From Mutilated to Complete Image. Lacunae in Paintings Through the Eyes of Restorers, Art Historians and Ordinary Viewers

Lacunae in paintings are disruptive elements that create an 'interference' with the aesthetic quality of the image. Traditionally restoration has tried to overcome this problem in many ways and only in the second half of the nineteenth century did the lacuna achieve the right to show itself as part of the work's historic value. In recent decades restoration, particularly of paintings, has exhibited a new trend, with interventions that erase the lacuna by completely reconstructing the image, often mimetically. The reflections that have arisen around the new trend demonstrate how the aesthetic choices of restoration are conditioned by the pervasiveness and multiplication of 'perfect' digital images, and their easy manipulation. Two experimental investigations focus on the question by testing the aesthetic appreciation and visual exploration of intact and damaged paintings (with lacunae) of three categories of subjects, differentiated in their professional relationship with the art world, but who in any case are involved in restoration choices: restorers, art historians and ordinary viewers. A varied picture emerges that leads to reflection on the current role of the proliferation of digital images for those with specialist knowledge and the enjoyment of the original, of their potential to distance from the physical reality of the artwork. Of the categories tested, the restorer is the one who best knows how to appreciate incomplete works, who is best able to grasp the lacunae as part of the work, of its existence in time and space, and not just the image it conveys.