome.
Would have loved to see the surface wrinkles flattened out. I’m guessing they’re a result of the 2nd canvas being badly applied. Was the 2nd canvas not removed due to potential risk to the painting on removal? I’m a little disappointed there was no vacuum table because those are so cool to watch and I love the results. That painting is really big though so maybe it wasn’t possible with that size. The use of that paper to remove varnish and overpaint was super interesting. Was that also used to stabilize the paint? I was a bit confused at that part. The retouching was great. The missing pieces of crown really confused me. What happened there? at some points it almost looked like actual crystals of some kind were used on the painting? Did they fall off or something? Anyway despite my nitpicks the end result is 1000x better. Also I never hear about Iran’s history so I appreciate the background here, very cool to have context for this painting.
Qajar era Iran is a fascinating era which is often underrepresented in lieu of earlier periods. Very fine conservation work, the difference in clarity and vibrance is much more in line with the aesthetic sensibilities of Qajar Iran The tissue peeling technique is quite interesting - in metal conservation I sometimes use peelable hydrogels for similar purposes. Seems to have worked well for this application, too.
Thank God, I had the half mute option on my remote, and that seem to help really allow me to listen to this without wanting to rip my eardrums out from this crazy music😢
The vast majority of music is just a horrible noise to be avoided to me, it puts me on edge. So I tend to just mute things, but then I miss anything that’s said. The worst thing is constant music that’s louder than the narrator’s voice, so it’s not only slightly irritating it’s difficult to hear what they’re talking about.
Really nice. But why portrait wasnt relined? Separation of original canvas from existing relining is visible in form of really big bumps which distort the image.
This is fascinating. Question though: is there any debate amongst experts over whether this sort of retouching/"conservation" is erasing history? I'm seeing these really interesting past attempts at reconstruction and retouching and I have questions about why that was done, by whom, where, when - but with all that previous retouching work removed and redone, is there not a risk that we lose those chapters of the painting's history?
Thank you so much for your impressive video about a wonderful old Iranian artwork and also thanks to the professionals that with passion and patience worked on, however Fatali Shah was one of the worse shah(king) in our contemporary history of Iran.👍💯
It depends how it was relined, it can be impossible at times and it's usually good enough to offer some support from the back of the lining before fitting a new blackboard for protection and rigidity.
Not to detract from the amazing conservation, but my brain keeps saying, "The painter really used the pre-tech version of a beautify filter." when observing the very tiny nose on the over-painted version.
Amazing work! Just I cant see well, but are you sure you did the pin right? To me it seems like the ruby and diamond rows were switched. Maybe that should be retouched again?
I'm guessing that peeling off of the varnish layer along with some of the underlying pigment will be one of the "conservation" techniques which in the future will be found to be destructive. If the compound used is strong enough to dissolve the varnish, any residual will continue to react with whatever remains on the painting and will degrade it further over time.
Please forgive my adding further, but having looked at Persian art for many years I have not been able to figure in my mind what might be called the bridge between the style of the Safavid (e.g. Mu'in Mussavir and the miniatures in the Houghton Shahnameh). But I am fortunate to often have visited an extraordinary place, and this is the wonderfully preserved Vank Cathedral in Isfahan. The interior has the most extraordinary paintings in what may be described as Armenian or Icon in style. Perhaps this may be a possibility.
This is really neat, but why does a video from a world class museum not have competent captioning? Why do I have to puzzle through auto generated captions that can't get any of the names or specialized terms being used correct? Please remember that this is the only way some viewers can get the spoken information in the video.
They did nothing about the 'wrinkles' and ridges on the canvas. Substandard work; not a restoration, just a 'freshen up'. The distortions detract from the amazing painting.
Interesting seeing the work on such a large painting, and also the part about testing every pigments for resistance to the solvents, and not just a few areas. Maybe they left out some parts, but a few things I don't get. For smaller painting in tis condition usually the stretcher is removed, the old lining removed, and the original canvas flattened on a heat table, and then the painting relined. Did they not have the room needed for this? Not practical for such a large painting? Or maybe the past relining was not easily reversible? Also why the decision not to fill divots and chipping in the painting before retouching, and why was there no isolation layer before retouching? Anyway, it looks so much better now.
Let me guess, you watched a Baumgartner video and now you think you know more than one of the most experienced, highly trained museum staff in the world.
@@kaclama I'm asking a question, not saying what should have been done. My questions were to see if anyone knows why they made the choices they did, as they only showed what they did and not why they did it. And if you don't know the answer to my questions, as apparently you do not, you have nothing to offer and should shut up.
Not sure about this conservation. You lost all the definition of the nose. Looking at other portraits of this Shah from the period, the nose is always painted more defined. A small cursory Google search also shows that the "second nostril" is actually a mole/birth mark that is depicted relatively often on his face on that side. I could of course be wrong, so I apologise. But the nose could definitely have been better defined - it looks botched.
The nose became stranger after the retouching. Is almost to imagine they hidden the second nostril to follow an easter rule to not show a person in frontal pose. Maybe.
Oh yes, the music is overwhelming the dialogue AND VIDEO, which I hadn't thought possible.
Agree. Music is very distracting, especially if you're hearing impaired, as I am.
Love the fact that you can look at photos of the jewels 💎
High level work, there, by the conservators. It's fascinating how the restored original emerges.
As an artist and history nerd, I love it when conservators talk about their thought process behind their work.
It's pretty hard to watch and hear the process when the music is in the foreground.
Don’t mind the music, but it needs to be really put in the background. It is too loud.
Stunning portrait and love the new tissue method of cleaning. Thank you for sharing.
Fantastic to see, this is my husband's great grandfather ×4 , we live in Australia now but love to see the wonderful restoration work being done.
A brilliant video of a high standard conservation. We hope to see the painting in the gallery very soon. I am so glad that you had a copy of the book of the Iranian Crown Jewels. I have been fortunate to see these on several occasions (recently too) and to see them in reality is amazing and wonderful. There is a globe that when you see it you cannot quite believe it.
Thank you so much.
Love when museums spread awareness about our profession!! Great work
His skin looks so soft and luminous now, and those details on the robe...! Capital job, I hope Fath 'Ali Shah'd be pleased with it.
He was in love with fashion, glamour, luxury, and of course women. Ge had numerous countless kids from his dozens of wives and concubines. He loved to be seen thin and tall and also he lost the whole Caucasian Iranian terrortories of nowdays Armenia, Azarbaijan, Georgia, Daghistan, and parts of current southern border terrortories of Russian lands to Tzars
Stunning! I love these conservation videos!
Simply excellent conservation work! Merci for sharing!
The peeling of the layers is so neat. It’s like the peeling of skin from a sunburn.
so 🤤 satisfying 🤤
Fascinating to watch this marvelous painting being restored....you breathed new life into it.... Congratulations and thank you for sharing your expertise and dedication...❤
Thrilling, she is an artist
Laura's skill is something else
Amazing work! I would love to see longform videos about restoration and conservation❤
Stunning but I was so curious to see a closeup of the reconstructed jewel headpiece.
Right?!? But then again, how would they get us into the museum?!?
Thrilling to see it at all but your work makes it all the more delightful.
Thank you this was very interesting.🤔
Learning how you are able to see what
was done in the past. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🌺
Thank you for sharing this excellent restoration. I really like the impact to the beard and robe!
I love to hear the restorer's voice, and perhaps the sounds of her machinations. In fact, many of the V&A videos have an ASMR component. Why add music? It's unnecessary and distracting.
Wow what a wonderfully satisfying and enriching profession. The art looks incredible.
The background music makes this nearly unwatchable. It’s very… Channel4, if that makes sense?
It’s not ASMR for your enjoyment. It’s entertainment.
That really is a transformation. And such an interesting historical and technical discussion. Appreciated very much.
Fantastic!
Lovely work. The painting came to light!
Show the full length, before and after, for better satisfaction... really beautiful... what a man!
What painstaking and beautiful work. well done!
This was SO interesting! Thank you Ms. Ledwina for showing us your work.
It's fascinating to see how art history, political history and conservation techniques all come together to revive this painting - congrats on a really well rounded treatment of the subject, and a painstaking, successful conservation.
Thanks for the video, never knew what the behind the scenes process of restoration looked like😄
This is really interesting. I like this video a lot.
The painting is fantastic.
Thank you, Laura and V&A! Fantastic work and video, as always.
Fabulous! Thanks very much for the upload.
It's really beautiful! Three years is a long time to spend on one project. I think for me that it would be a sort of bitter sweet experience to finish it. On one hand the pride and pleasure in what you've accomplished, but then a sort of hopefully slight "postpartum depression" to have it done after such an intimate journey with the piece. I really wish I had made a career of Art restoration. I think I would have been very good at it, and certainly enjoyed it, but it wasn't even on my radar as something to consider when I was in art school.
So beautiful and great talent
It is a beautiful painting again!
This was totally interesting but I couldn't bear to watch it because the music was so obtrusive. This isn't entertainment; this is a really interesting class. In a school setting, there wouldn't be music accompanying a great professor, right? Please consider letting us focus on the material, and learning something. Thank you 🌸
What’s with this music choice?! It’s not a suspense film 🤔
could just look at those eyes and know it's persian. half my family has these features. very original persian features. causasian. this is so amazing. no one really knows the persian history even though it was the biggest empire in history. thank you this was awesome.
Fabulous job! The painting came up beautifully. I didn't even notice the music so that wasn't a factor for me.
Such a privilege to work on such a piece.
Wow it looks so beautiful after retouching
Would have loved to see the surface wrinkles flattened out. I’m guessing they’re a result of the 2nd canvas being badly applied. Was the 2nd canvas not removed due to potential risk to the painting on removal? I’m a little disappointed there was no vacuum table because those are so cool to watch and I love the results. That painting is really big though so maybe it wasn’t possible with that size.
The use of that paper to remove varnish and overpaint was super interesting. Was that also used to stabilize the paint? I was a bit confused at that part.
The retouching was great. The missing pieces of crown really confused me. What happened there? at some points it almost looked like actual crystals of some kind were used on the painting? Did they fall off or something?
Anyway despite my nitpicks the end result is 1000x better. Also I never hear about Iran’s history so I appreciate the background here, very cool to have context for this painting.
I would have LOVED to see all the procedures in much more detail. maybe with this wonderful woman narrating?
that was an amazing way to clean it. Baumgartner would be proud.
Not so sure he would have gone about it in the same way.
Qajar era Iran is a fascinating era which is often underrepresented in lieu of earlier periods. Very fine conservation work, the difference in clarity and vibrance is much more in line with the aesthetic sensibilities of Qajar Iran
The tissue peeling technique is quite interesting - in metal conservation I sometimes use peelable hydrogels for similar purposes. Seems to have worked well for this application, too.
I would really love to see content in this. as an artist, conservation fascinates me
Thank God, I had the half mute option on my remote, and that seem to help really allow me to listen to this without wanting to rip my eardrums out from this crazy music😢
fabulous work.
Superb work!
Absolutely fascinating! Hopefully there'll be more conservation focused videos to watch in the future.
Why did you have to pick such stressful music? Was the media producer in a hurry?
The music is annoying....love the commentary
It’s not ASMR for your enjoyment. It’s entertainment.
I enjoy this! Great work! Great video. I don’t mind the music. I know it’s entertainment.
What a fantastic video
Beautyful! Great job. 😊
I’d love to see a video about the clothes in the V&A that inspired Beatrix Potter’s story: The Tailor of Gloucester!!!
love the videos but think the music makes them a little less enjoyable to watch
Music of the period would make more sense.
The vast majority of music is just a horrible noise to be avoided to me, it puts me on edge. So I tend to just mute things, but then I miss anything that’s said. The worst thing is constant music that’s louder than the narrator’s voice, so it’s not only slightly irritating it’s difficult to hear what they’re talking about.
I don’t think your opinion is valid. This is entertainment, albeit highbrow; the music adds to the atmosphere of the film. It is a joy to listen to.
I think anything a bit less frenetic would be an improvement!
I like the music
Really nice. But why portrait wasnt relined? Separation of original canvas from existing relining is visible in form of really big bumps which distort the image.
Lovely video but would be better without the music.
It’s not ASMR for your enjoyment. It’s entertainment.
Great work.
Please stay true to your format. I love it's composition.
This is fascinating. Question though: is there any debate amongst experts over whether this sort of retouching/"conservation" is erasing history? I'm seeing these really interesting past attempts at reconstruction and retouching and I have questions about why that was done, by whom, where, when - but with all that previous retouching work removed and redone, is there not a risk that we lose those chapters of the painting's history?
Thank you. Great to see it being restored and preserved. How has this come to be part of the V&A collection?
Well done!
Thank you so much for your impressive video about a wonderful old Iranian artwork and also thanks to the professionals that with passion and patience worked on, however Fatali Shah was one of the worse shah(king) in our contemporary history of Iran.👍💯
I sort of figured he was awful from his requirement of being painted in "eternal youth"
Why the tense spy music? Would be far better without it-such great video doesn’t need it!
it was too frenetic and too loud. i'd love to see this video stretched out over 30 min with more appropriate music or even just asmr
@@HomeFromFarAway Right On👏
Cool! Superbe vidéo! Stéph.
I agree about the music. Please don’t!
It’s not ASMR for your enjoyment. It’s entertainment.
i would've loved for the conservator to explain why they're not addressing the surface issues
I find it strange that the V&A didn't remove the canvas from its support during the reconsolidation and repair work; I wonder why.
It depends how it was relined, it can be impossible at times and it's usually good enough to offer some support from the back of the lining before fitting a new blackboard for protection and rigidity.
it probably wasn't necessary or helpful to this piece to do so. good conservators are..conservative with their treatments
3 years, woah! you did the damn thing.
music is too loud
It’s not ASMR for your enjoyment. It’s entertainment.
I do find the music distracting and not needed. I would just like to hear the conservators talk
It’s poorly mixed; also I find the vocal recordings very muddy on many of these. Annoying bc I love them.
The left side shows the portrait has surely been cut somewhere in its lifetime. It's frame has been also deteriorated
Would love it if Baumgardner Restoration would do a comment series on these kinds of videos. 😊
Why? The V&A staff and Baumgartner are all professional, highly trained restorers. There's nothing controversial about professionals doing their job.
Not to detract from the amazing conservation, but my brain keeps saying, "The painter really used the pre-tech version of a beautify filter." when observing the very tiny nose on the over-painted version.
incredible
man, the patience
Anyone else think he look like Nandor the Relentless? lol
oh god what have I done ruclips.net/video/aoyKxSYCzRA/видео.htmlsi=TQRSvQkp6cT6yZPw
Amazing work! Just I cant see well, but are you sure you did the pin right? To me it seems like the ruby and diamond rows were switched. Maybe that should be retouched again?
I'm guessing that peeling off of the varnish layer along with some of the underlying pigment will be one of the "conservation" techniques which in the future will be found to be destructive. If the compound used is strong enough to dissolve the varnish, any residual will continue to react with whatever remains on the painting and will degrade it further over time.
Nandor, is that you!?
ooo creepy paper
Please forgive my adding further, but having looked at Persian art for many years I have not been able to figure in my mind what might be called the bridge between the style of the Safavid (e.g. Mu'in Mussavir and the miniatures in the Houghton Shahnameh). But I am fortunate to often have visited an extraordinary place, and this is the wonderfully preserved Vank Cathedral in Isfahan. The interior has the most extraordinary paintings in what may be described as Armenian or Icon in style. Perhaps this may be a possibility.
This is really neat, but why does a video from a world class museum not have competent captioning? Why do I have to puzzle through auto generated captions that can't get any of the names or specialized terms being used correct? Please remember that this is the only way some viewers can get the spoken information in the video.
What is the piece of music? I loved it!
Part of the charm of the image is showing it’s age. She took a few hundred years off this picture, destroying the patina of time.😢
They did nothing about the 'wrinkles' and ridges on the canvas. Substandard work; not a restoration, just a 'freshen up'. The distortions detract from the amazing painting.
I always wanted to be an art conservator
6:36 very true
I wonder how Julian Baumgartner would have approached this restoration.
I didn’t even notice the music. Too caught up in the color.
Interesting seeing the work on such a large painting, and also the part about testing every pigments for resistance to the solvents, and not just a few areas. Maybe they left out some parts, but a few things I don't get. For smaller painting in tis condition usually the stretcher is removed, the old lining removed, and the original canvas flattened on a heat table, and then the painting relined. Did they not have the room needed for this? Not practical for such a large painting? Or maybe the past relining was not easily reversible? Also why the decision not to fill divots and chipping in the painting before retouching, and why was there no isolation layer before retouching? Anyway, it looks so much better now.
Let me guess, you watched a Baumgartner video and now you think you know more than one of the most experienced, highly trained museum staff in the world.
@@kaclama I'm asking a question, not saying what should have been done. My questions were to see if anyone knows why they made the choices they did, as they only showed what they did and not why they did it. And if you don't know the answer to my questions, as apparently you do not, you have nothing to offer and should shut up.
WOW
Wow
So interesting! Such skill, fascinating. Lose the music
The music is incredibly annoying/distracting.
Surely the V&A will take dutely note of your very important opinion...
@@isamukim1693 how many comments do you count from multiple people complaining. get off your high horse
@@HomeFromFarAway It’s not ASMR for your enjoyment. It’s entertainment.
@@futuristica1710 the music is annoying. AND your statement contradicts itself
Not sure about this conservation. You lost all the definition of the nose. Looking at other portraits of this Shah from the period, the nose is always painted more defined. A small cursory Google search also shows that the "second nostril" is actually a mole/birth mark that is depicted relatively often on his face on that side. I could of course be wrong, so I apologise. But the nose could definitely have been better defined - it looks botched.
The nose became stranger after the retouching.
Is almost to imagine they hidden the second nostril to follow an easter rule to not show a person in frontal pose.
Maybe.
Para mim os retoques devias ser feitos depois de uma camada de verniz para futuros restauros