AIPMA International Conference

An international conference is held in Cagliari, Sardinia, from 22 to 27 September XVI International Congress of AIPMA (Association Internationale pour la Peinture Murale Antique). https://www.peintureantique.org/aipma16-en

The International Association for Ancient Wall Painting (AIPMA) promotes scientific and technological research on ancient wall painting and fosters cooperation between researchers, professionals and institutions. It organises international meetings and publishes proceedings every three years. Currently, the association has members from about twenty countries.

At the conference, the conservators-restorers of the ZVKDS Restoration Centre presented the work on the project of conservation-restoration of the ancient ceiling paintings from the Museum Square in Celje and the extremely rare discovery that these wall and ceiling paintings were painted in the encaustic technique. For the first time, we have been able to prove the existence of ancient paintings in this technique on Slovenian soil. While researching the painting technique, we also developed the methodology of sample preparation, upgraded it and later started to use it regularly in other projects. We have also established links with the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology at the University of Ljubljana, where our research has been further developed with more specific methods.

In addition, as part of our master's thesis at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design at the University of Ljubljana, we also researched the technology of encaustic production and linked the theory to the research results. This is one of the pre-contemporary cases of its kind within the ZVKDS.

The presentation of the project at the AIPMA meeting received an overwhelmingly positive response. Participants were impressed by the quality of the workmanship of the mural, its level of preservation and its artistic value. They were particularly fascinated by the fact that, for the first time on Slovenian soil, we have proved the existence of ancient encaustic in a global context and have succeeded in producing a reconstruction of this ancient technique that corresponds to the original both in terms of material composition and visual appearance.

Link to lecture summaries:

https://www.peintureantique.org/_files/ugd/e23506_591e3c4c5f4541f3954ebc595b69c30a.pdf