Obraz św. Katarzyny z Cięciny - rozpoznanie ikonograficzne i technologiczne nawarstwień

The article presents the results achieved by the author within her diploma work prepared at the Study of Conservation of Works of Art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow. The conservation problems that arouse during the author’s work on the St. Catherine picture from Cięcina proved to be particularly interesting as on the same wooden support the three separate and stratified paintings have been found, dating from three different periods (the 17th, 16th and 15th century). Thus, the scope of works conducted had to comprise the determination of the strata, iconographie decipherment of the separate paintings, determining the approximate date of their creation, and lastly technological examination of the whole picture. This latter consisted of studies on the wood and canvas forming the support, chemical analyses of the painter’s putties, as well as of dyes present in the separate painted layers. A number of conservation operations has also been carried out in view of the painting’s very poor state of preservation during which were unveiled details of the paintings dating back to the 16th and to the turn of the 15th century present in the picture. As a particular achievement of the work under discussion may be reported the decipherment of contours of paintings on the picture, the preparing on tracing paper of their reconstruction based on the X-graphs, and finally, the decipherment of scenes shown in the paintings.