Aquazol as a consolidant for matte paint on Vietnamese paintings

This article describes the consolidation of two Vietnamese portrait paintings that had suffered flaking paint, tenting and blind cleavage. Scientific analysis revealed the presence of zinc sulfates as a result of the degradation processes. This posed consolidation issues since zinc sulfates are very water soluble. A discussion of paint characteristics demonstrates the particular requirements of consolidants. The effect of consolidants and their manner of application on matte paint films is elucidated, followed by a description of testing of consolidants. The only consolidant suitable for use was found to be Aquazol, hence this was tested at length before being used to consolidate the paint layers. Aquazol was also used as a filling and retouching medium. The properties of Aquazol are discussed, and two potential methods of identification of Aquazol, when used as a conservation material, were demonstrated; using Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) and pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry (Py-GCMS).