Elle Friedberg
FLY
white earthenware with luster and metallic overglaze decorations
Materials
1982
Year
Lizbeth Stewart
Maker
Collection
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Lizbeth Stewart (1948-2013) was a Philadelphia-born artist known for her often larger-than-life, realistic ceramic sculptures of animals. Stewart’s hand-built ceramics of dogs, cats, lizards, monkeys, and flowers have astonishing realism in form. She created her early works of the mid 1970s with handbuilt porcelain, later opting for less brittle earthenware in the early 1980s. Starting in the late 1980s, she began decorating her animal ceramic figures with expressionistic, rather than naturalistic, glaze colors and designs.
The ceramic fly is made of multiple components which were fired separately and assembled. The body, two wings, and antennae were created and fired as separate pieces and attached after firing.
The wings had been previously damaged, repaired, and then subsequently damaged since its acquisition in the 1980s.
Before treatment, normal illumination.
Images: Jason Wierzbicki, Conservation Photographer
Detail of break edge of wing.
CONDITION BEFORE TREATMENT
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Both of the fly’s wings are broken.
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Both of the fly's wings are detached from its body.
KEY TREATMENT STEPS
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Surface cleaned the ceramic with dry and wet methods
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Detached the wing fragments connected to the body
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Re-attached small and large wing fragments
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Re-attached wings to the body of the fly
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Created a storage tray
Additional images. Use arrows to scroll and click on images to expand.
TREATMENT RESULTS
Before treatment, three-quarters front view.
After treatment, three-quarters front view.
Before treatment, three-quarters back view.
After treatment, three-quarters back view.
Images: Jason Wierzbicki, Conservation Photographer