The Deposition – the cleaning process

Once the painting had been lined and the facing tissues removed it was put back onto the original stretcher.

Surface dirt, discoloured varnish layers and old retouching were removed with suitable solvents.

Various tears to the canvas also had to be knitted in from the front before all the areas of pigment and ground loss were filled with a gesso-based formula to match the original surface texture.

The retouching process and final varnishing