Kate Lowry has noted: The work has been glue relined quite recently, possibly at the time of the sale in 1999. The stretcher which has five members and square mortice joints predates this lining, but is not original, suggesting that there was a previous relining treatment. The paint surface is quite smooth and all areas of the painting are fully finished.The original canvas weave could not be examined closely, but the smooth finish of the painting suggests that the canvas is a medium weight fabric with simple weave. It is likely that the ground preparation is pink in colour as this is visible around some shapes in the painting, where it has not been covered by the subsequent paint layers, for instance, around the cows in the centre foreground and around the trunks of the trees against the sky. The sky itself has probably been under-painted with white to cover the pink ground tone completely. The painting has been recently cleaned and the blue of the sky appears to be ultramarine. Under UV light no major damages are visible, but minor retouches are present in centre sky covering small cracks; there is also some strengthening of the tomb and foreground figures, and two pentimenti at the margins of the tree foliage at upper right have been touched out. There is no recent retouching of the signature and date at the lower right. On the whole the removal of the old varnish film has been more thorough in the sky and lighter areas of paint and less so in the darks. The condition is very good.
