Reverse glass painting, in German Hinterglasmalerei, is a cold painting on the back of a transparent support. The support can be glass, but there are also rare cases of rock crystal. There are many examples of this type of work in folk art. Reverse glass painting was highly prized due to the special effects and luminosity of the colours. If one looks more closely at the word itself one realises that the term encompasses an abundance of techniques such as enamel, verre églomisé or gold and silver etchings and also various artists’ materials such as pigments and lake pigments, metal foils and metal powders bound in a variety of binding media.
Due to the variety of materials used, the partially complicated layer build-up and the particularly smooth, non-absorbent support, reverse glass paintings today are often in delicate condition and thus the subject of ongoing conservation measures. Therefore, for the development of conservation and restoration concepts, scientific examinations are necessary in order to better understand the damage-causing mechanisms. Thus, it is necessary to carefully select consolidation media that are used in conservation practice since they are always directly visible to the viewer.
