The painting is in poor structural condition. It has been lined with paste onto another canvas, but the lining canvas is brittle and tearing around the tacking edges. This lining appears to be extremely old, possibly 18th century, as it too is a joined canvas.
Torn tacking edge
The painting is no longer well attached to the stretcher due to the brittle and torn condition of the lining canvas edges. This has caused deformations in the canvas particularly at the corners, as the painting is no longer held under even tension. Attempts to resecure the canvas sometime in the 19th century, included placing metal tacks through the face of the painting around the edges, causing damage to the paint layers. The stretcher behind the canvas is broken and has been reinforced with a brace, but this is not holding securely.
An aged natural resin varnish layer (not original) across the painting distorts and de-saturates the colours of the painting and obscures details, particularly in the sky. A rain cloud on the left and a sunlit opening on the right are barely discernable through the yellow varnish layer. There is a large area of Restorer's over paint in the upper centre that is a poor colour match, and several tears in the lower right quadrant are open and lifting. Areas of the paint film have a raised cupping pattern, and the canvas is itself distorted particularly along the join in the original canvas in a vertical line through the centre.
However, the paint film is in unusually good original condition underneath the varnish and dirt layers. Given the age of the painting, there is relatively little restoration. Varnish solubility tests suggest that removal of the varnish layer will reveal a broad palette of cool coloured sky and landscape, against brightly rendered dogs and intense vermilion blood. The dark form of the boar would also become clearer. Cleaning will enhance the artist's accomplished painterly execution, particularly in the details of the dog's fur. |
