Integrated study concerning at the conservation and restoration of a portable altar with symbolic representation of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Abstract

This paper presents a brief integrated study (both historic, artistic, iconographiciconological and technological - materials and production techniques) of a portable polychrome wooden altar depicting the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ. The study also includes mapping and characterisation of the state of conservation of the object and a brief description of the treatments undertaken to provide it with the necessary
physical or material stability, on the one hand, and on the other hand, to restore its formal and compositional (aesthetic and symbolic) values. The constituent materials have been studied and identified in order to date the artifact, understand and characterise its state of conservation and also to justify the
choice of the intervention methodology used. This study was conducted resorting to different methods of examination and analysis such as optical microscopy (OM) with multiple magnifications combined with other tests such as: stratigraphic sections; histological sections; identification and characterisation of vegetable fibres; microchemical tests or reagent analysis; identification and characterisation of metal
corrosion elements; UV fluorescence photography; X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Raman spectroscopy (μ-Raman). Anticipating the results of our integrated technical study, we were able to conclude that the materials and techniques identified match the time when the object was produced. However, other interventions have been detected which were carried out across history at undetermined times. This study was conducted by the Wood Conservation/Restoration Laboratory (Lab.CR-Madeiras) in the framework of the bachelor's and master's degrees in conservation and restoration offered by the School of Technology of the Polytechnic of Tomar (IPT).