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40-415: The mummy-board has acquired a reputation for bringing misfortune, and many myths have developed around it. The name 'Unlucky Mummy' is misleading as the artifact is not a mummy at all, but rather a gessoed and painted wooden 'mummy-board' or inner coffin lid. It was found at Thebes and can be dated by its shape and the style of its decoration to the late 21st or early 22nd Dynasty (c 950–900 BC). In

80-641: A cardboard backing, and sealed on the backside. The canvas is typically linen primed for a certain type of paint. They are primarily used by artists for quick studies . Understanding the mechanical properties of art canvases is necessary for art conservation, especially when deciding on transporting paintings, conservation treatments and environmental specifications inside museums. Canvases are layered structures made from weaving fibers together, where each layer responds differently to changes in humidity, resulting in localized stresses that cause deformation , cracking , and delamination . There are two directions to

120-407: A rabbit skin glue ground ; a variation using titanium white pigment and calcium carbonate is rather brittle and susceptible to cracking. As lead-based paint is poisonous, care has to be taken in using it. Various alternative and more flexible canvas primers are commercially available, the most popular being a synthetic latex paint composed of titanium dioxide and calcium carbonate , bound with

160-432: A barrier to protect it from moisture, dust, and UV rays. Gesso is traditionally a mix of an animal glue binder (usually rabbit-skin glue ), chalk, and white pigment. For priming flexible canvas , an emulsion of gesso and linseed oil , also called "half-chalk ground", is used. Acrylic gesso is a mixture of white pigment and some kind of filler (chalk, silica, etc.) and acrylic resin dispersed in water. It produces

200-411: A base for paint and other materials that are applied over it. The colour of gesso is usually white or off-white. Its absorbency makes it work with all painting media, including water-based media, different types of tempera and oil paint . Mixing and applying it is a craft in itself, as it is usually applied in ten or more extremely thin layers. The hide glue mixture used to make the traditional gesso

240-465: A layer of refined and coloured clay called bole is used to cover the gesso before applying the gold. Bole is usually red in colour. Gesso can also serve as a base on three-dimensional surfaces for the application of paint or gold leaf . Canvas Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails , tents , marquees , backpacks , shelters , as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness

280-452: A more economical alternative. The advent of acrylic paint has greatly increased the popularity and use of cotton duck canvas. Linen and cotton derive from two entirely different plants, the flax plant and the cotton plant, respectively. Gessoed canvases on stretchers are also available. They are available in a variety of weights: light-weight is about 4 oz/sq yd (140 g/m ) or 5 oz/sq yd (170 g/m ); medium-weight

320-448: A painstaking, months-long process of layering the raw canvas with (usually) lead-white paint, then polishing the surface, and then repeating. The final product had little resemblance to fabric, but instead had a glossy, enamel-like finish. With a properly prepared canvas, the painter will find that each subsequent layer of color glides on in a "buttery" manner, and that with the proper consistency of application ( fat over lean technique),

360-406: A painting entirely devoid of brushstrokes can be achieved. A warm iron is applied over a piece of wet cotton to flatten the wrinkles. Canvas can also be printed on using offset or specialist digital printers to create canvas prints . This process of digital inkjet printing is popularly referred to as Giclée . After printing, the canvas can be wrapped around a stretcher and displayed. Canvas

400-429: A piece of painting to create the samples (required length of 250 mm), therefore the traditional methods of assessing mechanical properties have been visual cues and pH values. Art conservationists have recently adopted a new method called zero-span strength analysis, nanoindentation, and numerical modelling to quantitatively evaluate the mechanical properties of painting canvases. Zero-span strength analysis measures

440-402: A problem with using oil paints over an acrylic gesso ground instead of a traditional oil ground , citing a mismatch in flexibility that over time could cause the oil paint to delaminate. Sculptors may use gesso to prepare the shape of a final sculpture (fused bronze) or directly as a material for sculpting. Gesso can also be used as a layer between sculpted wood and gold leaf. In this case,

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480-525: A soft, flexible non-absorbent surface that is technically not gesso (although it is commonly called that by its manufacturers). It can contain calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) to increase the absorbency of the primer coat as well as titanium dioxide or "titanium white" as a whitening agent. It is sold premixed for both sizing and priming panels and flexible canvas for painting . Art supply manufacturers market canvases pre-primed with acrylic gesso. Acrylic gesso can be colored, either commercially by replacing

520-404: A thermo-plastic emulsion. Many artists have painted onto unprimed canvas, such as Jackson Pollock , Kenneth Noland , Francis Bacon , Helen Frankenthaler , Dan Christensen , Larry Zox , Ronnie Landfield , Color Field painters, Lyrical Abstractionists and others. Staining acrylic paint into the fabric of cotton duck canvas was more benign and less damaging to the fabric of the canvas than

560-541: Is 180 MPa, which drops to 13 MPa at 90% relative humidity, suggesting that canvas is becoming more flexible and susceptible to deformation. There is an inherent anisotropy to the elastic modulus measured in the weft and warp direction as evidenced in the strain vs. load behavior of the canvas. The canvas exhibits a 0.1 strain in the weft direction and 0.2 strain in the warp direction before failing (thread ripping apart). Though, tensile testing provides an explicit measure of material strength, conservationists are unable to tare

600-419: Is a popular base fabric for embroidery such as cross-stitch and Berlin wool work . Some specific types of embroidery canvases are Aida cloth (also called Java canvas ), Penelope canvas, Chess canvas, and Binca canvas. Plastic canvas is a stiffer form of Binca canvas. From the 13th century onwards, canvas was used as a covering layer on pavise shields. The canvas was applied to the wooden surface of

640-463: Is about 7 oz/sq yd (240 g/m ) or 8 oz/sq yd (270 g/m ); heavy-weight is about 10 oz/sq yd (340 g/m ) or 12 oz/sq yd (410 g/m ). They are prepared with two or three coats of gesso and are ready for use straight away. Artists desiring greater control of their painting surface may add a coat or two of their preferred gesso. Professional artists who wish to work on canvas may prepare their own canvas in

680-466: Is attached with a spline at the rear of the frame. This allows the artist to incorporate painted edges into the artwork itself without staples at the sides, and the artwork can be displayed without a frame. Splined canvas can be restretched by adjusting the spline. Stapled canvases stay stretched tighter over a longer period of time, but are more difficult to re-stretch when the need arises. Canvas boards are made of canvas stretched over and glued to

720-410: Is rather brittle and susceptible to cracking, thus making it suitable for rigid surfaces only. When painting, there are several advantages to using gesso. It provides a strong foundation for the paint to adhere to, prevents the paint from soaking into the surface, and can also be used to achieve a desired texture or surface finish. Furthermore, gesso can help to extend the life of a painting by acting as

760-578: Is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags, electronic device cases, and shoes. It is popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame. Modern canvas is usually made of cotton or linen , or sometimes polyvinyl chloride (PVC), although historically it was made from hemp . It differs from other heavy cotton fabrics, such as denim , in being plain weave rather than twill weave . Canvas comes in two basic types: plain and duck . The threads in duck canvas are more tightly woven. The term duck comes from

800-666: The Dutch word for cloth, doek . In the United States , canvas is classified in two ways: by weight (ounces per square yard) and by a graded number system. The numbers run in reverse of the weight so a number 10 canvas is lighter than number 4. The word "canvas" is derived from the 13th century Anglo-French canevaz and the Old French canevas . Both may be derivatives of the Vulgar Latin cannapaceus for "made of hemp ", originating from

840-525: The Latin : gypsum , from Greek : γύψος ), also known as "glue gesso" or "Italian gesso", is a white paint mixture used to coat rigid surfaces such as wooden painting panels or masonite as a permanent absorbent primer substrate for painting . It consists of a binder mixed with chalk , gypsum , pigment , or any combination of these. Gesso is used in painting as a preparation for any number of substrates such as wood panels, canvas and sculpture as

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880-503: The tensile strength of materials, such as paper and yarns, by reducing the clamping distance to 0.1 mm and applying load to a particular point on the yarn. This minimizes effects from material geometry and accurately assesses intrinsic fiber strength. This also reduces the amount of material needed for samples to 60 mm. Using zero-span strength analysis, conservationists measured tensile strength of flax, commonly used canvas material in historical paintings and correlated tensile strength to

920-517: The "mummy" was being moved from the British Museum to New York on the RMS Titanic when it sank. None of these stories have any basis in fact, but from time to time the strength of the rumours has led to enquiries on the subject. A disclaimer written by Wallis Budge was published in 1934, and yet since that time the myth has undergone further embellishment. The Unlucky Mummy has also been linked to

960-607: The 'Unlucky Mummy' was exhibited at Taiwan's National Palace Museum during a press conference. The mummy to which the article belonged is said to have been left in Egypt since it never formed part of the collections of the British Museum. The mummy board is currently displayed in Room 62. The mummy-board has acquired a reputation for bringing misfortune, and many myths have developed around it. It has been credited with causing death, injury and large-scale disasters, with one story ending by saying that

1000-536: The 1480s was still unusual for the period. Large paintings for country houses were apparently more likely to be on canvas, and are perhaps less likely to have survived. It was a good deal cheaper than a panel painting, and may sometime indicate a painting regarded as less important. In the Uccello, the armour does not use silver leaf, as other of his paintings do (and the colour therefore remains undegraded). Another common category of paintings on lighter cloth such as linen

1040-401: The British Museum it is known by its serial number EA 22542. The beardless face and the position of the hands with fingers extended show that it was made to cover the mummified body of a woman. Her identity is not known due to the brief hieroglyphic inscriptions containing only short religious phrases, and omitting mention of the name of the deceased. The high quality of the lid indicates that

1080-707: The Greek κάνναβις ( cannabis ). Canvas has become the most common support medium for oil painting , replacing wooden panels . It was used from the 14th century in Italy, but only rarely. One of the earliest surviving oils on canvas is a French Madonna with angels from around 1410 in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin . Its use in Saint George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello in about 1470, and Sandro Botticelli 's Birth of Venus in

1120-403: The canvas: the warp direction (threads run vertically) and the weft direction (threads run horizontally). Researchers performed tensile testing to determine the effects of humidity on the strength of canvases and observed that increasing humidity decreased the effective elastic modulus (combined modulus of the weft and warp directions). For example, the effective modulus at 30% relative humidity

1160-439: The change; Venetian sail canvas was readily available and regarded as the best quality. Canvas is usually stretched across a wooden frame called a stretcher and may be coated with gesso prior to being used to prevent oil paint from coming into direct contact with the canvas fibres which would eventually cause the canvas to decay. A traditional and flexible chalk gesso is composed of lead carbonate and linseed oil, applied over

1200-616: The death of the British writer and journalist, Bertram Fletcher Robinson . Robinson conducted research into the history of that artefact while working as a journalist for the Daily Express newspaper during 1904. He became convinced that the object had malevolent powers and died three years later, aged 36. 51°31′11″N 0°07′40″W  /  51.5197°N 0.1278°W  / 51.5197; -0.1278 Gesso Gesso ( Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒɛsso] ; ' chalk ', from

1240-402: The degree of cellulose depolymerization -- cellulose is a component of flax. Another method for assessing canvas quality is nanoindentation utilizing a millimeter-sized cantilever with a microsphere at its end and measuring local viscoelastic properties . However, with the nanoindentation method, conservationists can probe the composite behavior of the layers of paint on top of the canvas, not

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1280-400: The owner was a person of high rank. It was usual for such ladies to participate in the musical accompaniments to the rituals in the temple of Amen-ra ; hence early British Museum publications described the owner of 22542 as a 'priestess of Amen-Ra'. E.A. Wallis Budge , Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities from 1894 to 1924, also suggested that she might have been of royal blood, but this

1320-461: The pavise, covered with multiple layers of gesso and often richly painted in tempera technique. Finally, the surface was sealed with a transparent varnish. While the gessoed canvas was a perfect painting surface, the primary purpose of the canvas application may have been the strengthening of the wooden shield corpus in a manner similar to modern glass-reinforced plastic . Splined canvases differ from traditional side-stapled canvas in that canvas

1360-439: The titanium white with another pigment, such as carbon black , or by the artist directly, with the addition of an acrylic paint . Acrylic gesso can be odorous, due to the presence of ammonia or formaldehyde , which are added in small amounts as preservatives. Acrylic gesso's non-absorbent acrylic polymer base makes it incompatible with media that require an absorbent substrate, such as egg tempera. The Painter's Handbook notes

1400-456: The traditional manner. One of the most outstanding differences between modern painting techniques and those of the Flemish and Dutch Masters is in the preparation of the canvas. "Modern" techniques take advantage of both the canvas texture as well as those of the paint itself. Renaissance masters took extreme measures to ensure that none of the texture of the canvas came through. This required

1440-498: The use of oil paint. In 1970, artist Helen Frankenthaler commented about her use of staining: When I first started doing the stain paintings, I left large areas of canvas unpainted, I think, because the canvas itself acted as forcefully and as positively as paint or line or color. In other words, the very ground was part of the medium, so that instead of thinking of it as background or negative space or an empty spot, that area did not need paint because it had paint next to it. The thing

1480-576: Was displayed in the 'First Egyptian Room' of the Museum from the 1890s and has remained on public view ever since, with the exception of periods during the First and Second World Wars, when it was removed from its case for safety. It has left the Museum on a number of occasions, in 1990, when it formed part of a temporary exhibition held at two venues in Australia and between 4 February to 27 May 2007 along with 271 pieces

1520-544: Was in distemper or glue, often used for banners to be carried in procession. This is a less durable medium, and surviving examples such as Dirk Bouts ' Entombment , in distemper on linen (1450s, National Gallery ) are rare, and often rather faded in appearance. Panel painting remained more common until the 16th century in Italy and the 17th century in Northern Europe. Mantegna and Venetian artists were among those leading

1560-501: Was pure speculation and is not supported by the iconography of the lid. The mummy-board is 162 centimetres (64 in) in length and made out of wood and plaster. The detail is painted upon the plaster, and hands protrude from the wooden mummy-board. For its age, the mummy-board is of good quality. The mummy-board was donated to the British Museum in July 1889 by Mrs Warwick Hunt of Holland Park , London, on behalf of Mr Arthur F Wheeler. It

1600-613: Was to decide where to leave it and where to fill it and where to say this doesn't need another line or another pail of colors. It's saying it in space. Early canvas was made of linen , a sturdy brownish fabric of considerable strength. Linen is particularly suitable for the use of oil paint. In the early 20th century, cotton canvas, often referred to as " cotton duck ", came into use. Linen is composed of higher quality material, and remains popular with many professional artists, especially those who work with oil paint. Cotton duck, which stretches more fully and has an even, mechanical weave, offers

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