28 The Annunciation retable Conservation and restoration of the retable In contrast to the restoration of the Nicholas retable, here it was decided to adopt a more cautious and differentiated approach. The doubts raised by the extensive reconstruction in the Church of St Nicholas were to lead to more thorough reflection on the purpose, necessity, and scope of reconstruction in the new project, which was also discussed with the students. All decisions were to be based on a thorough examination of the technical aspects and condition of the retable. The fundamental task was to conserve the damaged wood, polychromy and gilding. To this end, the modern tongue-and-groove boards on the pedestals were also removed. To strengthen the wood, the acrylic resin Plexigum PQ 611 was applied in several passes. Consolidation of the polychrome and gilding was also carried out in several passes. Sturgeon glue in a concentration of 3-7% was used for the matte blue smalt. Flaking of the gilding was treated with Plex‐ tol B500. The unstable mensa plates were taken up and laid horizontally in a new mortar bed. Up to this point, standard conservation principles were adhered to. From thereon, new paths were to be taken with a different restoration goal. Contrary to the customary, far-reaching reconstruction measures undertaken in the context of other restorations in Croatia, the retable was only to be improved in its visual appearance through limited retouching Fig. 32: Pedestal, seen from the back; stabilisation of fragile joints with cutto-size wooden blocks Fig. 33: Injection of Plexigum consolidant
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