On looking through the works of different schools, countries, and periods, exhibited last winter (1880) at Burlington House, with a view to examine their various states of preservation or decay, no one can doubt that those pictures which have been painted on panel are in a much better condition than those painted on canvas.,Pictures on canvas are much more subject to deterioration, than those on panel.,In many of these works the evidence of injury resulting from damp situations was obvious, particularly that from the moisture of the walls against which they had been hung. The patches of discolouration and mildew were some of the indications of this. Wheter the paint had been thinly laid on the canvas, it was occasionally very conspicuous.,Then again, the texture of certain kinds of canvas tends to the secretion of dirt, which after a time cannot be removed without damage to the work.,When a canvas is not wedged up tightly, wrinkles sometimes occur, and any motion which may be induced by the looseness of it, will produce cracks. The numerous cracks which are to be found on old pictures painted on canvas, are for the most part due to this cause. So long as the paint is elastic, this kind of injury will not show itself, but so soon as it is quite dry, it becomes very brittle, and the least bending of the surface will crack it. Canvas is also incapable of resisting a blow, and the pressure of a nail from the back may make a hole in it. Even chalk marks on the back of the canvas, may cause cracks on the fron surface to correspond.,Panels are less liable to any of these risks, and are capable of resisting most other injurious influences to a greater extent than canvas.,Of course there are certain disadvantages in connection with panel pictures,which are not common to pictures on canvas, but they may be all provided against.,Both large and small cabinet pictures ought to be painted on panel, when the durability of the work is of consideration. Works painted by the same master, at the same time, and on the two materials referred to, show a very marked difference in their states of preservation in favour of the use of panel. When the work has been painted on canvas, the colour has sunken and become comparatively dull to what it originally was. Many of those works which are on panel are as brilliant as if only just painted.,The works by Rubens are singularly illustrative of this. All those which have been executed on panel are bright and fresh-looking, while those which are on canvas, although painted with a thick impasto, have bone down very much.,The works by Teniers, Ostade, Metzu, Terburge, and others ,also show this peculiar difference in condition, where the two materials have been employed by the same painter.