The influence of environmental variations on dimensional stability and conservation of panel paintings is an important and not sufficiently known subject. Changes of wood moisture content may cause significant dimensional variations and deformations in panel paintings, and induce deformations and stresses due to differential shrinkage or swelling. Often shrinkage/swelling behaviour seriously damages the colour layers as well. Such developments have not yet been sufficiently applied in the field of panel paintings, where phenomena connected to moisture and energy transfer, rheology and hygromechanical behaviour are of the greatest significance. An approach to this subject was taken by recording the surface form of historical panel paintings with a self developed measuring device. The results show characteristic deformation patterns for wood species, growth ring orientation, and colour layer.