David Winfield (conservator)

Winfield’s first major project was in the Church of Hagia Sophia (Saint Sophia) in Trebizond (modern-day Trabzon) after he was approached by David Talbot Rice in 1957 to be the field director of the project. Winfield was appointed to investigate the frescoes, undertaking any restoration that was required, and he carried out this work for the next five years. The project, under the sponsorship of the British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara and funded by the Walker Trust of St Andrew, was considered ground-breaking as Talbot Rice was able to secure a permit from the Turkish government to uncover Christian paintings in a building that was, at the time, a working mosque.[6] The removal of the whitewash from the walls revealed frescoes that have been described as ‘magnificent’ examples of church paintings.[7] As Lutgarde Vandeput observed, in an article for the journal, Anatolian Studies in 2008, the paintings were considered important “not only because they raised questions about the origin and development of painting techniques, but also because of the information they provided about artistic development and stylistic innovations in 13th century Christianity”.[8] At the end of the venture, and, having been persuaded by Winfield who, with his wife, had become well known in Trabzon, the local governor gave his permission for the church to be reopened as a museum. In 2013 a decision was made to turn the museum back into an active mosque.[6] 

Work at Hagia Sophia was concluded in 1962, and, in 1963, Winfield obtained a grant from the Marjory Wardrop Fund for Georgian Studies at the University of Oxford to study the Georgian churches in and around the valleys of the Çoruh river to the east of Trazbon. Winfield’s findings were published in the Journal of Warburg and Courtauld Institutes in 1968.[4]

In 1962 Winfield, along with Michael Gough, made a visit to the Eski Gümüş Monastery, a rock-carved complex, located just outside Niğde. After obtaining a grant from the Russell Trust, they, and a team of workers, including June Winfield and Mary Gough, undertook cleaning and restoration work on the Byzantine wall-paintings in the rock-cut church over the next few years.[9] Their work uncovered well-preserved paintings depicting New Testament scenes, believed to date from the eleventh or twelfth centuries AD. A significant discovery that was reported in The Times on 25 October 1963.[10] A further discovery was a series of paintings on the walls of a room above the narthex that were identified as illustrations of Aesop’s Fables.[11]

Early on in his time in Trabzon, Winfield met Anthony Bryer, and this encounter proved to be a fruitful experience. With common interests, particularly the study of the monuments of the Pontos, these fellow scholars became intrepid explorers of the region. During weekends they travelled along the coast and traversed the valleys and highlands recording the remnants of the Byzantine and Greek history of the area before many of the structures were destroyed for ever. Although the survey was completed in the 1970s, the resultant two-volume study did not appear until 1985.[12][13]

In 1964-5, Winfield was appointed research fellow at Dumbarton Oaks having been a visiting fellow in the previous academic year.[14] Originally Winfield was to be based in Istanbul, but as work and funding became more difficult in Turkey, David and June Winfield moved to Cyprus.

During the years between 1952 and 1978, Dumbarton Oaks sponsored the excavation and/or restoration of major monuments on Cyprus[15] and, for almost a decade, David Winfield and his wife lived in Cyprus working primarily on the church of the Panagia tou Arakos, Lagoudera. Winfield oversaw the restoration and conservation of the paintings during the years 1968-73 and June Winfield analysed the images and made drawings.[15] The Winfields later published a significant book on their work, The Church of the Panaghia tou Arakos at Lagoudhera, Cyprus: The Paintings and Their Painterly Significance, in 2003.[16]

Prior to that work, Winfield, alongside Ernest Hawkins, cleaned the wall-paintings of The Church of Our Lady (the Panagia Phorbiotissa) in Asinou of the soot from candles which had been pressed into the plaster by worshippers.[17][18] He also worked on churches in Monagri[19] and Pera Chorio and the Agios Neophytos Monastery near Paphos on which Hawkins had previously worked.[4]

During the 1970s the funding for field research provided by Dumbarton Oaks decreased significantly[20] and, when the work at Lagoudera came to an end in 1973, the Winfields moved back to England, initially resettling in Oxford.[2]

On his return, Winfield’s important work in Cyrus was recognised by the British Government and he was awarded the MBE in the New Year’s Honours list of 1 January 1974, for ‘services to the restoration of religious works of art in Cyprus’.[1]

After moving back to the United Kingdom, and with the assistance of a number of grants, firstly as a visiting fellow at All Souls College, followed by the appointment as senior research fellow at Merton College, Winfield wrote up some of the findings from his work abroad.[2]

In 1979 he became the founder and director of the Workshop for the Conservation of Wall paintings at Canterbury Cathedral, and during this period he worked on the restoration of the ceiling paintings in the Jesus Chapel.[4]

In 1981, the National Trust appointed Winfield as its first Surveyor of Conservation and he was instrumental in building up the conservation arm of the National Trust. He set up the Cliveden conservation workshop for stone and plaster and appointed freelance conservators to advise on the maintenance and remedial treatment of metal, leather, stained glass, wall paintings and other media. In 1984 he wrote the foreword to the National Trust’s Manual of Housekeeping, a practical guide to the care of historic buildings and their contents. He retired from the National Trust in 1989.[21]

Although Winfield no longer held an official post, after he and his wife moved to the Isle of Mull, they continued their academic work, as David’s LinkedIn profile attested “I maintain an Highland hill farm and spend my other time writing on conservation in the world of Byzantine wall paintings and mosaics”.[22] It was during this time that two of their major works were published. David also travelled down from Mull to lecture on wall painting conservation at The Courtauld Institute of Art to whom he donated his collection of fallen fragments of painted plaster from sites he had worked on over the years for analyse by students of conservation.[4]