For example, Goya’s “[Black Paintings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Paintings)” were originally murals painted on the walls of his home, but were later transferred to canvas. How did they do that?
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It depends on the support.
For panel paintings, you put the thing face-down on tissue paper, then get a scalpel and spend *two years* with a microscope cutting the wood off the back. The final bit is easy: paint some glue on a prepared canvas, lay it over what’s left of the panel, press down firmly, and lift it up (while crossing your fingers).
There’s a terrible story about someone who did this with a Bellini. He spent two awful years doing the scraping and seeing occasional visitors. Of course there was no painting to see (the panel was face down) so he’d lift a corner of the tissue paper and put a drop of turps on the virgin’s face. The paper would go completely transparent and the audience would gasp at her beauty etc.
You can guess what’s coming: he did it one time too many and instead of Bellini’s wonderful virgin’s face, there was a horrid “plop” sound and to the horror of the onlookers that section of paint collapsed in a puddle. The face you see in the transferred painting today is his patch up job :/
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