from Getty Conservation Institute -
Art as Evidence:The Scientific Investigation of Works of Art
go to web-page and video

A good overview of issues and possibilities with current technological advances in the examination of artworks. Even as technology surpass our understanding, the primary question remains: "For what ends?"
.

from Technology Review -
Pink Silicon Is the New Black
go to article

A marked improvement (with significant cost reduction) in the development of sensors for imaging purpose:

"Black silicon can absorb light over a wider spectrum than can normal silicon--from low-frequency visible light through near- and short-wave-infrared wavelengths that would normally pass right through regular silicon. Another property, called photoconductive gain, gives black silicon much greater sensitivity to light. These properties have identified black silicon as a way to make smaller, cheaper, and lighter silicon-based light detectors and to replace more expensive materials used in infrared detectors found in fiber-optic links, security systems, and elsewhere."

The "elsewhere" allured to in the last sentence would include applications in the technical examination of paintings - akin to peeling back the layers of paint in an attempt to better understand the painting, as well as the working process of the artist.

See separate article for a sense of what infra-red imaging can do in terms of technical examination of paintings.
.

Graphics Atlas
go to web-site

A new initiative by the Image Permanence Institute at the Rochester Institute of Technology, which incorporate a module to aid visual identification of photographic prints and sections on the history and technology of the photographic printing process.

The content in several sections are still being added. So will be good to revisit later. A link to the web-site will be added to the side-bar of this blog. A promising resource, all in all.

Link via Cons DistList.
.

from Scientific American -
How Old Is That Book? DNA May Hold the Answer
go to article

An interesting approach to dating unknown samples by cross-referencing with DNA signatures on parchment manuscripts with known dates. However, the practice of "recycling" earlier manuscripts for later use - by scrapping down and cutting manuscripts - would present problems in terms of dating the *later* creation.

See also earlier posts on other dating techniques for paper-related artefacts.
"Water pores reveal age of paper"
"Print Clock: A method for dating early books and prints"
"'Print Clock' Dates Antique Books"
.

from The Boston Globe -
A 'Nativity' revelation
go to article
go to graphics
go to video clip

Yet another discovery of a hidden painting and the artist's frugal re-use of canvases, "uncovered" during x-radiography examination before conservation treatment. This time, it is a painting by Tintoretto.
.

from Tate Research -
Tate Papers: Issue 10, Autumn 208
go to online issue

The latest issue of Tate Papers is now available. In particular, the following article is of particular interest in terms of research in modern paints:

"The History and Manufacture of Lithol Red, a Pigment Used by Mark Rothko in his Seagram and Harvard Murals of the 1950s and 1960s"
Harriet A. L. Standeven
go to article

from The Guardian -
Solved: mystery of The Ugly Duchess - and the Da Vinci connection
go to article

Syphilis and a frenzied stabbing
go to article

An interesting approach to art historical reading that relies on medical observations. Perhaps pointing to the need for a new category: medical art history.
.

from Emerging Technology -
Photo prize for virtual autopsies
go to article

An interesting development in the field of 3-dimensional imaging that first gathers data from a combination of different imaging techniques and then using software to merge and present these data in a composite but coherent image.

Such a technique would be useful in the investigation of enclosures and other inaccessible areas of a cultural artefact that might reveal invaluable information.
.

from Nanoarchitecture.net -
Finding A Lost Painting
go to article

A video to accompany the story posted earlier here.


.

from Wired -
Aug. 19, 1839: Photography Goes Open Source
go to article
go to slideshow

An interesting summary of that historic (though not the first photographic process) but short-lived photographic technique that could be said to have prompted later developments leading to the ubiquitous image-making culture that we often take for granted today.

Also see article on Wikipedia
.

from BBC News -
X-rays reveal Van Gogh portrait
go to article
go to scientific paper

An interesting (but terribly expensive, surely) technique to use x-ray fluorescence mapping to create an image overlay.
.

from The Guardian -
Radio-carbon tests reveal true age of Rome's she-wolf - and she's a relative youngster
go to article

Perhaps an embarrassment for the discipline of art history - but it took the combined eye and mind of an art historian and restorer, Anna Maria Carruba, to make a case against the attribution of such an iconic statue which is now proven by scientific means.
.

from The Plain Dealer -
Paint experts say it's very unlikely Pollock had access to pigments patented after he died
go to article

When technical analysis is at odds with connoisseurship, it unnecessarily plays up the seeming separation of (and power play between) a humanistic and a scientific approach in the study of art. In actual fact, art has to be understood as occpying that intersection between taste and materials, combining both creative ideas and skillful execution.

Also see earlier post here.
.

from Detroit Free Press -
New Van Gogh painting discovered; another called a fake
go to article

from The Boston Globe -
Hidden van Gogh found at MFA
go to article

Not very often does a paintings conservator help to re-write a small part of art history, but it happens. One can see an x-ray image of the "lost" painting by Van Gogh at the Boston's Museum of Fine Art web-page .
.

from GCI - Conservation Newsletter -
Volume 22, Spring 2007: Environmental Management
go to contents
download PDF (4.6 MB)

from Tate Research Papers -
"Historically Accurate Reconstructions of Artists’ Oil Painting Materials"
by Leslie Carlyle and Maartjee Witlox
go to article

A few interesting articles updated recently. From the Getty Conservation Newsletter, a whole issue dedicated to the idea of passive environmental control, all the more relevant in the context of today's increasing concerns with sustainability and depletion of natural resources. In the Tate Research Papers, an article which discusses the relevance of material and scientific analysis in the context of art historical research.
.

from Royal Microscopical Society -
InFocus
go to web-page

There are a few articles, available on-line, related to the examination and technical analysis of paint / pigment samples from the newsletter of the RMS.

Issue 1, March 2006

"Forensics and Microscopy in Authenticating Works of Art"
Peter Paul Biro
go to PDF article, 930kB

"Microscopical techniques applied to traditional paintings"
Joyce H Townsend and Katrien Keune
go to PDF article, 1.6MB

"Scientific dating of paintings"
Nicholas Eastaugh
go to PDF article, 1.1MB


Issue 2, June 2006

"'Not a day without a line drawn': Pigments and painting techniques of Roman Artists"
Ruth Siddall
go to PDF article, 1.2MB

"Historical pigment research: the work of the Pigmentum Project"
Valentine Walsh & Nicholas Eastaugh
go to PDF article, 1.4MB


Issue 3, September 2006

"Microscopy and archival research: interpreting results within the context of historical records and traditional practice"
Jane Davies
go to PDF article, 340kB
go to supplement, 35kB

"Advanced microscopic techniques for the characterisation of pigments"
Robin Clark & Tracey Chaplin
go to PDF article, 423kB


Issue 4, December 2006

"18th Century church altarpieces in the Algarve, Portugal: A comparison of the historical documents to the results of the microscopical analysis"
Isabel Pombo Cardoso
go to PDF article, 1.9MB

from North Carolina Museum of Art
Revolution in Paint
go to web-site

In conjunction with an exhibition of paintings by Monet, the North Carolina Museum of Art has put together a concurrent exhibition - Revolution in Paint - which attempts to map the break with traditional academy-style painting at the end of the 19th-century onto contemporaneous developments in pigment and paint technology. Quoting from the exhibition guide:

"Revolution is based on a simple premise: A radical change in artist’s pigments during the 19th century enabled a revolution in painting. The exhibition explores the innovations of the impressionists—with special emphasis on their choice of pigments—as well the academic traditions against which the impressionist rebelled."

What may be of interest is that the exhibition is curated by Perry Hurt, who is a conservator at the museum. Links here to the online exhibition supplement (warning : PDF, 12MB) and a short news article write-up (The News & Observer)

[ Thanks to the Conservation DistList for the prior alert. ]

from New York Times
New Look at '‘Mona Lisa'’ Yields Some New Secrets
go to article

from The Guardian
High-res 3D scan helps scientists uncover Mona Lisa's secrets
go to article

A couple of overlapping articles looking at the technical examination of the famed masterpiece, using infra-red imaging to look at alterations, as well as laser scanner to record minute paint surface topology.

from Chemical and Engineering News
Incredible Colors
go to article

Another article on the analysis of the use of unusual materials in the oil paintings of the 16th-century Venetian School which explained the characteristic glow and luminosity of these paintings (also see previous post here).

from Conservation, GCI Newsletter
Technical Art History
go to newsletter
PDF version

The latest newsletter from the Getty Conservation Institute is featuring the emerging cross-disciplinary field of technical art history.