Preparation for Painting

This volume explores the vital role of ground layers in shaping a painting’s texture, luminosity, and longevity. Topics include materials and techniques, optical properties, terminology, and their impact on conservation decisions. Drawing on technical studies, reconstructions, and historical sources, the volume offers new perspectives on artistic practice, material exchange, and the evolving function of supports and grounds.

The aesthetic qualities of a painted work of art are determined by composition, the colours used and the application method. Equally important are the support and its preparation. Preparatory layers are fundamental to the creative process and to the perception of the work: they influence the final surface texture, the paints’ luminosity and the durability of a painting. For centuries painters were well aware of these facts and took great care in this stage of the process. These papers were presented at the first conference devoted to preparatory layers used by artists, organised by the working group ‘Paintings: scientific study, conservation and restoration’ within the Conservation Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM-CC) in 2007 at the British Museum, London. A wide range of issues is covered including the consideration of the preparatory layer(s)’ function: optical properties, terminology, as well as materials and techniques used in the preparation of more unusual supports. The results of technical examination, experimental reconstruction and analysis of documentary sources provide fascinating insights into the relationships between supports, preparatory layers and artistic forms of expression; they offer new insights on the origin and dissemination of certain techniques and related questions of artistic exchange. Furthermore, the influence of preparatory layers on mechanical properties, changes in appearance and deterioration as well as the impact on conservation treatment decisions are explored. The influence of the environment on traditional and modern materials is addressed.

Foreword

Acknowledgements

European documentary sources before c.1550 relating to painting grounds applied to wooden supports: translation and terminology

Jilleen Nadolny

An icon of St. George: preparation for a portrait of a saint

Lynne Harrison, Robin Cormack, Caroline R. Cartwright and Janet Ambers

Not just panel and ground

Erling Skaug

The colour of canvas: historical practices for bleaching artists' linen

Gunnar Heydenreich

Remarkably improved spatial resolution in SEM images of paint cross-sections after argon ion polishing

Jaap J. Boon and Jerre van der Horst

Imaging chemical characterisation of preparatory layers in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century northern European panel paintings

Ester S.B. Ferreira, Rachel Morrison and Jaap J. Boon

Grounds on canvas 1600-1640 in various European artistic centres

Elisabeth Martin

Selective darkening of ground and paint layers associated with the wood structure in seventeenth-century panel paintings

Petria Noble, Annelies van Loon and Jaap J. Boon

Reconstructing seventeenth-century streaky imprimatura layers used on panel paintings

Maartje Stols-Witlox, Tiarna Doherty and Barbara Schoonhoven

Not preparation but impregnation: transparent paintings of the late eighteenth century painted by Giovan Battista Bagutti (1742-1823)

Sara De Bernardis

'The whole world is angelikamad': preparatory layers on canvas used by Angelika Kauffmann

Inken Maria Holubec

Historically accurate ground reconstructions for oil paintings

Leslie Carlyle, Jaap J. Boon, Ralph Haswell and Maartje Stols-Witlox

The mechanical response of flour-paste grounds

Leslie Carlyle, Christina Young and Suzanne Jardine

Canvas and its preparation in early twentieth-century British paintings

Sarah Morgan, Joyce H Townsend, Stephen Hackney and Roy Perry

Flocked canvases: a special fabric for pastel paintings

Kathrine Segel and Mikkel Scharff

Southeast Asian oil paintings: supports and preparatory layers

Nicole Tse and Robyn Sloggett

Delaminating paint films at the end of 1950s: a case study on Pierre Soulages

Paulin Hélou-de la Grandière, Anne-Solenn Le Hô and François Mirambet

Comparing contemporary titanium white-based acrylic emulsion grounds and paints: characterisation, properties and conservation

Bronwyn A. Ormsby, Eric Hagan, Patricia Smithen and Thomas J.S. Learner

Cold temperature effects of modern paints used for priming flexible supports

Christina Young and Eric Hagan

Filling materials for easel paintings: when the ground reintegration becomes a structural concern

Laura Fuster-López, Marion F. Mecklenburg, María Castell-Agustí and Vicente Guerola Blay

• Edited by Joyce H. Townsend
• Edited by Tiarna Doherty
• Edited by Gunnar Heydenreich
• Edited by Jacqueline Ridge

"...se trata de una publicacion imprescindible para los conservadores-restauradores de pintura, completisima en el recorrido cronologico que muestra pero, sobre todo, con relevantes novedades y rigurosa en los resultados que aporta." Estudos de conservacao e restauro 2 (2010) 169-172 "The broadly chronological account of the use, variants and developments of ground layers in painting is an extremely useful, accessible resource. The essays are well illustrated, with diagrammatic images and detail photographs documenting examples and results dicussed within the text. The reliance on, and importance of contemporary sources as well as scientific analysis, reconstructions and mechanical testing is emphasised throughout, with useful examples that inform our understanding of the provenance and behaviour of paintings and aid conservation decisions." The Picture Restorer 36 (Spring 2010) 43-44
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The broadly chronological account of the use, variants and developments of ground layers in painting is an extremely useful, accessible resource. The essays are well illustrated, with diagrammatic images and detail photographs documenting examples and results dicussed within the text. The reliance on, and importance of contemporary sources as well as scientific analysis, reconstructions and mechanical testing is emphasised throughout, with useful examples that inform our understanding of the provenance and behaviour of paintings and aid conservation decisions.

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...se trata de una publicación imprescindible para los conservadores-restauradores de pintura, completísima en el recorrido cronológico que muestra pero, sobre todo, con relevantes novedades y rigurosa en los resultados que aporta.

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