The Stag Hunt of the Elector Frederic the Wise (1463-1525) of Saxony

The support has a thickness of 8 mm and is probably beech.

The panel consists of three horizontal wooden planks with horizontal grains.

On the back of the panel is a wax seal (a mirror monogram).

The back of the joints are enhanced with fibres and the back of the panel is thinned down with a plane.

The back and front of the painting have been impregnated with a wax-resin mixture and the back being covered by a thin layer of silk gauze, laid in the adhesive.

The corners of the panel are curving slightly backwards.

There is a large horizontal splinter on the back of the panel in the lower right part.

The wooden support has a white ground which is visible some places along the edges of the painting and in areas where the paint has fallen off.

Oil paint on wood.

The ground and paint layer are in three of the sides painted all to the edge, but at the right side of the panel approx. 3-4 cm of the panel is without ground and paint layer.

Old black painted frame and partly gilded with painted inscription.

Unknown whether it is the original.

[Mette Kokkenborg, Statens Museum for Kunst, 2013]

Support:

The back and front of the painting have been impregnated with a wax-resin mixture and the back being covered by a thin layer of silk gauze, laid in the adhesive.

The corners of the panel are curving slightly backwards.

There is a large horizontal splinter on the back of the panel in the lower right part.

Paint layers:

The painting has been impregnated with a wax-resin mixture on the front and back, probably as a treatment for a wood worm attack in the middle part of the painting. The holes from the wood worms have caused cavities under the paint layer.

The treatment with wax could be the reason why the paint layer in several places in the horizontal cracks in the centre of the painting has sunk a few millimetres.

The paint layer has a thin net of ageing cracks.

There are some long and short cracks in the paint layer in the same direction as the grains in the planks and along these cracks there are tiny old losses of paint.

There are horizontal cracks in the wooden support on the front:

• in the left side a 5 cm long crack (23,8 cm from the bottom of the painting)

• in the right side a 7 cm long crack (1 cm from the bottom of the painting)

• in the right side a 10,5 cm long crack (10,5 cm from the bottom of the painting)

In the left side of the painting there is a splinter in the support of 1 x 1 cm and it is approx. 37 cm from the bottom of the painting.

In the green colour there are lots of lacunas filled with wax.

There are lots of tiny retouches all over the surface of the painting.

The painting was varnished in 2002 with MS2A.

Framing:

A little worn and slightly degraded frame.

The top and bottom parts are curving backwards.

The surface is matte, some old retouches however glossy.

[Mette Kokkenborg, Statens Museum for Kunst, 2013]