exerted on the original panel and have been replaced with others of
different designs and varying degrees of effectiveness. In this context it is
interesting to note the shrinkage that has occurred on many panels that
were thinned and cradled in the nineteenth century. The shrinkage can be
measured by how far the battens extend beyond the sides of the panel
(Buck 1978)—sometimes as much as 0.5 cm on a panel only 90 cm wide.
In postwar Italy, methods of panel painting conservation became
more sophisticated. Splits were rejoined with wedges, in the method men-
tioned by Secco-Suardo in 1866, but the wedges were tightly fitted into
carefully cut V-shaped grooves and glued with PVA emulsion glues.^1
Dovetails were no longer used because it was observed that they did not
properly secure breaks and splits and, in fact, created new ones (Fig. 11).
Opinions have differed on how deep the V cuts should go into the panel.
Ultimately ageneralconsensus was reached that they be cut as close as
possible to the original gesso from the back and that the wedges be care-
fully fitted into these to ensure a lasting hold. Deformations and cracking
have been observed in those cases where the incisions have gone only
halfway into the panel, such as in a sample made in 1961 (Fig. 12).
Modern restraints or cross braces are made to be as unobtrusive
as possible, and original battens are often readapted if they still exist.
Otherwise new ones are made that require the least intervention to the
original panel. It is interesting to observe how new battens have become
progr essively lighter since the early 1950s, thus reducing to a minimum the
amount of reworking required on the back of the panel. Many different
constructions were designed by the various conservation centers. Metal T
bars were used, as well as brass tubes that slide inside wooden braces or
cleats attached to the panel with or without metal sleeves. These some-
times have the drawback that they behave more like clamps and actually
block the movement of the panel ifthere is atendency for it to warp.
Other crossbars—such as the wooden ones constructed at the variousC H P P R I 193Figure 11
Simone de Magistris, Deposition,1576.
Reverse. Tempera (?) on panel, 265 3 182 cm.
Convento dei Cappuccini, Potenza Picena,
Italy. These old dovetails have caused a new
series of splits in the panel.
Figure 12
Tw o grooves cut into a poplar panel at
different depths contain the same poplar
wedges glued with a PVA emulsion glue.
There is a marked cracking of the ground
opposite the top groove, which is cut only
halfway into the panel; opposite the bottom
groove, which is cut into the whole thickness
of the panel, there is no cracking of the gesso.