Wooden panel picture

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The hands and the castle from the Antwerp city coat of arms are branded on the back of the wooden panel image, as well as the table maker's house brand. This means that the wooden panel picture was created in Antwerp in the 17th century.

In art history, a wooden panel painting is a painting painted on wood. Until the 15th century, wood was the only image carrier in European panel painting . In the course of the 16th century, the wooden panel painting was slowly replaced by canvas painting . Only in the 19th century can one find smaller paintings again on very smoothly worked wooden panels.

A wealth of information for identifying the painting is contained in the wooden picture carrier. It is possible, with the help of the types of wood, the way in which a picture carrier was made (traces of work, board cut), and the examination of the annual rings ( dendrochronology ) to carefully classify the wood panel picture in terms of time and location.

Wood species

Wooden panel paintings consist of boards from European and, since the 17th century, also from overseas trees. Determining the type of wood of a picture carrier allows careful conclusions to be drawn about the place and occasionally also the time of its creation and thus also of the painting that was painted on it. The type of wood on an image carrier is determined with the aid of microscopic examination (micro-examination) based on its species-specific cell structure.

According to Jacqueline Marette's research, over 90% poplar , 2-3% walnut and fir were used in Italy ; in Germany fir , linden , spruce , and oak (all around 20%); in the Netherlands oak (100%) and a few overseas woods such as teak and mahogany ; in Spain pine (42%) and poplar (36%); in Portugal oak (82%) and sweet chestnut (13%).  

Traces of work

With the help of the processing traces on the back of a wooden panel picture, you can get initial clues about when it was created. Dutch oak panels with fiber cracks (left picture, bottom right) and saw marks (center) were usually made before the 17th century. A smoothly worked back with beveled edges in the 17th century.
The thickness of the Dutch tablets from the 16th and 17th centuries is also different. The wooden panels of the 16th century are noticeably thicker / stronger (left) and often also "coarsely" worked.

To a certain extent, traces of work or processing can also provide information about the age of a painting. In the Middle Ages, wooden boards were not sawn from the trunk, but split from the trunk. This is why the backs of wooden panel pictures are occasionally not smooth until the 16th century, but show torn wood fibers. Characteristic saw marks can only be found in wooden panel paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries. The Dutch panel makers of the 17th century in particular provided their panels with wide bevels . The thickness of the Dutch tablets from the 16th and 17th centuries is also different. The wooden panels of the 16th century are noticeably thicker / stronger and often also “coarsely” worked.

Board cut

The Dutch board is perfectly cut from the trunk (heartwood board). This can be seen from the “mirrors” on the back (left image) and the standing growth rings on the end grain side.
On the two panels there are said to be Dutch paintings from the 17th century. This cannot be the case because the boards are tangentially cut from the log.

The stability and behavior of a wooden panel picture depend on how the individual boards were wedged or sawed out of the tree trunk, i.e. H. from the professional board cut. The radially cut core boards are the most stable in terms of work and arching. Dutch wooden panel paintings from the 14th to 17th centuries Century always consist of heartwood boards d. That is, boards with standing tree rings. If this is not the case with a Dutch painting, its authenticity may be questionable.

This is different with the generally much thicker / stronger Italian poplar wood panels, which are predominantly cut tangentially and not infrequently have oblique to lying annual rings.

Brand marks / punch marks

Due to an ordinance of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke, the castle and the hands from the Antwerp city coat of arms were burned into the image carriers, which had the prescribed quality. The table makers also cut, punched or burned their monogram or house brand on the table. These brands were also counterfeited (3)

Some oak panels have branding or impact marks that prove their manufacture in Antwerp. Due to an ordinance of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke from 1470, the hands from the Antwerp city coat of arms were burned in wooden panels, which had the prescribed quality, and the castle from the same coat of arms after the painting was accepted. The table makers also scratched, punched or burned their monogram or house brand on the table.

The branding or impact marks described can only be found on Antwerp oak boards from the 16th and 17th centuries. No comparable markings have been found on the reverse of the painting for any other art region. However, there are a few paintings by Dutch artists on panels with these brands. It can be assumed that these panels either came to Holland as a trade item or that the Dutch artist painted the panel during a stay in Antwerp.

The brands appear in different variations. Presumably it is a further development of the two motifs over the decades. While on early plates z. For example, if the castle is only indicated in outline, it will be shown in detail on later picture carriers, corresponding to the city arms.

The brand marks are easy to imitate and so you can occasionally find them on the back of forged wooden panel pictures.

literature

  • Herrman Kühn u. a .: Reclam's Handbook of Artistic Techniques. Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-15-010322-3 .
  • Theodor von Frimmel: Painting studies. Leipzig 1920
  • Knut Nicolaus: DuMont's handbook of painting. Dumont Buchverlag, Cologne 2003. ISBN 3-8321-7288-2

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jaqueline Marett: Connaissance des Primitifs par l'Etude . Paris 1961.
  2. ↑ Hermann Kühn u. a .: Reclam's Handbook of Artistic Techniques . Reclam, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-15-010322-3 .
  3. ^ Theodor von Frimmel: Painting studies . Leipzig 1920.