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Paintings consist of several layers: the painting is made on a support, generally linen or wood, linen is stretched on a special stretcher frame, making it possible to tighten the linen should this become slack. The support is treated with a ground layer (usually made of chalk and glue, with or without the addition of linseed oil), on this the actual painting is made, this can be done with pigments in oil, acrylate, wax, egg tempera, gum or mixed media. 
Finally as a last layer, frequently a varnish is used. 

Some changes which paintings undergo in their life are inevitable; for example certain types of cracks appearing in paintings, (cracking is in itself no immediate threat to the painting and should therefore not always be seen as damage).

Also on old paintings it can be seen that oil paint becoming more transparent over time. Sometimes as a result an underlying drawing will begin to shine through. 

Changes (discoloration) in the varnish layer however will appear considerably faster, on average taken a varnish of say 25 years of age can already be considerably yellowed. Because cleaning a painting each time can be detrimental, study into this already has produced a more stable varnish.

 

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  Last modified on: 18/05/05

© R.E.Hartskeerl - Haarlem 2007