Transfer of panel paintings

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The practice of conserving an unstable painting on panel by

transferring it from its original decayed, worm-eaten, cracked or
distorted wood support to canvas or a new panel has been practised
since the eighteenth century. It has now been largely superseded by
improved methods of wood conservation.[2]
The practice evolved in Naples and Cremona in 1711-25, and
reached France by the middle of the eighteenth century.[3] It was
especially widely practiced in the second half of the 19th century.
Similar techniques are used to transfer frescos. Oil paintings on
canvas often receive additional support or are transferred to a new
backing.

Methods
The process is described by Henry Mogford in his Handbook for the
Sebastiano del Piombo's Raising of
Preservation of Pictures. Smooth sheets of paper were pasted over
Lazarus, transferred from panel to
the painted surface of the panel, and a layer of muslin over that. The
canvas in 1771.[1]
panel was then fixed, face down, to a table, and the wood planed
away from the back until it was "as thin as a plane may safely go",
and the remainder scraped off with a sharp instrument such as a razor. The ground of the painting was then
removed by solvents or scraping, until nothing remained but a thin skin of colour, pasted over with paper
and held together by the muslin. A prepared canvas was then attached to the back of the paint layer, using
the same method as was used for lining pictures. When the glue had dried, the paper and muslin was
removed by careful damping.[4]
The leading workshop carrying out the process in Paris in the eighteenth century was that of Jean-Louis
Hacquin (d. 1783), who transferred many works in the French royal collection. Transfers from the workshop
have sometimes been found to have a layer of pieces of silk, or of sheets of paper between the paint layer
and the new canvas. The workshop was continued after Hacquins death by his son, Franois-Toussaint
Hacquin (17561832)., who transferred many paintings taken to France from Italy during the Napoleonic
period.[1]
Another method, used by Hacquin's contemporary, Jean-Michel Picault, dissolved the ground layer
chemically, apparently with fumes of nitrous oxide, allowing the panel to be removed intact from the
paint.[1] A later restorer, Marie-Jacob Godefroid is recorded as having achieved similar results by the use of
steam.[5]
A less dramatic "partial transfer" tended to be used in Germany and Austria, in which a thin layer of the
original wood was retained, and glued onto a new panel.[6]

References
1. Dunkerton, Jill; Howard, Helen (2009). "Sebastiano del Piombo's Raising of Lazarus: A History of Change"
(http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/upload/pdf/dunkerton_howard2009.pdf) (PDF). National Gallery Technical
Bulletin 30.
2. Dardes, Kathleen; Rothe, Andrea (eds.). The Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings:Proceedings of a
symposium at the J. Paul Getty Museum
(http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/pdf_publications/panelpaintings.html#download) 3.
Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute. p.189.
3. Dardes, Kathleen; Rothe, Andrea (eds.). The Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings:Proceedings of a
symposium at the J. Paul Getty Museum
(http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/pdf_publications/panelpaintings.html#download) 3.
Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute. pp.2689.
4. Mogford, Henry (1851). Handbook for the Preservation of Pictures (3rd ed.). London: Winsor and Newton.
pp.356.
5. Bomford, David; Leonard,, Mark (2004). Issues in the Conservation of Paintings
(http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ywaDvCzGxpsC&pg=PA281&lpg=PA284&dq). Getty Publications. p.281.
ISBN978-0-89236-781-8.
6. Dardes, Kathleen; Rothe, Andrea (eds.). The Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings:Proceedings of a
symposium at the J. Paul Getty Museum
(http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/pdf_publications/panelpaintings.html#download) 3.
Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute. p.222.

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