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Question asked 2020-08-01 14:52:48 ...
Most recent comment 2020-08-02 16:32:00
Art Conservation Topics
Grounds / Priming
Oil Paint
Hi all,
I've just come back from Mallorca, Spain visiting my parents in law. I noticed one of the paintings they had in their house had quite substantial cracking (mostly in light areas.. zinc white?) and paint adhesion failure.
The painting was dated with the signature to 1944 and received a lot of indirect (or direct) sunlight and high temperatures.
I just thought it was interesting how badly the paint film was doing. I'm not sure if the canvas was primed correctly either?
Thanks,
Richard
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Moderator Answer
(brian baade)
There is general and severe cracking as well as a lack of
adhesion between the canvas and ground. There are many possible reasons for
this include faulty and too slick of a size layer, brittle ground materials,
possibly a result of zinc oxide but it could be other things including the use
of overly lean glue or even stack containing grounds. It is impossible to really
pinpoint the cause without extensive testing and a survey of works by the same
artist.
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Moderator Answer
(brian baade)
I am reading that as a bleached fabric. If it is the exposed
ground, that would certainly point to problems with the paint itself. One of reasons
for this could very likely be zinc white. It could also too lean paint applied over
a slicker ground.
This can also occur when a very fine has a thin ground
making a very flimsy fabric and over this the artist applies a very thick
application of paint. As the paint become more brittle overtime it flakes and
delaminates.
The paint could be desiccated due an overly dry or hot
environment. I have seen similar appearing conditions when a painting has been
baking under on of those picture lights. The damage is focused on the very spot
under the circle of hot light. It is
very easy to always point to zinc oxide, and it has caused major issues, but there
a thousands of paintings executed with the pigment since the 19th
century that are not necessarily falling apart. It could obviously be the
problem here, I just can't diagnose this from an isolated photo.
EditDelete
Moderator Answer
(brian baade)
The image quality is not good enough for me to make a
definitive statement but the lacuna appear to me to be raw canvas. Again, there
is little more that I can say using these images.
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