ABSTRACT
Critical opinion of traditional treatments for panel paintings did not change significantly until the 1920s and 1930s. The Rome Conference in 1930, which resulted in a publication entitled Manual on the Conservation and Restoration of Paintings, heralded not only the beginnings of an established conservation profession that recognized the importance of an international cross-fertilization of ideas, but also marked a shift in attitude in the structural conservation of panel paintings (ICOM, 1940/1997; International Museums Office, 1940). In particular, the publication included an enlightened discussion about the effects of humidity change on wooden panels and the importance of environmental control and protection; moreover, criticisms were made of cradling and transfer processes. More importantly, the preservation of the support increased in status and the removal of original material from the reverse was judged legitimate only in extreme situations where the painting was in an advanced state of deterioration. Later key documents, ‘The Care of Wood Panels’, written in 1955 by a group of international experts assembled by the ICOM Commission, and the 1961 IIC Rome Conference, did much to further debates on the issues raised in the 1930 Rome Conference (Stout, 1955; Thomson, 1963). The 1950s and 1960s were a period in which there was considerable interest in the conservation of panel paintings. For example, the work carried out by Richard D. Buck in the United States set a precedent for research into the mechanical behaviour of panel paintings and added impetus to a growing dissatisfaction with cradling, a treatment that had been carried out almost as a routine matter for approximately 200 years (Buck, 1962, 1963, 1972).
