Barbet, Alix

The Recomposition and Restitution of Fragmentary Mural Painting: Methodology, Scientific and Ethic Principles - 2016.


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The recomposition of an ancient mural painting depends basically on two parameters. First, the way the fragments were retrieved, secondly how the excavation was conducted. To reconstruct panels as completely as possible from an assemblage of fragments, all indications have to be used. To identify patterns, often incomplete, one has to show imagination, and to draw on recollection of images acquired through practice over the years. Sometimes it is like a Rorschach test, which discloses some aspects of our personality. Restitution and reconstruction are possible if all the repertoire of ancient painting has been memorized.