When the painting arrived at the Dallas Museum of Art in 1959, the original canvas was severely distorted, and the paint had lifted sharply along all of the drying cracks.
Month: July 2021
The French artist Charles-Antoine Coypel painted this scene of amour figures forging arrows for Cupid’s bow around 1715. It remains in nearly pristine condition, but the varnish layers, which were not original, had become darkened and discolored. The canvas has never been removed from its original eighteenth-century wooden strainer. The depth and richness of Coypel’s palette emerged after removal of the old varnish layers. A few minor flake losses – seen here as white areas that have been filled with gesso in order to bring the level of the loss in line with the surface of the original paint – are visible around the edges.