Recording stratigraphic relationships among non-original deposits on a 16th century painting

Recording information of the strata removed during the cleaning process requires not only gathering information concerning the physical characteristics (description) of each strata and its composition, but also, gathering information concerning a stratum's relationships. In general, photographs, sections and maps are used in order to record the different layers (overpaint, filler, varnish...). These recording systems are very important but they are usually insufficient when the aim is to record complex stratigraphic structures. The objective of this research has been to develop a recording system to record non-original deposits removed during the cleaning of paintings. In order to do so, a number of tools have been borrowed from stratigraphic archaeology, such as a recording sheet for each stratum eliminated and a stratigraphic diagram. This allows a standardized documentation to be obtained, which can be studied by any given researcher in order to understand how the non-original layers were arranged before cleaning and exactly how the cleaning was carried out.