The Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings

hand. The date of the contract is 1456—fairly early for such concern about

authorship (Sobré 1989:38, n. 31).

Few infrared reflecto grams have been published for Spanish pan-

els, and this is an area of research that promises to be interesting. It is to

behoped that both the Prado Museum and the Instituto de Conservación

y Restauración de Bienes Culturales (ICRBC) will continue the technical

studies in this area that have appeared from time to time in recent years

(Silva Maroto 1988:44–60; Garrido and Cabrera 1982:15–31; Cabrera and

Garrido 1981:27–47). Features of Spanish underdrawings on panel include

the frequent occurrence of rather bold, wide lines that seem to have been

applied by brush, and the widespread use of written notations of color

areas. In at least one case, an inscription that was to appear in the finished

painting was recorded first in the underdrawing.^9 Certainly the carefully

worked underdrawing associated with early Netherlandish panels is infre-

quent, at least in Castilian panels of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

This suggests a highly practical role for the drawing stage in the develop-

ment of the painted image. Perhaps it also points to the use of studio pat-

tern books that served as references for frequently repeated subjects, so

that detailed drawings would not have to be worked up on the panel itself.

Incised lines are occasionally evident, particularly for indicating planes in

architecture or the lines radiating from a halo or dove of the Holy Spirit.

The delicate appearance of many retables, with intricate gilt tracery sur-

rounding images painted with the saturated tones of oil paints applied

over a white ground, gives no hint of the rough construction methods

often used to hold these shimmering, glowing assemblies together. This is

especially the case in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Castile, where large

retables were often fitted against a preexisting apse wall. First an armature

ofheavy beams was secured into the wall (Fig. 7). Pieces of timber were

Assembly of the Retable

144 Véliz

Figure 7
Fer nando Gallego, San Antonio Abad,1496. Oil
on panel, image approx. 35 3 90 cm. San
Lorenzo el Real, Toro, Zamora, Spain. The
unpainted margin ofa painting on panel.
The holes in the gesso margin were made by
large nails used to hold a piece of molding in
place. The panel is part of an altarpiece that
has never been dismantled.