A look at Ludwig Burchard’s print collection
An Italian girl in Antwerp
In July and August 2016, with support from the EU’s Erasmus+ Programme, I was given the opportunity to work with the Ludwig Burchard Collection at the Rubenianum and further my skills in paper conservation.
I started my artistic training at the School of Art in Imperia (Italy) and continued in Milan, studying Art Conservation and Restoration at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, majoring in ‘Library and Archive Material, Manufacture of Paper and Parchment, Photographic Material, Film and Digital Objects’. In 2013, I earned my Bachelor’s degree after three years of study and having completed my thesis on the restoration of photographic material. Because I was eager to continue my training, I subsequently enrolled in the five-year Master’s programme ‘Camillo Boito’ at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, also with a specialization on paper. I am currently writing my thesis to finally receive the title of restorer.
My decision to undertake the internship at the Rubenianum was driven by my personal desire to expand my knowledge of art, and graphic arts in particular. It has been a pleasure to study, observe and handle those objects that, before coming into my care had been treasured objects of study for previous owners such as Ludwig Burchard, and to show the hard work, dedication, technical skills and passion of the artists who created them.
Preserving Burchard’s prints and drawings at the Rubenianum
My internship at the Rubenianum focused on preserving the prints and drawings collection. My main job consisted of identifying the technique used to create each object, evaluating the current condition and filling in a condition report for each print and drawing. Burchard considered many of these objects to be documents rather than artworks, and kept the sheets together with his artwork documentation. Over the past several decades, the Rubenianum has isolated many prints and drawings, though a thorough search through the entire documentary collection is still necessary. I evaluated all the objects that were already taken out of the photo collection and stored separately. This group of over 900 objects consists mainly of prints mounted on paper, as well as 26 drawings and an album with 25 bound prints. Most of these were collected by Burchard in the first decades of the twentieth century.
For each object I indicated the state of degradation, making it easier for the Rubenianum to evaluate further conservation treatment. Moreover, I created a high-resolution image of each object either by using a scanner or a camera, the latter especially for large objects and drawings since the medium of chalk is too delicate to place under a glass plate. Not only did I make visual documents of the prints and drawings, but also of the paper mountings. Many of these mounts are annotated by Burchard and therefore worth documenting. Yet despite the historic value of these mounts, most of them are not adequate for proper conservation because they have been attached to the prints with acidic glues or scotch tape. As a consequence, in some cases the adhesive residue has degraded the prints by creating stains. Some prints carry interesting information such as annotations and ink stamps on their versos, so digital documentation of these was then made accordingly. Finally, while evaluating the condition of each object, I also recorded what future treatment and conservation I assumed necessary.
A number of different print types and drawing techniques are represented in Burchard’s graphic collection, including burin engraving (fig. 1), etching (fig. 2), and a combination of both (fig. 3), as well as lithography, woodcut engraving, pen and ink and chalk on paper. The objects date from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Due to Burchard’s professional interests, the larger part of the collection consists of reproductive prints after Rubens and other Flemish painters. Most of those prints are by local engravers such as Aegidius Sadeler and Cornelis Schut. However, to my surprise, some of the prints were made by important Italian engravers, including Raffaello Morghen and Giuseppe Longhi, whom I greatly admire. Morghen, who is the subject of my Master’s thesis, was a well-known nineteenth-century engraver who copied several old masters in print, including Rubens.
The importance of visual analysis
Sight is a fundamental instrument for people who study art. During my years at the Academy, I have learned how to use visual observation when studying art or practicing some of the main graphic techniques in order to understand the work of engravers. Sight and visual analysis are the primary instruments at our disposal for becoming familiar with an artwork, and indispensable tools for the restorer when identifying print techniques or evaluating the condition of the object. The identification of print techniques, in fact, was an important and very interesting part of my internship. I carefully observed details such as the line that creates the image, the ink mark, the presence or absence of a plate mark and so on. Those elements, which are often considered secondary to the artistic quality of an artwork, actually define a large part of the characteristics of the object. For avid print collectors or anyone considering collecting prints, I recommend Bamber Gascoigne’s ‘How to identify prints’ (2014), because having a basic knowledge of printing techniques makes one look at prints with new eyes.
Fig. 1: engraving by Hendrick Goltzius after Jan van der Straet (Giovanni Stradano), published by Philips Galle. (inv.no. P.2596)
Fig. 2: Etching by Lucas van Uden after Peter Paul Rubens, published by Frans van den Wijngaerde. (Inv.no. P.2412)
Fig. 3: Print by Cornelis Visscher after Anthony van Dyck, published by E. Cooper.(Inv.no. P.2119).
Literature: Hollstein, VI, naar van Dijck, blz. 127, nr. 756; Mauquoy-Hendrickx, nr. 194