To Treat or Not to Treat: That Is the Question; Structural Treatment of Canvas Paintings from a Danish Perspective

This paper discusses the situation in Denmark before the Greenwich conference on lining of canvas paintings and how the subsequent period of fifteen to twenty years was filled with curiosity, eagerness to try out new ways and ideas, testing of methods and materials, contemplating failures, building of new and glorious equipment—and a longing for better understanding of treatments and the structural behavior of the paintings. In the 1990s, the focus gradually changed. Interventions became more limited, techniques and materials used changed, and development of new treatment methods and materials was deemphasized, while better understanding of the structural behavior of canvas painting and its consequences came to the forefront through increased scientific study of the subject.