Mounting canvas

Amy Rider <drider2<-a t->csrlink< . >net> writes

>Can anyone tell me the harmful effects of mounting an early 19th
>Century oil painting on a sheet of Aluminum?  A director at the
>local museum said that two well respected framers suggested mounting
>the canvas on a piece of aluminum with fixative. The canvas had some
>damage and the framers were afraid that restretching the picture
>would damage it even further.

As far as I knew, that mounting practice was another conservation
technique long since outdated (around the early part of the 20th
century? Can anyone confirm?).  At a museum I worked for in the
past, we discovered one of our works mounted on aluminum. No visible
damage was noted, but who knows what it looked like before it was
mounted? It did not appear to have a flat poster-like surface, as
the brushwork was still quite prominent (it is an Impressionist
piece). You may want to consult a paintings conservator as opposed
to a framer for this project if the work is fragile and already
damaged.

Tara D. Kennedy

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:36
                Distributed: Wednesday, October 15, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-36-004
                                  ***