Conservation Issues

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Treatment of a 16th-century Spanish Panel Painting

Conservation issues

The panel was in poor condition — the most urgent problem was the extensive delamination or lifting between the paint/ground layers and the underlying wood. Differences in movement of these layers, provoked by changes in humidity, resulted in this damage. The delamination of decorative layers was most pronounced above or near joins between planks.

Figure 1

Cross-hatched areas indicate delamination between paint/ground layers and the wood panel. These areas were re-adhered with fish glue during the treatment of the panel.

  

Figure 2

This drawing made of panel verso maps out edges of planks, cracks, and knots in the wood that correlate with the cracks and delamination in the paint and ground layers.

Figure 1

Although there was intense delamination of the paint and ground from the wood panel below, flaking, as seen here, was very isolated.

The old putty pushed into gaps between planks had largely shrunk and cracked causing the paint and ground layers above the putty to crack and, in many places, to fall away. Several previous campaigns of restoration had replaced the missing ground and paint. These repairs are detectable under ultraviolet light. Much of the background was overpainted in order to disguise large losses along plank joins.

Figure 1

Under ultraviolet light the varnish layer fluoresces green and overpaints fluoresce as dark black. Many overpaints have been applied along joins and in the background, both above and below the present varnish layer.

  

Figure 2

This ultraviolet image of the top right corner of the panel shows a region partly cleaned of varnish and overpaints. Varnish has a green fluorescence and overpaints show black.

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  Descente de     croix
  Iconography
  Materials
  Conservation      issues
  Treatment
  Framing