Periods, techniques and visual vocabularies. The labels half-remembered from school, rebuilt through the works that earned them.
Nine public disputes, chosen for a named conservation reason: overcleaning, amateur work, reconstruction ethics or missing records
Restoration fights are arguments about what a treatment removed, added or failed to record. This list sets selection criteria first, then walks nine documented cases from the Sistine Chapel and the National Gallery to Borja, Angkor Wat and Tutankhamun’s mask, with dates and 2026 locations checked against institutional sources.
How carbon-14, pigment first-use dates and tree rings date a painting, and why those laboratory results still cannot name the artist
A date on a painting is a date on a material: flax in the canvas, oil in the binder, a growth ring in a panel, a pigment that did not exist before a given year. This guide covers radiocarbon including the bomb peak, pigment terminus post quem, dendrochronology and lead isotopes, then the failure modes that keep a calendar from proving authorship.
Linseed oil, aged varnish, dirt and unstable pigments each yellow or darken a picture, and cleaning reverses only some of those changes
Old pictures look brown for mixed reasons: soot, oxidised varnish, yellowed linseed oil, and pigments that have changed in the film. Conservators can lift dirt and later varnish in many cases. They cannot restore copper greens gone brown or lead white turned transparent. The chemistry, the history of noticing it, and the limits of treatment.
How infrared reflectography, IR photography, X-radiography and MA-XRF record underdrawings, paint structure and elemental maps
Carbon drawing absorbs infrared; lead white blocks X-rays; calcium and mercury light up on elemental maps. This guide sets infrared reflectography beside IR photography, X-radiography and MA-XRF: physics, a study protocol, the people who built the kit, and campaigns at the NGA, Rijksmuseum, Getty and Met.
Age cracks, drying cracks and impact webs: how craquelure forms in oil, tempera and ground, and how to tell it from craft crackle
Conservators read craquelure as a map of how paint, ground and varnish have shrunk, flexed or taken a blow. Age, drying and mechanical webs look different under raking light; Italian panels crack unlike Dutch canvases. Six museum pictures show the types. Craft crackle glaze is a different object.
Pigment anachronism, imaging and dating: laboratory methods that catch a false claim, and the limits that leave authorship unproved
A laboratory can date a pigment, a panel or a binder. It cannot, on its own, name the painter. This guide sets out the chemistry of anachronism, the order of a technical examination, and the known failure modes of dendrochronology and radiocarbon, with published cases from the National Gallery, the Getty and independent pigment studies.
A change of mind in paint: how pentimenti form, why oil films reveal them, and how to tell an artist's revision from later overpaint
Van Eyck shifted a hat brim. Rembrandt painted out helmet feathers. Manet uncrossed a barmaid's arms. Those traces are pentimenti: the painter's own revisions, distinct from later overpaint and from a second picture on a reused canvas. Museum studies in London, Madrid, Amsterdam and New York show how the term is used.
From examination to varnish: how conservators clean, fill and retouch easel paintings under the ethics of reversibility
Conservators restore paintings through examination, cleaning, filling, retouching and varnish, under codes that demand reversibility. This guide covers studio chemistry, the museum treatment sequence, how the profession formed, why old linings fail, and how private work is priced, without amateur solvent recipes.
Development, finance, ops, marketing and HR across museums, festivals and foundations: the work, pay caveats and routes in
Arts administration jobs sit in development, finance, operations, marketing and HR across museums, festivals, foundations and arts non-profits. Here: what the work looks like week to week, how the field formed, entry routes including Goldsmiths and Columbia programmes, pay bands with sources, and UK and US regional variation.
Art handler careers mapped across museums, galleries, auction houses and logistics firms: skills, pay and progression
Art handlers pack, install and move objects for museums, galleries, auction houses and specialist shippers. This career guide covers daily work, physical demands, pay bands in the US and UK, entry routes, and how handlers progress into preparator, registrar or crew-lead roles without turning into a DIY packing tutorial.
Capital, inventory, fair booths and private sales: how to build a dealing practice without salary myths or shortcuts
Building a dealing practice means raising working capital, managing consigned and owned stock, surviving fair selection, and meeting ethics and resale-right duties. This guide maps those steps for people who already know gallery floors and want to trade under their own name, with costs and risks stated plainly.
Front-of-house, sales support and the mid-level track inside dealer spaces: duties, pay ranges and how people get hired
A gallery assistant job is front-of-house and administration inside a commercial space that sells art. This guide maps the role ladder, day-to-day work, sourced salary bands in the UK and US, museum versus trade distinctions, and regional hiring patterns, without promising pay or teaching artists how to sell.
