canvas

For over a hundred years, most of the causes of cracking have been explored: humidity and temperature, expansion and contraction, stress, and paint embrittlement. The symptoms were obvious—cracking and paint loss—but the causes were not clearly understood. In 1982, Marion Mecklenburg and other scientists at the Smithsonian Institute reported the first systematic explanation of painting mechanics, especially that of canvas paintings...

Canvas has become the most common support for oil painting, replacing wooden panels. One of the earliest surviving oil paintings on canvas is the French Virgin and Child with Angels from around 1410 in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. However, panel painting remained in everyday use until the sixteenth century in Italy and the seventeenth century in Northern Europe. Mantegna and Venetian artists were among those leading the change. Religious differences and guild practice, as well as the availability of supports—good quality wood in Northern Europe and a flourishing flax growing and weaving tradition in Southern Europe—likely influenced the preference and adoption of supports. As materials and paintings were imported and exported and artists traveled to Italy, the influence of Italian techniques filtered north...

This traditional method of preparing canvas supports for oil painting uses rabbit skin size (animal collagen glue) and oil ground. Herein briefly is the process of preparing a picture canvas for oil painting...