New and innovative cleaning systems for lime-based wall paintings

One of the biggest and most pressing challenges facing current wall painting conservation in Denmark is the removal of embedded dirt on lime-based medieval paintings in churches. Historically, cleaning was often done with water and sponges. In this process, a large amount of dirty water was absorbed by the porous substrate. This project focuses on the testing new poultice-based cleaning methods for the removal of this ingrained dirt. It consists of two PhD projects, one of which will focus on hydrogels and the other on clay, both used with a wide range of cleaning fluids. The comparability of the methods will be ensured by carrying out initial laboratory experiments on the same test objects (artificially soiled tiles), and the effectiveness of the methods will also be tested in situ on soiled wall paintings in Skamstrup Church, where previous cleanings attempts were not successful.