Damage patterns in oil paintings

Next year I will start a series of reconstructions of 17-19th
century recipes to clean oil paintings.  Based on a collection of
approximately 350 old recipes, I will carry out the most commonly
mentioned cleaning treatments.  I will investigate the properties of
cleaning solutions described in the recipes and will record damage
patterns that occur in the test areas photographically and with
digital light microscopy and SEM-EDX.  Results of these experiments
will be published in as database, which in future will be made
available as a tool for conservators.  It will allow conservators to
compare damage they see during painting investigations with
different types of historical treatments, hopefully leading to more
insight into the life of paintings and possibly also helpful for the
design of future conservation treatments.

I have now started collecting examples of damage patterns in
historical oil paintings, that are thought to have occurred during
early restoration treatments.  These examples will be compared to
the results of the reconstructions.  For this collection of earlier
damages, I am asking the help of the Cons DistList readers: Have you
come across interesting damage patterns in oil paintings?  Have you
documented/photographed these damages?  Would you like to share this
information with me?  Please email me at m.j.n.stols-witlox<-a t->uva< . >nl

Dr. Maartje Stols-Witlox
Lecturer paintings conservation, coordinator MA Paintings
University of Amsterdam
Programme Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage
Johannes Vermeerplein 1
1071 DV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
+31 20 525 6131


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 28:27
                 Distributed: Friday, December 5, 2014
                       Message Id: cdl-28-27-011
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