Wooden panel paintings (WPPs) are among the most significant historical artworks that must be preserved for future generations. Ensuring their long-term conservation requires a comprehensive characterization of their condition, making monitoring an essential process. Thus, the primary objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive overview of the current techniques employed to study support deformations in WPPs, categorizing them into localized and full-field methods. Specifically, we provide information about linear potentiometric transducers, the Deformometric Kit, and Fiber Bragg Grating sensors as techniques that provide information about specific and isolated points on the artwork’s surface. On the other hand, digital image correlation, stereo-correlation, mark-tracking, 3D modeling techniques, and the moiré method, are discussed as techniques that analyze the entire surface or a significant part of the artwork. Each method has advantages and limitations, depending on the type of monitoring needed and the desired information. Nevertheless, these techniques contribute to understanding the behavior of the artworks’ materials under environmental fluctuations or restoration interventions, aiding the development of targeted and effective conservation strategies. Furthermore, this study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of these methods in various conservation contexts and offers practical guidelines to assist conservators and researchers in selecting the most appropriate approach to support the long-term conservation of these invaluable historical artworks.

Understanding the deterioration processes in wooden artefacts is essential for accurately assessing their conservation status and developing effective preservation strategies. Advanced imaging techniques are currently being explored to study the impact of chemical changes on the structural and mechanical properties of wood. Nonlinear optical modalities, including second harmonic generation (SHG) and two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF), combined with fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), offer a promising non-destructive diagnostic method for evaluating lignocellulose-based materials. In this study, we employed a nonlinear multimodal approach to examine the effects of artificially induced delignification on samples of Norway spruce (Picea abies) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica) subjected to increasing treatment durations. The integration of SHG/TPEF imaging and multi-component fluorescence lifetime analysis enabled the detection of localized variations in nonlinear signals and τ-phase of key biopolymers within wood cell walls. This methodology provides a powerful tool for early detection of wood deterioration, facilitating proactive conservation efforts of wooden artefacts.

Panel paintings respond to environmental change in ways that depend on the individual object. Environmental monitoring is routine, but climatic standards do not provide a quantitative, object-specific criterion for deciding whether an observed deformation is mechanically significant. We present an open, modular pipeline—a sequence of independent, replaceable modules in which the output of each feeds the next—that converts environmental and deformometric records into a conservation-relevant quantity: strain at the painted surface. The workflow comprises four modules: calculation of cupping from deformometric-kit data, estimation of equilibrium moisture content from temperature and relative humidity, local-polynomial pre-processing, and a reduced-order hygro-mechanical model. The method is applied to three poplar panel paintings from the Opificio delle Pietre Dure exposed to the same conservation environment. The model reproduces measured cupping with training R² values of 0.90–0.95. Expressing the response as painted-surface strain reveals object-specific differences; under a conservative worst-case reference, all three paintings remain below the lower bound of the cracking-strain range reported for gesso grounds, although with different margins. Crucially, these strain levels cannot be inferred from cupping amplitude alone because the cupping-to-strain relationship varies among panels. The pipeline is not intended to replace finite-element analysis, but to provide a transparent, reproducible framework for turning routine monitoring into a physically interpretable screening metric.