Cleaning of easel painting and wall painting from lipid-containing layers: advantages and disadvantages of delivery system / detergent complexes

Removing of lipid-containing layers from paintings that have weakened and / or degraded paint layers, without preliminary consolidation is described. We propose a new method of cleaning easel oil painting and fresco-tempera wall painting by using aqueous solutions of different composition loaded in gels. Utilization of the system composed of carrying gel / cleaning solution avoids preliminary overall stabilization of painting, i. e. the process in which both the painting layers and contaminations are fixed and stabilized thus complicating subsequent cleaning. As an example we present results of a pilot cleaning of oil painting and fresco-tempera wall painting utilizing water solutions of detergents loaded in polyvinyl alcohol cryogels. We analyze advantages and disadvantages of the cleaning complex “water solution / gel” and outline probable ways of improving this technique.