Its a very hard cardboard panel. At first I thought it was wood. I think I am going to leave the image alone and just replace the frame. It has a gold metal like matte. There was a piece of glass between the frame and the painting. Luckily, the glass was not touching the picture. The frame is literally falling apart when handled. You can see the top corner chipped. Well, it's has come apart a bit more since the photo was taken. So, I will replace it with either a gold leaf frame or something that looks like it was from that period or keep my eye out for a nice antique frame. Thanks again for all the advice and suggestions.