Petrioli Tofani, director, and the whole staffof the Uffizi Gallery, for mak-
ing possible his research at the Uffizi; Giorgio Bonsanti, superintendent of
the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, and Antonio Paolucci, Italian minister for
the Arts and the Environment, for their continuing support; Sergio Zoppi,
Angelo Guarino, Piero Manetti, Mauro Bacci, and other members of the
Committee for Cultural Heritage of the CNR, whose financial support
made these activities—and hence this report—possible. The author also
thanks his wife, children, and parents, for their patient support during the
many weekends and holidays he dedicated to this work.
The research on which this article is based was made possible by
the financial support of the following institutions: Progetto Strategico
Beni Culturali and Progetto Strategico Uffizi, funded by the CNR; and
“Fondi 60%,” from the University of Florence and the Italian Ministry for
University and Research (MURST).1 Marette (1962) considers that with regard to the study of panel supports, peninsular Italy
may be divided into eight main areas: central Italy (Umbria and Foligno), Emilia-Romagna
(Bologna, Modena, and Ferrara), Florence, Marche, Pisa-Lucca, Rimini, Rome, and Siena. In
this context, the numerous towns and workshops, or botteghe,in central Italy (which includes
present-day Tuscany, Umbria, Marche, and Latium) may have been most influenced by the
techniques developed in Florence and Siena.
2 In Giotto’sCrocifisso di Santa Maria Novella,the cloth glued on the panel is coar ser than the
one glued on the engaged frame, the latter being thinner so as to better follow the molding
(Bracco, Ciappi, and Ramat 1992).
3 The three main species of poplar—white poplar, Populus alba L. (Italian: pioppo bianco, gàttice,
alberaccio); European aspen, P. tremulaL. (Italian: pioppo tremolo, alberello, farfaro); and black
poplar, P. nigraL. (Italian: pioppo nero)—as well as several hybrids, have been present through-
out Italy since ancient times. The presently cultivated poplars are mostly hybrids, such as
Populus euramericana[Dode] Guinier, derived from crossbreeding with North American black
poplars imported to Europe in the eighteenth century.
The Lombardy poplar (P. nig ra cv. italica Du Roy 5 P. pyramidalisRoz [Italian: pioppo
cipressino, pioppo piramidale]) is a clone ofP.nigra,which a pparently originated through a
spontaneous mutation. This clone is frequent in northern Italy (hence its English designation,
Lombardy poplar), and since male individuals are the vast majority, it is propagated only from
cuttings. The woods of all these poplar species are quite similar and cannot be distinguished
by anatomical examination. However, it is likely that most boards used for panel making were
obtained from P. alba,which generally produces wood of better quality.
4 Marette reports data and statistics for more than 1800 panel paintings from various museums
(Marette 1962). Gettens and Stout give a summary of woods made from the catalogues of the
Munich and Vienna museums, with a few items from the catalogue of the National Gallery,
London (Gettens and Stout 1966).
5 The microscopical identifications were performed by the author’s late colleague Prof. Raffaello
Nardi Berti (Nardi Berti 1984).
6 Cupping is a particular kind of warping caused mostly by anisotropy of shrinkage—that is,
by greater shrinkage in the tangential direction than in the radial (Buck 1962, 1972; Thomson
1994; Uzielli 1994).
7 Castelli and coworkers state, however, that exclusive use of radially sawed boards was typical
ofthe most careful works (Castelli, Parri, and Santacesaria 1992).
8 The pith is seldom perfectly straight in poplar logs, so it seldom affects the whole length of
the diametric board. Furthermore, its occurrence (although constituting a zone of weakness,
occasionally generating longitudinal fissures) will not necessarily imply a dramatic and com-
plete separation in the board.Notes
130 Uzielli