“a square piece of the diaper pattern in relief has been intentionally left
undisturbed in the upper left-hand corner” (Scharf 1867:37).
While this account of the treatment of the portrait has a contem-
porary feel, restorers in Britain continued to work in an independent yet
subservient tradition. Even as late as 1949, the restorer Johann Hell
worked for two days in Cambridge cleaning the Fitzwilliam Museum’s
Man in Fanciful Costume,then thought to be by Rembrandt, supervised by
the director of his office. The Conservation Department of the National
Gallery was not established until 1947 (Bomford 1978:3–10). In 1917
Margaret Talbot Jackson still described cradling as a sound technique and
decried as old-fashioned the use offixed steel bars as battens ( Jackson
1917:115–16). By 1933, however, reports in professional journals had cre-
ated an increased awareness of advances in conservation practice. In that
year, Plenderlieth published in the Museums Journala r eport on the confer-
ence in Rome on the examination and preservation of works of art, held
under the auspices of the League of Nations.^14 Different methods of
transfer are discussed. Methods of facing are reported. Cradling is dis-
cussed critically and the edge-on type of cradle reported by Helmut
Ruhemann supported. Professor A. P. Laurie contributed a discussion on
the warping of panels; he recommended sealing the back and end grain of
a panel to slowits response to changes in relative humidity, a topic that
still occupies us today.The author is grateful to Christopher Lloyd, surveyor of the Queen’s
Pictures, for permission to see the Redgrave Inventory, and to Charles
Noble, assistant surveyor, for his most valuable help in finding relevant
information and sharing his knowledge of the history ofthe conservation
ofthe collection. Permission to quote material from the Redgrave
Inventory is from the surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, Royal Collection,
Saint James Palace. By gracious permission of Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II.1 See Millar 1977. There are many references to picture restorers and their work on the
collection.
2 See Lillie 1932:pt. 2:4. For a description of the construction of the retable and its altar frontal,
now in the Cluny Museum, Paris, see Norton, Park, and Binski 1987.
3 See Mogford ca. 1865: appendix, catalogue of Winsor and Newton. The catalogue advertises
prepared panels ranging from 8 3 6 in. to 36 3 28 in. (20.3 3 15.2 cm to 91.4 3 71.2 cm).
Mogford recommends “panels of well-seasoned mahogany... prepared with exceedingly firm
and smooth grounds, for works requiring great detail and finish) (p. 16). The text is datable to
approximately 1865, as Mogford describes the pigment aureolin (cobalt yellow) as among “the
latest and most important contributions of science to the Artist’s palette” (p. 15). Winsor and
Newton introduced the pigment in 1861.
4 Quoted from Read’s Weekly Journal,15 July 1732, in Beard 1970:492.
5 Millar 1960, Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Ashmole 1514.
6 Millar 1960:fol. 19.
7 Shearman 1983. Catalogued as workshop.
8 Shearman 1983, cat. 131:132. Catalogued as follower.Notes
Acknowledgments
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