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Lincoln Memorial
Wall Painting Conservation
The original color and vibrancy of two huge decorative murals inside the chamber of the Lincoln Memorial are slowly being revealed as a team of conservators, working on a shrouded scaffolds, painstakingly removes dirt and repairs the damage of nearly 75 years exposure to the weather.
The work is part of a 10-year, multi-million dollar project by the National Park Service to preserve the Lincoln Memorial and Thomas Jefferson Memorial for the next generation.
The goal of the mural restoration is to stabilize cracked and flaked paint which has been caused by flucuations of heat, cold and moisture. The murals, each measuring 60-feet long by 12-feet high, are located 37 feet above the chamber floor over inscriptions in marble of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Speech and his Gettysburg Address.
"We expect a dramatic new look to the inside of the Lincoln Memorial when the wraps come off this project," said National Capital Field Director Robert G. Stanton. "The murals had faded so badly over the years many visitors hardly could appreciate them or even know they were there," Stanton said.
The murals by Jules Guerin were painted with oil paint on fabric which was then affixed to the inner chamber walls of the new memorial in time for its dedication, Memorial Day, May 30, 1922. Guerin was commissioned by Congress along with Henry Bacon, architect, and Daniel Chester French, sculptor of the Lincoln statue.
The murals represent the accomplishments and high moral values evident in the life of Abraham Lincoln. Unification, on the north wall over Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, celebrates the reunification of the states with allegorical figures of Fraternity and Charity. Emancipation, on the south wall over the Gettysburg Address, shows an Angel of Truth freeing a slave flanked by other allegorical figures of Justice and Immortality.
The mural restoration project is being conducted under a National Park Service contract by the fine arts painting conservation firm of Cunningham-Adams, Sandy Hook, Conn. Team leader Christiana Cunningham-Adams and the firm specialize in wall painting conservation for which Ms. Adams was trained in Rome, Italy, where she helped restore wall paintings by Cimabue in the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and the 1st-Century frescos in the Palace of Augustus on Palatine Hill.
The restoration treatment
The team of conservators are working from two decks of aluminum scaffolding. They Developed a treatment that consolidates the materials of the paintings and recovers the original aesthetic character at the same time to reveal the rich colors and inspiring narrative of the artist's original work. Every square inch of painted surface is examined and treated by hand using small instruments, brushes and various solvents, glues and other solutions.
The damage the murals have suffered results from the natural effects of the environment over the 75 years since the murals were installed. The entire paint film is fractured in a grid of tiny fissures that run vertically and horizontally across the paintings. Paint squares between the fissures are coming loose from the supporting fabric behind them, and in some areas have fallen away completely. Salts and dirt have accumulated on the surface. The surfaces of paint between the fissures and the little remaining varnish have eroded, covering the paintings with a whitish veil and reducing the brilliance of the original colors.
The initial examination of the both murals which was made over the entire 200,000 square-inch combined surface area resulted in more than one-hundred pages of graphics. The analysis also included such scientific techniques as Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy to determine the extent of deterioration.
In addition to restoring the original luster of the murals, the treatment also is expected to slow the rate of deterioration as the murals continue to age. The first design of the Lincoln Memorial called for doors to close off the inner chamber, but Bacon discarded that idea himself, in favor of the aesthetic and emotional effect of the open.
The murals by Jules Guerin
Jules Guerin was a prominent illustrator and muralist when he was asked in 1912 to design and execute the murals for the Lincoln Memorial. He had been hired by architect Henry Bacon to do a series of architectural illustrations of Bacon's proposed design for the Lincoln Memorial. When Bacon was awarded the commission, he chose Guerin to create the two large murals, which were an integral part of Bacon's design.
A total of forty-eight allegorical figures in classical costume appear in the murals which add color and texture to the inside chamber and compliment the Classical Greek architecture of the building. The figures are shown in dramatic one-point perspective and are divided into three groups like the friezes of ancient Greek architecture. But they are painted in a contemporary style.
The north mural, Unification, depicts the ideas of Unity, Fraternity and Charity associated with reunification of the states. In the central group of figures, the Angel of Truth is shown joining the hands of the allegorical figures who represent the North and the South, and who are flanked by others that represent the arts and humanities. This scene affirms the importance of united progress in the arts and sciences in the once-divided nation. The group of figures at the left side symbolizes Fraternity in the family of man; and the group at the right side represents Charity to the unfortunate of the world.
The south mural, Emancipation, represents the ideas of Freedom and Liberty. In the central group of figures, the Angel of Truth is shown bestowing freedom and liberty to slaves, whose chains drop as the angel raises her arms. Justice and Law are depicted in the group of figures on the left side, with the central figure of Law flanked by guardians that represent Reason and Intelligence. In the group of figures at the right side, the crowned central figure of Immortality is surrounded by the three virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity.
The murals, oil on fabric, were painted in the artist's studio in New York and were brought finished to Washington for installation at the Memorial in 1918 just before the end of World War I. Guerin executed the paintings in a style combining his early classical training in Europe with impressions from extensive travel in the Middle East and contemporary stylistic trends. Painted in rich, exotic colors and bold, distinctive brushstrokes, the paintings resemble tapestries, and serve the same purpose of warming the white stone interior of the sanctuary that Medieval tapestries served in stone castles.
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