| In easel painting as much as in mural painting, the | | | | to the paintings of his day a never before seen |
| supporting material is decisive for the final appearance | | | | transparency and this feat would have been |
| of the painted work of art. | | | | impossible without the stiff panel underground. |
| The choice materials for easel painting have evolved | | | | The stretched linen canvas was easier to |
| very slowly. The natural wood panel, traditionally | | | | manufacture and lighter to handle; the linen being |
| square, was either hewn out of a single plank or - to | | | | stretched onto a thin wooden frame. The design of |
| gain more width - assembled with roughly identical | | | | the stretcher developed continuously over the years |
| planks; wood being the most readily available universal | | | | to improve maintenance of tension and to lessen |
| material in pre-industrial times. However, using massive | | | | deteriorating effects produced on the stretched |
| natural wood is in many ways inconvenient. | | | | material (breaking edges). As with all natural materials, |
| Cut wood, i.e. wood that no longer makes part of a | | | | linen is subject to tensions and reactions that are |
| living tree, has inevitably internal tensions. Wood fibres | | | | spread unequally over the surface and that result in |
| and cellular mass develop under constant stress. The | | | | bulging, slackening or tear. |
| cellular structure counters and stabilizes unequal | | | | After the First World War the modern board |
| growth coming from the bends, twist and turns | | | | developed, made out of wooden ply, fibres or particles. |
| necessary to keep weight above ground and the tree | | | | The great advantage with board was its physical |
| in equilibrium. When wood is cut into planks, the inside | | | | inertia, a direct result of its artificial manufacture. This |
| tension, freed from all balancing forces, makes planks | | | | produced relative insensitivity to structural tension. |
| warp and bend. Furthermore, wood absorbs and | | | | The use of linen canvas as support for easel painting |
| dissolves humidity with considerable structural changes. | | | | has remained well into our days, be it for traditional |
| Keeping the manufactured panel in too humid or too | | | | reasons. However, the aspect of any painted surface |
| dry conditions, or alternating storage in humid and dry | | | | varies depending on the combination of painting |
| atmospheres, inevitably makes the wood "work" and | | | | technique and supporting structure. Canvasses that |
| weakens adherence of applied paint. This is prone to | | | | are laid on board tend to lose much of their initial |
| happen with the singular plank painting and is inevitable | | | | surface characteristics and the aesthetic result is often |
| with the assembly. An assembled panel is a set of | | | | unsatisfactory. |
| unruly elements. | | | | There was a natural evolution in the oil painting |
| In spite of these shortcomings, the panel gave the | | | | technique that accompanied the described evolution of |
| perfect support to the smooth-surfaced and | | | | the support. With the canvas as support, oil painting |
| multilayered oil painting technique as developed by Van | | | | became 'painterly', i.e. brush-strokes were left visible. |
| Eyck in the 15th century. His remarkable manner gave | | | | This interesting fact we'll come back to in another post. |