The corners of Reynolds’ “Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Harrington, and a Servant” (Yale Center of British Art) are covered with craquelure 
As a part of CollectionCare project, in which we are involved, the survey of the craquelure patterns in canvas paintings was performed in the Yale Center of British Art. Our partners in a study were Mark Aronson and Eric Stegmaier.
The aim of a survey was to statistically evaluate various types of patterns of craquelure by comparing 150 high resolution X-rays of painitngs. It has revealed that:
- 30% of paintings have no cracks visible,
- 20% of paintings show corner cracks,
- corner cracks never exist without cracks in the center.
The data obtained will help us to design a finite element model of moisture transport and dynamic stress and strain fields in canvas paintings.
If you want to know more about CollectionCare project, please visit their website: