balsa, then regluing the painted wood on the front and the wood of the
back on the reverse, so as to preserve intact the work’s appearance, as was
done for the Stud y of Handsby J ean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres at the
Louvre Museum (Fig. 4a–d).The elaboration and application of added reinforcements to the reverse
of certain panels was made necessary by the gradual lessening of the
initial support’s mechanical properties, owing to centuries of drastic
interventions.
Until recently most maintenance systems required thinning down
of the panel and leveling of the reverse to allow the positioning of a set of
planed-down and sometimes sliding wooden pieces, such as a cradle. These
interventions were meant to respond to the two priorities of straightening
and flattening of the panel, but they did not take into account the fact that
the wood becomes more reactive as a result of being thinned down and
that, moreover, the thinning of the panel destroyed the precious informa-
tion on the original reverse.
The systems elaborated in recent years perform the sole function
of maintenance in “supervised freedom”; to do so they must respond to
two contradictory requirements: first, the y must provide support sufficient
to slowand limit the play ofthe wood, and, second, they must provide
support limited enough so as not to constrain the wood and risk the for-
mation of splits. Moreover, they must respect the existing reinforcement
by adapting to its unevenness while reducing the surfaces that are glued orPresent-Day Maintenance
SystemsT C-R W P S 257dc
a
b
Figure 4a–d
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, A Stud y of
Hands,nineteenth century. Oil on panel, 33
3 30.9 cm. Louvre Museum, Paris. Before
restoration, the support had separated into
three layers (a). This type of support was
developed by Tachet, whose patent stamp is
still visible (b). During the work (c), the
painted sheet, plywood, and balsa are stacked;
the reverse view (d) shows the back layer and
the balsa layer.