Grad student¹s art conservation work spans globe

2:55 p.m., Aug. 4, 2006--Like many who've accomplished a lot at an early age, Christina Ritschel, a student in UD's graduate art conservation program, explored a number of paths before settling on the one she's decided to follow. Yet unlike many who find their way by blind luck, Ritschel, who will graduate in late August with a concentration in textile conservation, believes every one of her detours has followed a single thread.

Now finishing a 10-week internship at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, Ritschel is bringing a journey that began in high school full-circle.

“I first learned about conservation in high school when my class took a field trip to a research laboratory,” Ritschel, a native of Denmark, said. “Of course I didn't know straight away that this field was the one I was going to pursue and become so passionately involved in. For me it took two years before I went back to studying. But, I always have been interested in history and science, and after visiting Italy, Paris and Greece, I couldn't get close enough to the amazing artworks.”

This interest took a practical turn, Ritschel said, when she applied for--and secured--an internship at the Textile Conservation Laboratory in the Cathedral of St. John in New York City. But, it wasn't until colleagues there urged her to participate in the North American Textile Conservation Conference, sponsored in part by Winterthur Museum and Country Estate, that Ritschel took steps to pursue a master's degree in art conservation at UD.

“By then I still knew little about the conservation program taught by the Winterthur Museum and the University of Delaware,” Ritschel said, “but attending the conference and visiting the museum and conservation facilities made me realize that this was an option I had to look into. The requirements for the master of science [degree] in art conservation were the toughest of the programs I looked into, but I valued this highly scientific aspect of the program, and it didn't lower my interest that UD's program is often referred to as the best of its kind in the country.”

Ritschel, who by then had received enough undergraduate credits from the Fashion Institute of Technology of the State University of New York to qualify for acceptance into the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC), entered the program in August 2003. She hasn't looked back since.

Through her coursework, she's had the opportunity to handle and help preserve textile artifacts ranging from Eighth-Century Peruvian tunic fragments to 18th-Century Axminster carpets to 18th-Century coverlet fragments owned by Benjamin Franklin. And travel and research scholarships have enabled her to attend conferences and pursue textile conservation internships in New York City, Washington, D.C., Berlin, Damascus, Mexico City and Hangzhou, China.

Ritschel prepares a a 16-foot-long, 19th-Century textile from India for restoration.

A grant from the Annette Kade Charitable Trust took Ritschel to Berlin this past March, where she visited the Pergamon, Altes and Ethnographic museums. Research and travel grants from WUDPAC's Student Professional Development Fund and the Society of Winterthur Fellows Professional Development Fund enabled her to participate in the North American Textile Conservation Conference in Mexico City, where she also attended two workshops on traditional Mexican dyeing methods. And grants she received from the Rosenberg Foundation and Carpenter Foundation funded an 11-day trip to Syria, where Ritschel visited collections of textile fragments excavated from ancient burial towers, toured museums and attended traditional weaving workshops.

Now splitting her internship at the National Gallery of Victoria between two conservation projects--preparing a 16-foot-long, 19th-Century textile from India and preparing printed ikat-woven textiles for an upcoming exhibition--Ritschel is completing work funded by a grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. She'll then return briefly to UD to give her final presentation and receive her master's degree in art conservation.

“[The textile from India] was made in the 19th-Century with a hand-painted, printed and dyed battle scene from the epic poem Ramayana, in which the king of Ancient India Rama is battling the evil multi-headed Ravana of Lanka, who has abducted Sita, the wife of Rama,” Ritschel said, explaining the history and culture that play such a large part in all art conservation undertakings. “Rama is supported by monkey soldiers from the Monkey Kingdom, and the scene is very gory, showing scattered body parts and fierce battles between the individual soldiers.

“The printing process employed to produce the textile is extremely complicated and was performed in several independent steps,” Ritschel added. Because of this, the conservation process also has been painstaking and methodical. Before any work was done, Ritschel said, the piece was examined and a detailed report and treatment proposal was generated; and every step of the conservation process thereafter has required equally thorough documentation. Besides logging these details, Ritschel also has assisted with the cleaning, drying, patch-fabric dying and actual patching of the artifact.

The other project Ritschel is working on also has employed her knowledge of dyeing and weaving processes and attentiveness to cultural details. “The term ikat refers to a style of weaving where areas of the warp or weft threads, or both, are tied before dyeing and weaving,” Ritschel said. “This creates threads of varying colors, that when woven create a feathered look. The technique can be very elaborate and the precision required by the dyer is amazing.”

Ritschel is working at the moment on a Balinese man's silk waistcloth, and again has assisted with the cleaning, drying, patching and documentation processes. “Because the majority of the silk textile is still in a good condition, it was decided to add a stitched Stabiltex support on the back,” Ritschel said. “The weak areas around the missing white silk then were stabilized with couching stitches, and if necessary, smaller pieces of white material will be applied on the back of the of the Stabiltex in specific locations to fill in and compensate for losses in the white silk.”

All this work has led to more work for Ritschel--an offer of paid, permanent work, in fact. She recently was offered a job at the National Gallery of Australia, which she is considering taking after she graduates from WUDPAC later this month.

“This offer is very flattering and fantastic, as my master's is not quite finished,” Ritschel said. “There are some great opportunities for a textile conservator in Australia, and with the specialty training from the Winterthur and University of Delaware art conservation program and my many practical internships, I feel I am well-prepared.”

Article by Becca Hutchinson
Photos courtesy of Christina Ritschel

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