The Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings

110

T

  surveys the techniques used in the making of

the wooden supports of panel paintings in central Italy between

the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, a period during which pan-

els played a particularly significant role in Italian painting.^1 An “evolution”

in manufacturing techniques, however, does not imply that later panels

were technologically more advanced than earlier ones. On the contrary,

these changes may be regarded as an “involution,” which eventually led to

an abandonment of wood in favor of canvas as a support material. During

the historical period discussed in this article, supports for wooden panels

were subjected to a wide range ofinfluences: changing formal require-

ments ofpanel size and shape, including changes in artistic techniques and

traditions, the challenges posed by economic constraints, and the need to

develop woodworking techniques that would permit panels to respond to

fluctuations in environmental conditions.

Perhaps the first detailed information concerning early wooden supports

in Italy can be found in De Coloribus et Artibus Romanorum by Er aclius

(ca. tenth century C.E.). In the eleventh or twelfth century, Theophilus

reported further information on the same subject in his Di versarum Artium

Schedula,the most thorough medieval text dealing with the secrets and

techniques ofthe fine arts. It describes how boards are glued together to

form a whole panel for painting and how they may be coated with leather,

to which the ground can be applied.

The richest and most detailed information about art techniques in

the early literature, however, emerges from Tuscany in the early fifteenth

century. While living in the town of Padua, Cennino d’Andrea Cennini, in

his classic work Libro dell’arte (ca. 1437), described the techniques used in

Florence (Cennini 1994). This text was “composed as for the use and good

and profit of anyone who wants to enter the profession,” which was, he

noted, “really a gentleman’s job” (Cennini 1994:chap. 145, p. 91).

Cennino’s recommendations about how an artist should be

trained, what pupils should learn from masters, and how experience should

flow through the botteghe,or workshops, provide an outline of typical tech-

niques used at the time in preparing panel supports and reflect the highly

serious attitude taken toward the craft:

Early References to

Wooden Supports

Historical Overview of Panel-Making

Techniques in Central Italy

Luca Uzielli