- Like a time machine, art reveals to us our past.

But did you know that were it not for a group of specialized workers, famous paintings like The Last Supper would be completely destroyed?

What?

Destroyed?

No Last Supper, no Mona Lisa, no Scream?

(quiet background screaming) Luckily conservators are on it.

Conservators are specialized workers who combine the magic of science and art to preserve our cultural heritage physically.

Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper is one of the most well-known examples.

He painted this historic mural over the course of four years, but it began to flake during his lifetime.

After centuries of aging, flooding, and even explosions, it was in total ruin.

Modern conservators worked for over 20 years to bring The Last Supper back to life.

Where can we find conservators and how do they learn everything it takes to protect our cultural heritage from destruction?

Hi, I'm Chrisena, and today we are exploring the Patricia H. and Richard E. Garman Art Conservation Department of Buffalo State University, one of the most exclusive art conservation programs in the world.

Let's go.

♪ Let's go.

♪ ♪ Let's go ♪ ♪ Let's go ♪ (woman gigging) To get into this program, you have to be really special, both an artist and a scientist.

The Art Conservation Department at Buffalo State only admits 10 students per year.

- It's a very competitive program.

We have between 60 and a hundred applications for those 10 positions, so they're highly sought after.

Our students need to have a lot of experience coming into the program, whether it be internships, they have to have studio art, art history, and chemistry prerequisites before they come into the program.

We just had graduation this past week and all of our students, I'm happy to report, got jobs.

- [Chrisena] After three years of intense study, research and hands-on experience, students of this program will graduate with two degrees, both a master's in science and art.

Conservators are the cornerstone of museums around the world, making it possible to appreciate the wonderful work of artists exactly as intended.

Oh, sorry, shh, class is in session.

I wonder what they're learning today.

Let's take a peek.

- You want to open it until the leaves just leave your field of view.

So if there's any like vignetting with the black of your diaphragm leaves, you don't want to see that.

But you don't want to keep opening it once you no longer see them, so.

- Our students do a lot of research before they do any project here in the department, but they have to think about the balance between treating something and not going too far.

So conservators are charged with preserving something, but also not leaving a trace.

- So they're protecting the piece, taking care of it, repairing it maybe, but they want it to be obvious so that you know the history of the piece.

- Correct.

- So you can follow the scars.

- Of these areas we refit, but it's not a horrible fit.

- No, I think it's just going to be finagling the area of.

- The painting studio is where the art of restoration shines.

Like an apprentice of the high Renaissance, students work under the guidance of their master instructors learning how to clean, repair and retouch art so that it looks as good today as the artist intended.

(gentle music) Fiona, do you consider yourself an artist or a scientist or both?

- I think you have to consider yourself a little bit of both.

Conservation is really a blend of art and science.

So we're looking at historical artist materials, even ones that Old Masters or people like Da Vinci, artists like Da Vinci would've used, but also using modern equipment, modern materials and even modern conservation paints.

We're taking these paintings that have been damaged or have experienced neglect.

And myself and my students are bringing these things back so that people can enjoy seeing them and really for future generations to experience as well.

So it's really important and I love it.

(gentle music) Natural varnishes over time will discolor and age and will turn the painting a kind of brownish, yellowish color.

And so removing that is bringing back the color of, in this case, the calla lilies.

- So we've got the chemicals here and then the elephant trunk.

What was this?

- Yeah, well they're called elephant trunks, but also fume trunks.

And these are gathering the vapors from the solvents so that nothing is being breathed in.

(light music) You can see all the areas of damage and she's going in and fixing these areas and getting the shape right to match the surrounding paint.

- So it's like filling a cavity for a tooth, but less painful.

- Yes, and some of the small tools that we use are actually used in dentistry, and it allows Sam to be really precise.

So here she's using heat to shape this fill material.

(light classical music) Place painting over here, and we're going to place it on the table.

And the table is heating.

Things have changed dramatically.

We have a lot of newer instrumentation.

Historically, there would be things like irons, for example, instead of the vacuum and suction tables that we have today.

So now we're able to do a lot more and a lot more ethically, and easily with all this instrumentation.

- Okay, so Fiona, I immediately, I noticed these big, beautiful windows.

- The natural light that comes in from the windows allows us to properly color match and see the colors on the paintings, for example.

We also have western and northern lights, which the northern lights are really useful for getting a nice subtle and even illumination for the paintings.

(quiet plucky string music) These are pigments.

We keep a collection so we can study them.

We use historical materials as ways to understand artist processes and some of the pigments are suitable for color matching.

So we make our own conservation paints for in painting areas that have been damaged.

- Do you have a favorite color to make?

- Oof, so I really am a fan of the reds.

Actually this vermilion here is quite toxic, so we're not going to bring it out today.

- Thank you.

- It has a beautiful bright red color that I can't get over.

It's really beautiful.

- So of course, it's toxic.

- Exactly.

- Perfect.

- All the pretty ones are.

Do you want to try your hand at this?

- Oh yeah, I'm an art conservator now.

(Chrisena and Caitlin laughing) (gentle music) The conservation department has labs full of exciting tools that provide deep insight into these masterpieces that our naked eye can't see.

Ah, wow, wow, whoa, whoa, whoa.

In another life, this is what I would be doing.

(plucky string music) - Every element, it has some unique properties.

And so that's really what we're probing here.

In this painting, for instance, he's wearing a white lace collar and you might wonder what is the white that was used to paint this color?

And in particular, often we can start dating a painting depending on which particular white pigment was used.

So knowing what was used to make the white can tell us sometimes what age is the painting or give us a range.

So here I have several different white pigments because, and I just wanted to show you that they look pretty much the same, right?

- Yeah, they're all the same color.

- Can you tell them apart?

Since we can't tell them apart visually, they each have different elements that make them up.

And so that's where our XRF, or our x-ray fluorescent spectrometer comes into play.

- History, science, art, all in one moment.

(gentle music) - So even as we're going in, I don't know if you could tell, but there's a little bit of texture.

(gentle music continues) - And you can see there's another painting underneath, actually more like a lady, right?

- Yeah, I can see her eyes, oh wow.

The decorative collar.

- Yeah, yeah.

And so by doing all different techniques, students actually learn there's painting underneath.

Isn't that cool?

- There's more than meets the eye.

When conservators scanned the Last Supper using tools, just like the ones here at Buff State, they saw that the original painting was hidden under layers of dirt and grime and decay.

Art conservation students make similar discoveries like this all the time.

And with the information gathered in their labs, they are ready to safely and accurately revive our heritage.

Conservation is a lot of fun, but it's also serious work.

You really need to be a scientist to know how to handle all of this equipment and data.

Everything from paintings to sculptures, books, photographs, dioramas and more make their way into the Art Conservation Department of Buffalo State University.

Maybe one of these days I'll bring my journal when it gets worn out.

Speaking of, I have a lot to write down about this amazing place.

Who knew science and art go hand in hand so beautifully?

Well, Leonardo da Vinci certainly did.

And his journal is full of scientific and artistic inventions.

Next time you appreciate the work of famous artists from around the world, just know there are countless, unnamed conservators like the students we met here who are hard at work keeping art alive.

I can't wait to journal about this.

And if you want to join me for more exciting field trips like this one, check out, "Let's Go" on WNED PBS.

Well, see you next time.

(gentle music) That's beautiful, I know that would look great at my house.

So when you're finished, just let me know.

(ladies laughing) It has an owner.

- Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure it does.

Hopefully someone that's paying lots of money to the department to have it.

- We don't charge a lot of money, actually.

We don't, yeah, we're not-for-profit, so.

(gentle music continues)