A wood panel made of three planks glued and doweled together. An end view shows a flat panel that, as humidity changes, warps into a curve and splits. Italian panels are mostly poplar, northern ones mostly oak.

Concept · Paint and Its Surface

Wood Panels

From the 1200s to the early 1500s, most surviving portable paintings are on wood: one plank or several glued and doweled into a board.

Wood takes up moisture and gives it back as the air changes, swelling and shrinking. Over centuries a panel can warp and split, as at right, and loosen the paint on it.

  • Earlier restorers planed warped panels thinner and glued wooden lattices (cradles) to the back; conservators now use gentler methods.

See

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