craquelure

The distinctive pattern of fine cracks on the surface of a painting or glazed pottery. Normally the result of aging, craquelure can be faked.

The precise pattern of craquelure depends upon where the picture was painted.

Craquelure can furnish a record of the environmental conditions the painting has experienced during of its lifetime, and also can reveal details about the painting's history of handling, transportation, and restoration.

Robertson Davies's novel What's Bred in the Bone includes a passage in which an art forger deliberately induces a craquelure in a new painting by placing it in a hot furnace for fifteen minutes.