Visual literacy is an essential skill in the conservation-restoration profession. It is indispensable in virtually all procedures for the protection and conservation of visual artworks, both direct and indirect, as well as in professional and scientific research work. Visual literacy encompasses visual reading (the interpretive aspect) and visual creativity (the generative aspect). Visual reading is especially important in the phase of studying and monitoring the condition of a work of art prior to and during the conservation-restoration intervention. It focuses on the identification and analysis of the narrative-content meaning, material composition and technique, damage, and finally the past—as well ongoing—interventions carried out on the artwork. Visual creation or visual recording and information-gathering is especially necessary during direct aesthetic interventions on the artwork and in the production of conservation-restoration documentation. Generative visual skill is most critical when aesthetical gap-filling in works of art is required, where the conservator needs additional artistic knowledge and skill to eliminate or reduce the distortion of the visual message due to damage. Similarly, the visual part of modern documentation is more than just an additional illustration with drawings (in accordance with the Venice Charter of 1964); like the written—verbal—part of the reports, it needs to be as critical and analytical as possible, and thus more complex. Including high-quality visual material in conservation-restoration documentation has several advantages. Among them are that such material enables us to illustrate even complex matters in a clearer and simplified way, that it provides at a glance a full view of a particular phenomenon and that it is a better way of presenting the employed or planned concepts, procedures and materials to the clients and the public, and thus a more effective means of communication.
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