The Fitzwilliam Museum - University of Cambridge

Britta New removing the nineteenth century cradle from the central panel of the triptych
the Temple and Marriage. Both are animated by the
kind of lively, domestic detail which appeals today as
much as it did to viewers in the late fifteenth century.
Although the painting has been ascribed to the
Flemish school, to Brussels and the circle of the
‘Master of Osroy’ specifically, there is growing
support for an alternative opinion that it originated
in northern France.
One of the main problems facing our conservators
was the treatment of the panels in the nineteenth
century, when it was common practice to reduce the
thickness of the wood behind the layers of paint. This
was often done to correct warping and, as in this case,
was followed by ‘cradling’, or the attachment to the
back of the drastically thinned panel of a lattice of
wooden strips to brace it into its flattened position.
Experience has shown that this kind of remedial
action often created more problems than it solved and
our triptych, its original wooden support reduced to
less than I millimetre in thickness, was no exception.
The first step, therefore, was to remove the cradling
from all three panels. The two wings, because they
are narrower, were relatively straightforward; there
was enough original wood remaining for them to be
self-supporting, although they were fitted eventually
with auxiliary supports which are flexible and can
therefore respond to changes in climate conditions.
The larger, central panel presented greater problems.
First of all a protective layer of Japanese tissue was
attached to the paint surface to preserve it while
three of the four boards out of which the panel is
constructed were separated along the original
vertical joins. Where boards had been trimmed in
earlier restorations, carefully measured oak fillets
were inserted to rebuild the panel to its original
dimensions. Conservation could then begin on the
painted surface. Fortunately, in spite of all of that
splitting of the wood and flaking of the paint which
threatened the survival of the image, there were
relatively few actual losses apart from those along
the edges of boards. Intervention came in the nick
of time in terms of preserving the original surface
of an object which in spite of its resilience was
deteriorating rapidly five centuries after it was made.
Finally, the consolidation completed, all three panels
were reframed without their Victorian corsets and
with sufficient depth in the rebate to allow for their
natural curvature.
Chris Titmus, Hamilton Kerr Institute
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Conservation