Changes to the Paint Layers in The Wedding Dance

Abstract

e paint on a painting is not immune to the passage of time. Changes to the paint occur for a variety of reasons and at numerous points during the life of a painting. Some natural changes begin immediately as chemical reactions cause the paint to dry. Other natural degradation takes longer to occur and depends on the materials present, as well as what they are exposed to over time. In addition, human intervention can begin a dierent cycle of degradation. Paintings are sometimes vandalized, and this vandalism necessitates treatment—but if that treatment is done by someone who is unskilled, it can lead to further damage. Unfortunately, in the past many “restorers” sought to hide badly degraded areas of the paint layers by overpainting them (applying paint not just within the areas of actual paint loss but also beyond those areas, on top of the artist’s paint). Using the two copies of Bruegel’s painting (see Part 10, p. 96), as well as a color print presumed to be from the 1930s (see Part 11, p. 110), we have determined what types of degradation contributed to the present condition of e Wedding Dance, as well as what the painting may have looked like before each change occurred.