"I can hardly describe the discord produced by the comparison of the retouched part of the painting and the part left untouched, the former having lost entirely the immediacy and brio of the brushwork and the latter the mastery of sensitive and discerning touches.. .For it is true that the more one retouches under the pretext of restoration, the more harm one does, and even the artists themselves, were they able to return, would not able to retouch their painting perfectly on account of the necessary change in the hue of pigments over time... No painting by Titian should be relined, nor any paintings by a number of other painters.. ..and, even when it is possible, the operation is more likely to result in deterioration than in improvement of the painting."
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Early 1801 - Goya was then First Painter of the Court - the artist is sent to check the results of some restoration operated on works belonging to the Spanish crown. His 263-264 letters reveal the total opposition of Goya against any cleaning or restoration of older paintings
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Francisco_Goya
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Francisco Goya
1746 – 1803
Francisco Goya (30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish painter and printmaker. He was a court painter to the Spanish Crown and a chronicler of history. His letters to MartÃn Zapater y ClaverÃa , (1746-1803) a prosperous merchant and Goya's closest friend - spanning some 30 years, are an important private source for Goya's quotes; these letters show him at his most intimate and uninhibited.
75 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Francisco Goya →
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