Reclaimed treasures

Tag : surface dust remover

THE restoration of ancient murals at Lepakshi near Anantapur inAndhra Pradesh, the Sri Krishnaswamy temple at Neyyatinkara inKerala, and the Naalaknadu palace at Kodagu in Karnataka areinstances of government and private initiatives in artconservation. While the murals of Lepakshi were chemically cleanedby the Archaeological Survey of India (Hyderabad Circle), this workwas done at Neyyatinkara and Kodagu by the Indian National Trustfor Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).
The temple at Lepakshi teems with murals on the walls and ceilingsof its mandapa s. Most of them portray Siva in his various forms. The muha mandapa had a rich set of paintings on its ceiling. However, a large partof these have been lost owing to the seepage of water from theroof, says Dr.V.S. Raghavendra Rao, Deputy SuperintendingArchaeological Chemist, ASI, Hyderabad. But the colours continue tobe distinctive. The pigments of some of the paintings on the wallsand the ceiling of the ardha mandapa were charred owing to the performance of yagna s there. Further, there was a thick deposit of bat excreta on themurals at the Somawara mandapa and a huge painting of Veerabhadra was covered with soot.
Since it was important to document the paintings before conservingthem, the ASI photographed the murals. Subsequently its chemistsremoved the soot by using a mixture of chemicals. Systematicchemical cleaning and the removal of soot, dust and oil led to theunravelling of beautiful murals.
INTACH faced a similar problem at the 18th century temple atNeyyatinkara. Soot from oil lamps, dust, dirt and deposits of oilhad covered the paintings of gods and goddesses. A metal awningerected to provide shelter from rain blocked the soot from risingand so it settled on the paintings.


Re-creation of missing floral embossed stucco at the Naalaknadupalace in Kodagu.
“Devotees used to splash sandal paste on thepaintings,” said Arvind Kumar, Centre Coordinator, INTACHMural Painting Conservation, Research and Training Centre,Tripunithura, Kerala, who led the restoration of the affectedpaintings.
“Even after conservation, they look like old paintings.Basically our aim was to maintain the antique value of thesepaintings and ensure minimum intervention,” said ArvindKumar.
“There was a layer of dust and soot. After its removal, whatwe obtained were damaged paintings. Instead of converting them intonew paintings, we joined the original fragments by using the samecolours. We achieved good results,” he said.


A Mural at the Sri Krishnaswamy temple before and afterrestoration.
The conservation of murals at the Naalaknadu palace presented adifferent kind of challenge. The palace was built in 1792 by theking Chikka Veera Rajendra. There were murals on the ceiling of thequeen’s chamber and they were mostly floral designs. But theplaster on which the murals had been drawn detached itself from thewooden support on the ceiling and was hanging loose.
“The extremely fragile painted surface presented a bigchallenge,” said Madhurani K.P., Centre Coordinator, INTACHChitrakalaparishath Art Conservation Centre (ICKPAC), Bangalore.There were wasps’ nests on the wooden beams and there wereholes in the ceiling.
Madhurani said: “The cleaning was done in several stages.Support had to be provided to the plaster; the wasp nests had to beremoved; wooden planks had to be replaced; and holes in the ceilinghad to be plugged. We had to consolidate the entire surface.”An adhesive was injected into the holes in the wooden planks. Thedamaged planks were reinforced with new wooden reepers. The floraldesigns were re-created with minimum intervention.
The murals on the walls had been lime-washed. When the lime wasremoved beautiful murals came out. This included portraits of thequeen in three postures. The paintings on the wooden ceiling of theraja’s durbar hall were also conserved in a similar fashion.