Abstract

For several centuries, the most common Western painting format was a stretched (and primed) canvas. From the end of the sixteenth century until the middle of the twentieth, the canvas by and large remained attached to a wooden frame and preparatory layers were applied. In this article, I examine some of the consequences and possibilities that arise from the absence of one these two components: the stretcher. I look at uses of raw and unbound canvas during the painting process, particularly at the way they changed the position of the artist’s body with regard to the canvas support and tools. The shift between stretched and unstretched modified the painter’s stance (from parallel to the support, to perpendicular or crossed, inducing a downward view) and introduced an awareness of the body and of the support. It modified the relationship between the painter and the canvas, so that the handling of the canvas became a component in painting techniques. I also emphasize that the removal of the stretcher opened up possibilities that continue to foster artistic inquiry.