1921:294). Other restorers who voted against cradling pointed out the dis-
advantages—but their criticisms were directed toward a recommendation
that thin panels be mounted on plywood instead of being cradled (Bauer-
Bolton 1933:99–100).
International exchange facilitates communication about other
methods—even methods that were first proposed seventy or eighty years
ago. Secco-Suardo’s method of a reduced cradle system without slats along
the grain of the panel seems to have become known in Germany during the
middle of the twentieth century (Zillich 1991:63). In Germany this cradle
system was called the Italian cradle. It was described in detail in 1949 by
Toni Roth in Doerner’s ninth edition (Doerner 1949:418). The Italian cradle
system was apparently invented a second time by Kurt Wehlte (1958:110).
But here the old conservation master adopted a system that had been
described as the Italian system three years earlier by Thomas Brachert,
who briefly summariz ed all cradling systems (Brachert 1955b:8). The only
differences between the methods were broader slats across the grain.Discussions about cradling in the 1950s and 1960s
Cradling was discussed more in detail in the 1950s and the 1960s. The 1952
Wolters Report summarized all positive and negative aspects of cradling. It
emphasized that cradling with flat slats should be avoided and that cradling
with slats positioned on their sides, or with the Italian system, would be
more convenient. It is evident that the Wolters Report supplied much fun-
damental material for the important article “The Care of Wood Panels” by
the International Council of Museums (ICOM) Commission for the Care of
Paintings (1955:139–94).
In 1960 Keyselitz presented an article on the so-called Vienna
method ofcradling in the journal Maltechnik. It was a call to reestablish
traditional artisans’ techniques, which were in danger of disappearing in a
theoretical world of new conservation attitudes. Under the guidance of218 Schiessl
Figure 16
Matthias Grünewald, Our Christ Carrying
theCross,1520–24. Reverse. Tempera on
pinewood panel, 195.5 3 142.5 cm. Kunsthalle
Karlsruhe (inv. 994; in the collection since
1900). The painting is one part of a formerly
double-sided painting. In 1883 the restorer
A. Hauser split, cradled, and cleaned the
paintings. This photograph from the 1950s
shows the old, flat wooden cradle.