Why did linen canvas replace wooden panels for many oil painters?

Linen canvas became the preferred support for oil painting over wooden panels primarily due to its versatility, portability, and structural advantages for large-scale works.

While wooden panels provide a rigid surface, they are heavy and limited in size. In contrast, canvas can be woven to virtually any length, allowing artists to create massive mural-sized paintings in the studio. Once completed, these canvases could be rolled for transport and later restretched on a wooden framework at their final destination or fastened directly to a wall through a process known as marouflage.

Additionally, canvas offers a degree of elasticity that wooden panels lack. While both supports react to environmental changes, a canvas support expands and contracts with variations in humidity in a way that is generally less drastic and damaging than the movement of wood. By the 16th century, as artists in Venice and beyond increasingly exploited the unique layering and glazing capabilities of oil painting, the flexibility and convenience of linen canvas made it the standard choice for the medium.123