Doing battle in China, Holland, Norfolk and Cambridge: the treatment of a large painting from a country house collection, Simon de Vlieger’s Blockade of Amoy (1650)

Abstract

When it arrived in the studio of the Hamilton Kerr Institute at the University of Cambridge, Simon de Vlieger’s (1600– 53) painting The Blockade of Amoy (1650) was obscured by numerous campaigns of overpaint and the painting’s 18th century lining was deteriorated. This picture belongs to the collection of Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk, England. The painting is a very large canvas, measuring 1.96 x 2.7 m and depicts a battle between Dutch ships and Chinese junks. This paper describes treatment of the painting, with particular reference to the challenges involved in treating such a large canvas.