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One of the Semitic Museum's most ambitious conservation projects this year is taking place in the attic, a space that was recently transformed into a combination storage and workshop area for some of the Museum's earliest acquisitions. These objects include plaster casts of Assyrian reliefs from the Northwest Palace of King Assurnasirpal II in the city of Nimrud, also known as Kalhu. This city lay within the heartland of the Assyrian empire in what is now Iraq, and many of its artistic glories are now split among major museums in the United States and Europe.
The copies bought in the early 1900’s by the Semitic Museum include a powerful scene demonstrating the symbolic strength and righteousness of the king, who is attended by servants and divine winged sages. These casts are in poor condition today, since moisture in the air causes plaster to crumble over time, and these objects have not undergone conservation treatment for over a century. At this point, they can be stabilized, but it would be very difficult to display them responsibly. In order to ensure visitors of the Semitic Museum can enjoy these scenes in the future, the plaster reliefs must be carefully replicated with a more stable casting material less subject to humidity fluctuations.
As the first step in this process, student interns and volunteers clean the plaster casts under the supervision of Adam Aja, Assistant Curator of Collections. Next, four layers of silicone are carefully painted over each cast, building a new mold like a second skin over the object. This step may take several days of work, as each layer must dry for several hours before the next is applied. When the mold is removed from the plaster, a new cast can be poured into it. Unlike the original casts, these new copies are made of Feather Lite casting resin, a much lighter and more stable material than plaster.
The process of creating the molds and re-creating each cast is exacting work, as the team must balance caution and precision against the time limits imposed by the materials. The Feather Lite resin must be poured within eight minutes of being mixed, so there is very little room for error. The conservation team has also noticed that the curing process involves an exothermic chemical reaction -- standing over a poured cast feels like standing over a pot of boiling water.
That said, working with these objects can be a highly personal experience, and it is hard not to think about our creative processes compared with those that went into creating the original reliefs. The intensity of this connection deepens with our increasing familiarity with the objects, as there are certain details that can only be seen at a distance of about one inch, such as the stitching on the figures' garments, the feathers on their wings, and stray chisel marks. We have all gotten to know these objects very well over the past month, and are excited to share them with the community.
As the project progresses, it is becoming clear that the Museum will be able to demonstrate the grandeur of imperial Neo-Assyrian art to the public very soon, and that the techniques practiced in the attic have applications for other museums with similar collections. We expect to install the new casts inside the main entrance to the building in Fall 2012, where they will give each visitor a royal welcome for years to come. This work could not have been accomplished without the tireless efforts of our volunteers and student workers.
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