18th / 19th century, artist unknown

Oil on canvas with metal leaf highlights.

Client: Northampton Museum and Art Gallery

This large and unusual circular painting had several holes and tears, and the canvas was slack and distorted. There were drip marks and ingrained dirt on the unvarnished paint surface. After the painting was surface cleaned, the canvas was removed from the strainer and the tears and holes were mended, and the canvas distortions flattened; the edges were reinforced with strips of polyester canvas for added strength and to allow the canvas to be re-stretched back onto the original strainer.