Methods and materials and the durability of canvas paintings: a preface to the topical collection Failure Mechanisms in Picasso’s Paintings

Abstract

Paintings experience chemical, mechanical and biological damage over time. Whereas chemical and biological alterations have been widely studied in the recent decades, the study of the mechanical behaviour of painted structures deserves more attention. Damage to paintings (such as cracks, flaking paints or delaminations) has been traditionally associated to humidity and temperature fluctuations. While such assumptions are not completely wrong, the environment is not always the reason behind the failure observed in paintings. A deeper insight into the interactions between pigment and medium, as well as between the different paint layers is crucial to interpret damage found in the painted surface, but also to take more informed conservation decisions to ensure paintings stability over time. The Failure Mechanisms in Picasso’s Paintings Topical Collection in the journal SN Applied Sciences brings together a series of papers aimed to understand this relationship between the composition of painting materials and mechanical damage. Results suggest that slight modifications introduced by the artist in his works can induce different vulnerabilities, whose effects can be seen over time.