by LISA MEHLIN Painting conservator and owner of Mehlin Conservation
FRAMING CONVENTIONS Hold Artists’ Intentions
W
hen we look at a painting, the structure of the work is the scaffolding behind the stage. The artist usually does not want us to be aware of it. Most paintings are a complicated effort to fool the eye into seeing something that is not there. Paintings are executed on a two-dimensional surface, but attempt to make viewers believe they are seeing something three-dimensional, like a landscape, or a portrait. But when we understand this complex relationship between the very real ingredients
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Historic New England Fall 2020
in a painting and the illusory result, we start to truly appreciate the complexity and subtlety of the artistic effort involved. Oil paint started gaining popularity in northern Europe in the fifteenth century. Paintings were initially executed on wooden panels, but by the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy, artists started painting on woven hemp cloth, which was also used for sailcloth in Venice and thus readily available. This cloth, when stretched, survived the heat and humidity of southern Europe far better than wooden
panels, which warped and cracked. This technology also enabled artists to paint much larger works than previously possible. As painting on canvas moved north into France and the Netherlands, hemp was replaced by linen, which was available locally and much more durable. To this day, Belgian linen is considered one of the best materials for painting canvases. This woven cloth was stretched onto a stretcher—which usually could be expanded at the corners—and secured with "keys" in the corners, allowing for tensioning of each side
