Arresting the decay.of pictures, and repairing, or, as it is styled, restoring them, after they have suffered from age or bad usage are matters which engage much attention. There can be no doubt that many paintings of vast importance have been saved by the care and skill of those who have earnestly devoted themselves to that kind of work; but picture-cleaning is now a trade followed in numerous instances by ignorant pretenders and quacks, who hold out that they possess sonic means by which they can freshen a picture, and restore it to the state it was in when originally executed. Generally speak ing, the great extent to which this business is carried on is owing to the credulity of those who dabble in collecting old pictures, one great incentive to which being the hope of picking up, or discovering, some picture of great value concealed under the dirt and, discoloration acquired in a long course of years; but, nevertheless, there can be no doubt that many proprietors of works of art who collect from far higher motives are rema•k ably prone to call in the pieture-cleaner when his services are anything but necessary or beneficial. The late sir Edwin Laudseer, ILA., when examined by the select committee of the house of commons appointed to inquire into allegations of damage by cleaning, sustained by the pictures in the National gallery in London (report and evidence ordered to be printed, 1858), stated in the following terms, his idea of this rage for picture cleaning. or rather picture-destroying: "The first thing, whenever a picture is sold, I think, is, that it goes to a picture-restorer, or a picture-liner, or a pieture-cleaner, no matter what Its condition is. It is exactly the same thing as when yon buy a horse; your groom says he will be all right when he has a dose of physic through him, whether lie wants it or not." The mania for picture-cleaning is not confined to this country; it is extensively carried on with even more ruinous consequences abroad, particularly in Italy, where there is a large traffic in old, and few commissions for modern works. and
where in many of the public galleries one or more picture-cleaners, for whom work must be found, are attached as permanent officers.
The process•of picture-cleaning, or the removal of the old varnishes or other incrusta tions by which a painting may he obscured, is effected either by mechanical or ehemh.al means. The first method is accomplished when the varnish on the surface is mastic, by rubbing with the fingers the surface of varnish when in a dry state, by which action it :s brought off in a fine white powder; or by scraping or erasing the surface with sharp steel instruments when the of the picture is tolerably smooth. The first of these processes is the best that can be employed; but when the surface is • rough or unequal, the prominent portions are apt to be over-rubbed; erasing or scraping is often practiced in Italy, but rarely in this country. The chemical means consist in the application of solvents, chiefly alkali, or alcohol, to dissolve the old varnish. The danger here is, that the action of these solvents is not always stopped with sufficient promptness and dex terity, and part of the surface of the picture is taken off; consequently it is by this latter process that most destruction is causea. For the various methods employed in picture cleaning, the report and minutes of evidence, already referred to, may be consulted, and the Guide Theorique et Pratione de l' Amateur de Tableaux, par Theodore Lejenne (Paris, 1864), in which are stated all the most approved methods of cleaning and restoring pictures.
Works on painting and painters: Vasari (Florence, 1568); Borghini (Florence, 1584); Rodolphi (Venice, 1648); Z:tnetti (Venice, 1771); Lanz' (1792), Bolm's edition of Rescue's translation; Von Ritinuhr (Berlin, 1827); Kugler's Hand-Look of Painting, Italian Schools (ed. by Eastlake, 1855), German, Fiendsh, and Dutch Schools (1846); Spanish and French. Schools (1848); Ilistory of Painting in Italy, by Crowe and Cavaleaselle (1876); hand buok for Young Painters; by C. R. Leslie, ILA. (1855); Ruskin's Modern Painters (1843-60).