In 2019, Yale University, with the support of the Getty Foundation, held an international conference, where nearly four hundred attendees from more than twenty countries gathered to discuss a vital topic: how best to conserve paintings on canvas. It was the first major symposium on the subject since 1974, when wax-resin and glue-paste lining reigned as the predominant conservation techniques. Over the past fifty years, such methods, which were often destructive to artworks, have become less widely used in favor of more minimalist approaches to intervention. More recent decades have witnessed the reevaluation of traditional practices as well as focused research supporting significant new methodologies, procedures, and synthetic materials for the care and conservation of paintings on fabric supports. Conserving Canvas compiles the proceedings of the conference, presenting a wide array of papers and posters that provide important global perspectives on the history, current state, and future needs of the field. Featuring an expansive glossary of terms that will be an invaluable resource for conservators, this publication promises to become a standard reference for the international conservation community.

• Foreword, Joan Weinstein and Timothy P. Whalen
• Introduction, Ian McClure, Jim Coddington, and Cynthia Schwarz
• I. History, Principles, and Theory
  • 1. Understanding Structure, Changing Practice, Stephen Hackney
  • 2. Applied Mechanics and the Structural Treatment of Paintings on Canvas, Eric Hagan
  • 3. To Treat or Not to Treat, That Is the Question: Structural Treatment of Canvas Paintings from a Danish Perspective, Mikkel Scharff
  • 4. Lining at the National Maritime Museum and at the Courtauld Institute of Art: Past and Present, Camille Polkownik, Clare Richardson, Maureen Cross, and Sarah Maisey
  • 5. The Lining of Paintings on Canvas in Naples, Angela Cerasuolo
  • 6. Structural Conservation of Canvases in Russia from the 1960s to the Present: Evolution of Methods and Approaches, Anastasia Yurovetskaya
  • 7. Sustainable Trajectories for Terminologies, Methods, and Materials in the Structural Treatment of Paintings on Fabric Supports, Matthew Cushman
• II. Present Practice
  • 8. The Relining of Van Dyck’s Equestrian Portrait of Charles I, Paul Ackroyd
  • 9. Demystifying Mist-Lining, Kate Seymour, Joanna Strombek, and Jos van Och
  • 10. Linking Past and Future: Forty Years a Liner in Italy, Matteo Rossi-Doria
  • 11. Customized Methodologies Developed to Solve Conservation Issues with Large Paintings on Canvas, Barbara Lavorini and Luigi Orata
  • 12. Puvis de Chavannes’s Philosophy Mural: Tactics for the Reversal of a Beva 371b Marouflage Lining from an Aluminum Honeycomb Panel, Ian Hodkinson, Gianfranco Pocobene, and Corrine Long
  • 13. Lining as a Last Resort for a Large-Format Canvas Painting of the Early Nineteenth Century, Julia Brandt and Carina Volbracht
  • 14. Structural Stabilization of Large Paintings on Canvas: A History of Approaches in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Elke Oberthaler
• III. Open Questions and Research
  • 15. Canvas Complexity: The Life of a Complex Composite, Christina Young
  • 16. A Novel Technique to Determine the Strength of Canvas and Its Correlation with the Degree of Cellulose Polymerization, Theresa A. Bräunig, Anna von Reden, Dirk A. Lichtblau, and Christoph Herm
  • 17. Chronicles in Wax-Resin Lining: A Historic Look at Lining Practices and Their Effectual Legacy on Paintings in the Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection, Amber Kerr, Gwen Manthey, Keara Teeter, Kristin DeGhetaldi, Brian Baade, W. Christian Petersen, and Catherine Matsen
  • 18. Gacha Lining’s Treatment Viability: The Spanish and European Glue-Paste Adhesive Used since the Seventeenth Century, Ana Calvo, Ana Macarrón, Rita Gil, and Julia Betancor
  • 19. The Influence of Research and Innovative Development on Laboratory Practice in the Structural Treatment of Paintings over Four Decades, Debra Daly Hartin, Stefan W. Michalski, and Eric Hagan
  • 20. A Short History of Suction Tables, Jim Coddington
  • 21. Mehra’s Eight Requirements for Linings, Revisited: Evaluation of Linings for Canvas Paintings—Then and Now, Cecil Krarup Andersen
• IV. Case Studies
  • 22. Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Artemisia Gentileschi: A Recent Glue-Paste Relining Treatment at the National Gallery, London, Lynne Harrison
  • 23. Conserving the History and Fabric of the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ’Round the World, Kathryn S. Tarleton and Charlotte Hamlin
  • 24. Working around The Hours: The Structural Treatment of a Twelve-Foot-Round Ceiling Painting by Edwin Austin Abbey, Cynthia Schwarz, Kelsey Wingel, Julianna Ly, and Ian McClure
  • 25. Issues with Congolese Paintings in Belgium’s Africa Museum: Condition Assessment and Research in Transparent Lining, Emilie Desbarax
  • 26. Eighteenth-Century Canvases of Easel Painting from New Spain: The Case of the Apostolate Series of Atizapan, Mexico, Claudia Alejandra Garza Villegas and Naitzá Santiago Gómez
• V. The Adhesives Question
  • 27. Nanocellulose and Multilayered Nanoparticles in Paintings Conservation: Introduction of New Materials for Canvas Consolidation and a Novel Multiscale Approach for Their Assessment, Alexandra Bridarolli, Marianne Odlyha, Oleksandr Nechyporchuk, Krzysztof Kolman, Romain Bordes, Krister Holmberg, Gema Campo-Francés, Cristina Ruiz-Recasens, Manfred Anders, Aurélia Chevalier, Piero Baglioni, Laurent Bozec, and Giovanna Poggi
  • 28. Reliable Adhesives in New Shape: Canvas Bonding with Self-Supporting Adhesive Meshes, Mona Konietzny, Karolina Soppa, and Ursula Haller
  • 29. The Thread-by-Thread Tear-Mending Method: New Insights into the Choice of Adhesives and Their Application, Hannah Flock, Petra Demuth, Stefan Diebels, and Elisabeth Jägers
• VI. Local Interventions and Collections
  • 30. Targeted Strategies for Structural Treatments: The Law of the Instrument, Occam’s Razor, and Minimal Intervention, Robert Proctor
  • 31. Weaving into Heiber: Further Treatment Steps for Tear Mending, Emily Mulvihill, Sandra Amann, Elizabeth Estabrook, Megan Berkey, Sayaka Rozsa, and Gail Mitchell
  • 32. Less Is More: Juxtaposing the History of Lining and Alternative Treatments as Found in the Neue Pinakothek and the Sammlung Schack in Munich, Renate Poggendorf
  • 33. Conservation of Canvas Paintings at the Victoria and Albert Museum: Past, Present, and Future, Nicola Costaras
  • 34. The Traditional Colla Pasta Lining in the National Gallery in Rome: Examples and Early Evidence, Chiara Merucci
  • 35. The Impact of a Major Flood on Relined and Transferred Paintings from the Musée Girodet in Montargis, France, and the Conservation That Followed, Dominique Martos-Levif, Ludovic Roudet, and Matthieu Gilles
  • 36. Remedial Conservation of Canvas Paintings: Issues and Challenges Due to Previous Treatments, Anil Dwivedi and Achal Pandya
  • 37. Low and Slow: The Role of Targeted Precision Heat Transfer and Innovative Flexible Mat Technology for New Methodologies in the Conservation of Paintings on Canvas, Nina Olsson and Tomas Markevičius
• VII. Conserving Modern and Contemporary Art
  • 38. The Structural Treatment of Modern and Contemporary Canvas Paintings: Changing Approaches and Considerations, Mary H. Gridley
  • 39. Wax-Resin Extraction Traction on a Late Georges Braque Still Life, Desirae Dijkema and Bradford Epley
  • 40. Local Treatments of Cupped Cracks in Contemporary Paintings and Their Appearance after Twenty-One Years, Mary Piper Hough and Stefan W. Michalski
• VIII. Posters
  • 41. Waxing Historical: Preliminary Insights into Wax-Resin Lining Practices at the Brooklyn Museum, Lauren Bradley and Josh Summer
  • 42. The Greenwich Conference on Comparative Lining Techniques, April 23, 24, and 25, 1974: Three Days That Changed Conservation, Joyce Hill Stoner
  • 43. A Roman Technique of Open-Weave Canvas Lining, Emma Kimmel
  • 44. A Method for Remounting Lined Paintings Using Beva 371 Film, Elizabeth Court, Alexis Miller, and Bianca García
  • 45. On Color Change in Seventeenth-Century Netherlandish Paintings after Wax-Resin Lining, Emilie Froment
  • 46. Historical Canvases Deciphered: Five Case Studies, Helena Loermans
  • 47. A System to Keep Paintings on Canvas at a Constant Tension during Conservation Treatment, Luigi Orata
  • 48. Removing Beeswax Residues from the Structure of the Canvas with AEROSIL, Marina Voronina, Ekaterina Morozova, and Maria Churakova
  • 49. Analysis of Evolon CR as a Poulticing Agent for Wax-Resin Lining Adhesives: Py-GCMS, BET, and SEM Analyses of Used Evolon CR Tissues, Julianna Ly, Chun Liu, Jing Qu, Gerald Poirier, and Matthew Cushman
  • 50. Various Recipes of Wax Resin for Lining Used in Japan and How the Recipe Affects Removal, Saki Kunikata, Takayasu Kijima, and Masahiko Tsukada
  • 51. An Insight into the Limits and Possibilities of the Biological, Chemical, and Mechanical Performance of Glue-Paste Lined Paintings, Laura Fuster-López, Cecil Krarup Andersen, Nicolas Bouillon, Fabien Fohrer, Matteo Rossi-Doria, Mikkel Scharff, Kate Seymour, Ángel Vicente-Escuder, Dolores Julia Yusà-Marco, and Sofía Vicente-Palomino
  • 52. The Structural Treatment of Titian’s Rape of Europa: Extending the Life of a Two-Hundred-Year-Old Glue-Paste Lining, Courtney Books, Corrine Long, and Gianfranco Pocobene
  • 53. Relining The Menagerie van Prince Willem V, Carlota Barbosa, Leonora Burton, Kristin Rattke, Kate Seymour, Eva Tammekivi, and Jos van Och
  • 54. Evaluating Structural Treatment Options for an Untensioned Oil Painting on Canvas, Marie-Hélène Nadeau
  • 55. Conservation and Restoration of The Crucifixion, an Eighteenth-Century Canvas Painting: Challenges of the Large-Scale Lining, Complicated Tear Repair, and Verification of the Authorship, Katarzyna Dobrzańska and Magdalena Lentowicz
  • 56. An Approach to Conservation Treatment Options for Double-Sided Painted Canvases with Ritual Functions, Filip Adrian Petcu
  • 57. The Challenges of Treating and Displaying Two-Sided Oil Paintings, Elena Iurovetskaia, Anastasia Yurovetskaya, Maria Churakova, and Artyom Romanov
  • 58. Is Lining Inevitable? Tear Repair of a Seventeenth-Century Canvas on Its Original Strainer, Matthew Hayes
  • 59. Magnetic Systems as an Alternative to Traditional Methods for the Conservation-Restoration of Painted Canvas Supports: A Proposal of Minimal Intervention Protocols, Emanuel Sterp Moga and Alicia Sánchez Ortiz
  • 60. Structural Conservation Issues with European Easel Paintings Housed in High-Humidity Regions Such as Mumbai, India, Omkar Kadu
  • 61. Termite Attack in a Humid Climate: How to Deal with Damaged Canvases; The Conservation of The Delhi Durbar (1903), a Case Study, Dibakar Karmakar and Baishakhi Mallick
  • 62. Investigating Commercially Primed Contemporary Artist Canvases, Anne Carter, Lynn Chua, Filzah Mohd Amir, Ruby Awburn, Gillian Osmond, and Joey Ng
  • 63. Stabilization Processing of Canvas Paintings Damaged by Tsunami: Consideration of Blotter Washing to Acrylic Paintings on Cotton Canvas, Yuko Tsuchiya, Eriko Hoshi, Hiroshi Haze, Marie Moto, and Nobuyuki Kamba
• Glossary
• Bibliography

Cynthia Schwarz is senior associate conservator, Yale University Art Gallery.

Ian McClure was senior director of the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage and the Susan Morse Hilles Chief Conservator, Yale University Art Gallery.

Jim Coddington is retired chief conservator, Museum of Modern Art, New York.