AIC's 43rd Annual Meeting

In 1916, Vizcaya’s patron, agricultural industrialist James Deering, commissioned New York artist Robert Winthrop Chanler to create a fantastical vaulted ceiling over the south end of the swimming pool at his grand estate on Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida.  The ceiling mural depicts a wild scene of shells, marine plants, and sea life swirling in a watery vortex executed in high and low relief cast and molded plaster with thinly applied, modified distemper paints, delicate layered glazes, and metallic leaf highlights.  As Vizcaya approaches its centenary, staff and stewards contemplate the condition and conservation of the ceiling, as well as the unlikely possibility that either Deering or Chanler imagined the technology and expertise required to research, document, and debate how best to preserve it.  Perhaps neither of them expected this architectural artwork to have a long life, given its exposed location, its vulnerability to hurricanes and storm surges, and its sensitivity to soluble salts and high humidity.

Investigation of the construction and deterioration of the gypsum and lime plaster ceiling has helped to identify areas most threatened by climatic conditions and structural changes to the building resulting from differential settlement and corrosion of structural steel members.  Environmental monitoring is underway: data regarding temperature, relative humidity, light, and surface moisture levels are periodically collected and reviewed.  Non-destructive testing and visualization techniques such as rectified photography and multispectral imaging are being considered and pursued, and will graphically depict the most intact areas and areas in most need of stabilization.  Correspondence only two years after its creation suggests the painted ceiling had already begun to deteriorate, and photographs from 1934 indicate localized paint losses.  The ceiling is now actively flaking and unsightly, with historic photographs suggesting at least four campaigns of substantial restorations with noticeable changes in palettes.  Recent investigations have sought to resolve the extent of Chanler’s original paints remaining buried below thick accumulations of opaque overpaints and darkened aluminum paints.  Cross-section microscopy analysis with reflected visible and ultraviolet light helped identify and characterize the original paints, as well and the nature and number of overpaints.  Microscopy findings informed selective overpaint removal testing.  Exposure windows have revealed broad areas of intact original paint in the most protected areas.  These studies have contributed to a better understanding of the causes of deterioration as well as Chanler’s colors and working methods.   

This paper will present the results of the investigative work conducted to date, as well as plans for future research to establish the most feasible and appropriate visual replication methods for presenting the ceiling as it was created.  Possible treatment and interpretive options will be discussed and may include establishing microclimates, light projection to evoke original designs and palette, replication of selected lost elements, plaster passivation, overpaint removal and paint consolidation.  This systematic approach will clarify the complex cause-effect relationship between environmental factors, material vulnerabilities, and deterioration mechanisms, and will make it possible to more effectively preserve Chanler’s work and vision at Vizcaya.