Tight'n'Up liquid canvas retensioner

Tatiana Ginsberg <tginsberg [at] juno__com> writes

>Niccolo Caldararo <caldararo [at] aol__com> writes
>
>>... But
>>this time the canvas shrunk disastrously. There was no gesso as a
>>ground, the pigment had been applied onto a glue foundation only.
>
>I apologize for answering a question with a question, but this query
>brings up a subject that I have been wondering about for some time.
>Is a glue (rabbit skin) foundation alone inadequate to prepare a
>painting support? If an artist desires to retain the natural color
>of a canvas or paper support for oil based paintings is there a
>better solution?

I refer you to Gustav Berger and William H. Russell's article in
Studies in Conservation, v. 33, 1988:187-204 where they report on a
number of experiments testing the behavior of canvas without sizing
or priming and with them.

It seems from their results, though Gustav can comment on this
himself, that the 8% "Old Master's formula" of glue-solution is
best.  Films of oil-paint priming, like white lead behave like
sizing, but canvas primed with oils tend to deteriorate
preferentially.

By the way, I tested the Tight-N-up preparation for pH and it is
fairly alkaline, we applied it to a canvas stretched on an aluminum
testing frame and placed it in our testing oven.   Within 10 minutes
at about 100 deg. C everywhere it was sprayed with the preparation
turned dark black.

Niccolo Caldararo
Director and Chief Conservator
Conservation Art Service


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 18:15
               Distributed: Wednesday, September 15, 2004
                       Message Id: cdl-18-15-002
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