Restoring The Faceless Painting - Part 3 

Yes😅😂

this is why he provides documentation along with the painting explaining the processes, of course he can't do much if it gets lost, but one would hope the conservator looks at the back of the painting and sees the large patch of canvas

"Time reveals the Truth" - it is a really fitting title for this painting. But I hope there is no need for another restoration for a very long time. And the chances are very high for this, as such paintings would now normally presented under controlled climatic conditions and this varnish won't yellow.

They're especially going to be confused if they know who did the restoration, since we all know that overpaint is something that Julian is strongly against. Maybe they'll wonder if a different conservator got their hands on it afterwards.

We could imagine that 😀 There will be documentation about this restoration (these videos exist), so if that gets preserved and travels with the painting, such an event would be prevented.

Thanks, I was looking for that

Wow, that's a truly poetic and fitting history for this painting.

this being the same Truth occasionally seen Coming Out Of Her Well To Shame Mankind, i assume

and that explains why she looks sort of blandly pleased about things...

That's really appropriate for the age we now live in. The time is now for hidden truths to be finally revealed.

Having a great teacher allows a great talent to blossom

I'm not sure 'verbose' is the term you wanted, there.

@@MckIdyl "containing more words than necessary" seems fine to me? They were suggesting he was gushing with praise. That word expresses that.

@@wyrdplae8586 Effusive also comes to mind. :)

@@serendigitygood word that yea. Haha. I mean there are plenty. But their choice wasn't wrong. Just bothers me when people tell others how to communicate. Especially when it isn't wrong to start with.

For me he was visibly uncomfortable and not really that happy with the result. What could he say since they put him in this position? That it looks bad and they need to re do it? XD

@@anj000 For some reason I also had that feeling, that he didn't like it, but there's so much that a restorer can do, I mean the painting didn't have a face...

@@dianaalmeida6790 just look up the original: Theodoor van Thulden - Time Reveals the Truth (1657) This is sadly one of the worst outcomes I've seen on this channel. It reminds me of this old lady that wanted to retouch paining of a Jesus.

@@anj000 That's the impression I got too. I showed my gf the restoration vs the original and she agreed that it looked pretty bad. I think trying to replicate the original face the way they did was a bad judgment call. Even though the painting is supposed to be a copy of the original, the proportions and everything are never going to line up perfectly. So you get a weird misshapen face that's a mixture of the original and the copy that just does not work and looks extremely odd. I compare it to Mrs. Potato Head lol

@@anj000 I think you and the others who believe George was disappointed are misreading his voice and body language. He looks to me to be overwhelmed with the emotion of seeing the thing whole again. That tremor in his voice is not from negative emotion. Quite the contrary. He's trying not to cry on camera.

I love this!

It's a delicate balance shielding them from the trials and tribulations you faced and giving them the opportunity to experience those for themselves; to learn what it feels like to be overwhelmed, to get creative, to succeed... I like to think of it as more of a safety net. I don't protect Kitt form anything, I just try to be there so if she falls she doesn't hit the ground.

@@BaumgartnerRestoration Beautifully told. She is incredibly lucky to work with you, as you are with her

I once had a trainee teacher with me whose tutor told me that she was on the final weeks of her training because they were going to remove her from the course. The first lesson that I observed was technically perfect but had no soul. They considered her so weak that they had protected her from having to think for herself. I sensed something in her and gave her less guidance than she was used to. She had to make her own mistakes. She had to use her own ideas rather than follow "good practice ". I was nervous for her final observation. The tutor brought someone with him from the university because he fully expected to be telling her she was off the course. At the end of the lesson, he rushed to my office. His only question was, "Where did all of that come from?" Not only was she staying on the course, but she gained first place in her cohort and went on to be a very successful teacher. The university had protected her too much. I let her see the realities of teaching whilst gently guiding her. Thankfully, my method was successful. I'd got the balance right. By the look of Kit's work and level of confidence, I think Julien has achieved the correct level of guidance to bring out the best in Kit.

@@BaumgartnerRestorationa lot like parenting!

The same for me. I wasn’t sure if it was a rock or a shoulder or what. But in Kit’s hands it became a men. Amazing

100% same!

Truth! Just like Yoda says, "we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters."

I'm no master of crafts, just a radiologist who also teaches students and younger doctors "the ways of looking inside the patient without even touching him" (as one of my own professors described our specialty many years ago). The only thing that makes me prouder than solving a complicated case myself is when others praise one of my former students, feels like I'm doing something more than just my regular job.

Possibly because I throw anything else I’m watching on RU-vid to go to Baumgartner this feels so strange. No matter the painting’s title I can only see a young woman in the terrible position of being helpless and about to be gang raped by the men holding her. I wish the artist had the need to hold such a woman who has just survived such a violation, pain and horror. However, since this painting and several copies exist, the scene must appeal.

@@wandapease-gi8yo When this painting was created recreations of the stories of gods and men,ancient heros and heroines of Rome and Grecian legend, their interactions and the outcomes were very much en vogue. Learning the classics was a part of young man's education. Great meaning was encapsulated in the paintings and discussion of the topic was prolonged, loud and opinionated. The creation of the painting, viewed at face value does not imply agreement with the content. Your final sentence is loaded and pointed very squarely at those who view the work of art, painting those who view it as complicit, voyeurs or worse, would you have it destroyed, it's story, history, lessons lost to time? However face value has clouded this issue. There is a very good explanation of the picture in the comments. Despite the face value, the content actually depicts Chronos the god of time taking the beautiful young woman who will in time have her true character revealed and her true nature beautiful or vain and ugly revealed to those currently clamouring for her attention. Now you know she is being dragged away by time from suitors does the picture mean anything else to you?

I had the same idea. Just give her a mustache for shits and giggles, the paints are fully reversible after all...

I got Napoleon Dynamite vibes for just a moment... and then he smoothed it out and made it match the rest of the lighting. So much fun to watch.

I'm a "drawer" not a painter. One of the main reasons, despite decades of being an artist, that I've always been such a terrible painter is that because of how the paint layers work, a lot of the time the way to make something look great requires multiple layers and passes that - to be honest - make the whole thing look like crap for a while. When watching someone else work, this can lead to what we experience watching Julian - that amazement of "how did that end result come out of the process I saw?" When it's your own work, however, getting past those "yes this looks terrible but it's supposed to look terrible but what if it just keeps looking terrible?" stages can be quite a challenge.

Ditto.

Same here, except its mid afternoon here in Ireland 🇮🇪

Ah! Perfect timing for cooking dinner! 😂

You are so welcome 👍

Ahhh, I fall asleep to Julian. (Sorry Julian) These videos have been a bit of a life saver when in the midst of life crises, panic attacks and insomnia; the soothing voice, the Belgian linen, the wash kozo, the dabbing, the scraping, the tacks, and the transformations have calmed my "soul" and helped me get some rest. Sometimes I have to go back to re-watch videos two or three times, just to see the end. Thanks @BaumgartnerRestoration for allowing us behind the scenes - it truly is amazing. Thank you!

Idk about that. He gets a lot of criticism too. From people who are conservators or art collectors/critics.

I just happened to be watching an... "expert" from a museum working on a painting and retouching before removing the old resin sealant.. I thought.. Oh Julian would never do that.. So yes absolutely agree Julian is fantastic and thorough in his work

​@@_letstartariotI've been following Julian for a couple of years now and never seen any criticism like you say

@@_letstartariot when it's about business.. I think there is a certain speed he has to adhere too.. like he isn't the National Gallery in London spending 6 years on a painting and when money is no object... let's be real.. I would give this restoration about a D+... sometimes I think you do need to say no, but if he said no he would be out of business.. and I have mentioned this before...Julian needs to hire a painter to do the in-painting... and using a printed canvas on this.. oh dear... I can't stand when people buy an image on a printed canvas and use it as home decor, much less using it in conservation. yikes. I shuttered. I have a painting after Raeburn's Boy with a Rabbit, it is so far gone; I mean just large chunks out of it and flaking paint, but there are just still beautiful instances in it.. I plan on encapsulating it in resin. sometimes current states aren't bad, its its life and I think trying to reconstruct it is just unnecessary. Treat it almost like a relic now.

_America's favorite?_ Come now, don’t you mean the _entire world’s_ favorite art restoration expert? I’ll forgive this error since I’m quite certain that the latter’s what you _really_ meant, but please do _not_ limit our Julian to a mere single country! Not even in jest, my good Sir! :D

I remember him doing a restoration on a painting years ago that was a portrait with a large part of the face missing. One eye was gone, and the final result was nowhere near as successful as this total face transplant. This work is totally convincing.

@@oltedders To be fair, it does look a bit like a face transplant... I wonder if there's a better method to sticking to the inlay reference.

@gyohngpersonal I can't imagine what that would be. Without the photo of the original, any restoration of the face would be completely conjectural. It was a stroke of luck that the original was able to be identified from the copy. Julian's ability to match the infill to the original was a complete success. As a side note, I don't believe that either the copy or original was executed by a top-tier artist. "Time revealing Truth" is not a rare subject matter. I've seen more sophisticated versions of the same subject.

This work is fantastic, but i wonder about the change in facial position. This version is a much closer match to the original. But, it appears that the artist of this version had the woman looking more directly at the viewer. You wouldn't know this with the face missing, but the scan showing the reveal clearly shows the difference in facial position. Was there a message in this subtle change? Still, fantastic work.

I watched another person restore an artwork, and they themselves had nothing bad to say about Julian, but some of the comments did. The most insane part was that the restoration in that video was not that great, you could clearly see the repair. Never seen that in Julian's work, yet the comments in that video were critical of Julian's work, and not the artwork that clearly looked like it had been repaired. I'm not going to claim to be an expert on art restoration, but my untrained eye is very impressed with all of Julian's work. It's not just good enough for me, but many of his recurring clients including galleries and auction houses. It's one thing to be biased based on your relationship with a person, but if you're running a business and have money on the line, you're not going to accept subpar work, much less continue to seek it out. Couple that with the fact that God himself could descend from heaven tomorrow and heal all the sick in the world, and people would still find a reason to call him a hack and a bastard. And that's why I love the internet.

lol what are you talking about ? The important work made by Julian and the pretty small retouching (dirty work) that are many on this painting made by Kit. We can say Kit is pretty awesome assistant for Julian that making great job on assistant works.

@@jcoolverine3483 clearly you didn’t listen to what Julian said about Kit, or watch the way she worked. It may have beeen a small area, but the work was still Impressive

@@jcoolverine3483wow….did you not LISTEN to ANYthing said in the video at ALL? It’s not a bloody competition. They’re working together to bring this piece back together. Kit is an apprentice, not a servant…..she is learning and stretching her knowledge under her mentors watchful eye.

Just skip it when you realize it is the ad portion. It's not a big deal.