Relining

Relining (or lining) is a conservation technique in which a deteriorated or torn canvas is reinforced by adhering it to a new supporting fabric, traditionally using heat, pressure, and an adhesive such as glue-paste or wax-resin. Practised since at least the seventeenth century, relining was historically routine for paintings suffering weakened, brittle, or torn canvases, and remains one of the most consequential interventions a painting can undergo, since the heat and pressure involved can flatten impasto and alter surface texture. Modern conservation favours minimal intervention and reversible methods, treating relining as a last resort rather than a default, precisely because it changes the physical object in ways earlier restorers did not always fully appreciate.