Rabbit skin glue to prevent mould on canvasApproveRejectUn-ApproveSubscribeUn-Unsubscribe
Question asked 2022-04-30 12:37:45 ...
Most recent comment 2022-05-16 16:17:12
Animal Glue
Hi
I have received a question I can't answer. I have checked the MITRA forums and resource guides.
Can we apply rabbit skin glue behind the canvas to prevent mold growth?
Does anyone know? Thanks.
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Moderator Answer
(brian baade)
The quickest answer is the write, please do not do this. I will flesh
this out a bit. First, animal skin glue is the most reactive material used in
traditional and even modern paintings in terms of responses to changes in
relative humidity. At low RH it is extremely brittle, at high RH it loses all
film qualities and forces the paint to do all of the structural work. Old
brittle paint can only crack.
One may ask if this is the case why are not all old
paintings a mess? We to some extent the affect is mitigated by being trapped
under a layers of paint/ground and that most of the time RH is not above 80%
where real problems start. Other would say that today there is no real
justification for using animal glue for sizing. I understand but am not totally
on that side.
Animal glue on the back of the canvas would exacerbate any
negative tendencies. Additionally, allpying animal glue onto the back of an
already prepared and painted canvas could cause severe shrinkage to the support
and possible loss of ground and paint layers. mold growth only occurs at high
RH, the same ranges where animal glue starts to fail. In short, there is no
good reason to do this.
In the past artists would sometimes size and prime both size
of the canvas before painting. This could be done if desired, but I would
suggest that the sizing be done on both sides before any priming or painting.
Also, this would be best if done using an acrylic dispersion size and probably an
acrylic dispersion ground if you do want to prime both sides.
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