What is canvas rot, and can art conservators protect paintings when it has begun to set in?

Answer 1

Canvas rot is typically created when oil paint is put onto an unprimed canvas or other material. Without the use of a primer such as gesso, the chemicals in oil paint will slowly eat away at the material it is on. You can tell that a painting is suffering from canvas rot if the material the paint is on appears to be crumbling, brittle, or seeping.

After canvas rot begins it is incredibly dificult for conservators to salvage the work of art. A typical resource that conservators will practice is seperating the paint itself from the ruined material that it is on. As expected, this is an incredibly difficult task to complete and can lead to the painting becoming damaged. Conservators may also soak a material in a preservative in order to stop the rot from happening further.