CCI2014050707

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Ranan leather helmet of the 14th century BC.

TIIK DIOCKKAHING OK A SKT OK GUT I.I WKiII IK WA1,1,1 IAN(; I N<; IN TIII': RI.IKGMIIGKIJM, AMSTKRI)AM

I). Mi 11I er, Rij ksmuseum, Amsterdam

'1110 Rijksmuseum aoquired a set of gilt leather wallhangings In 1946. Each panel displays a pattem of four putti cnrrying flcwers in their hands and surrounded by various plants, flcwers, fruit and feathers on a green and grey ground. A smali laurel wreath, which at first sight seems to be the mlddle motif of the pattem, is in fact, situated ulIghtly to one side of the design.

Thls type of omamentation was cotnmon in our country and was as we11 found in other forms of the applied arts, such .in textiles and silver, and indicates that the gilt leather w.iii certainly the product of a Dutch workshop. This is homo our by the fact that in a painting of "The Card Playera" by Pieter de Hooch, which is in the collection of the T<ouvre, an interior can be seen where gilt leather with I ho same pattem is illustrated. This is important for 80veral reasons. It can be seen how people formerly used < 1111 leather not only on the walls but also on the chimney broast. Pieter de Hooch has given the gilt leather so much Importance that it is possible to see which is the top of I ho pattem. Another reason why the painting is so Important is the dating. It must datę from about 1665 and w,im therafore produced in Amsterdam and the location of the rocfn must have also been in the viscinity. It is very |X)iinlble that we are dealing with gilt leather from an Amsterdam workshop from about 1660.

l’rovlous Treatments iii t ho period follcwing the arrival of the gilt leather in I Im Rijksmuseum, it was treated several times with raw IInmied oil and also sometimes as well with other oils. An ovai latting can easily be recognised on gilt leather by damnge on the paint-layer through an effect of craąuelure and of the appearance of a "sweat". To do nothing would monn that in time the whole of the paint layer would becano 1.0086. The extra grease had to be removed from the layer _nr. .*-<>.-> frmn ł-ho nnderlving structure of the leather.