Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (20.1979)

XVII. Bunches of roses:

a. the leaves:

1. the blue layer as in point XV.l;

2. the transparent layer of warm green;

3. the layer of cool green of varying thickness, with a mat surface, modelling the
chiaroscuro;

4. the finish of the chiaroscuro is acconrplished with golden lines; their direction
stresses the form and their density — the luminosity;

5. the original oil-and-resin varnish.

b. the rose flowers:

1. the hlue layer as in point XV.l;

2. organie red mixed in various proportions with lead white, laid in a layer of vary-
ing thickness, with evident texture of the brush strokes; in the half-tones, the
cool tone of the blue underpaint is employed; the shadows are stressed by means
of pink with a smali admixture of white.

c. the flower pots:

1. the blue layer as in point XIV.l;

2. the covering brown layer;

3. the drawing defined by means of thin, darker brown line;

4. the chiaroscuro modelled with golden strokes, as in point III.b.3.
XVIII. Nimbuses:

1. the blue layer as in point XV. 1;

2. in places, the layers representing architecturc as in point XVI. 2 and 3;

3. the circles of nimbuses are modelled in perspective, with grey strokes of varying
density and direction;

4. the chiaroscuro finishing touches are accomplished with golden lines, as in points
III.b.3.

The state of preservation and restoration work done
The relics of the renovations carried prior to 1945 are as follows: in the wooden panel —
a resin-and-wax layer supporting the reverse; the transverse slats, added at a later date; the
sizing of cracks and the filling of fissures; in the painted layers — three types of retouching
applied in various periods and several layers of resin varnish. The damage to the painting
resulted in the main from the changing climate conditions and the ensuing shifts of the wood;
to a smaller degree from mechanical injuries; worm holes are quite rare: only few ones left
by the death-watch.

The deformations oceuring in the panel resulted in the fissurc in the joint between the
planks, seen on the left of the face, accompanied by a fissure of an irregular width and a shift
along the horizontal piane of the planks, in the form of a sideslip, in the section of the Christ's
face. In the upper part of the joint, in the background over the Child's face the deformation
consists of a smali, roof-shaped protuberance.

The fissure on the face was filled with mastic, spread broadly on the surface in order to even
the sideslip (fig. 2). The joint on the reverse is not clearly seen and there are no traces of
renewed sizing; perhaps the fissure oceurred at that time only on the averse. Later, two smali
fissures oceurred probably on the reverse, a narrow and short in the upper part and a longer
and wide in the lower part of the same joint, neither of them filled until the last restoration.

Short cracks and a protuberance on the face revealed a flaw in the structure of the wood
of the panel, seen on Christ's right hand (fig. 4). Several vertical cracks of various lenght oceur-
red also on the figures of the Child, St. John and Mary. On the reverse, particularly along the

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