Science and Art

The Painted Surface

Edited by Antonio Sgamellotti, Brunetto Giovanni Brunetti, Costanza Miliani

Publication date:

09 November 2015

Length of book:

620 pages

Publisher

Royal Society of Chemistry

ISBN-13: 9781782625322

Science and art are increasingly interconnected in the activities of the study and conservation of works of art. Science plays a key role in cultural heritage, from developing new analytical techniques for studying the art, to investigating new ways of preserving the materials for the future. For example, high resolution multispectral examination of paintings allows art historians to view underdrawings barely visible before, while the use of non-invasive and micro-sampling analytical techniques allow scientists to identify pigments and binders that help art conservators in their work. It also allows curators to understand more about how the artwork was originally painted.

Through a series of case studies written by scientists together with art historians, archaeologists and conservators, Science and Art: The Painted Surface demonstrates how the cooperation between science and humanities can lead to an increased understanding of the history of art and to better techniques in conservation. The examples used in the book cover paintings from ancient history, Renaissance, modern, and contemporary art, belonging to the artistic expressions of world regions from the Far East to America and Europe. Topics covered include the study of polychrome surfaces from pre-Columbian and medieval manuscripts, the revelation of hidden images below the surface of Van Gogh paintings and conservation of acrylic paints in contemporary art.

Presented in an easily readable form for a large audience, the book guides readers into new areas uncovered by the link between science and art. The book features contributions from leading institutions across the globe including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Getty Conservation Institute; Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Firenze; National Gallery of London; Tate Britain; Warsaw Academy of Fine Art and the National Gallery of Denmark as well as a chapter covering the Thangka paintings by Nobel Prize winner Richard Ernst.

Science and Art - My Two Passions; Study and Laser Uncovering of Hypogean Early Christian Wall Painting of Roma’s Catacombs of Santa Tecla and Domitilla; Scientific Examination for the Investigation and Conservation of Far East Asian Mural Paintings; Maya Mural Paintings in Calakmul: Pictorial Technique and Conservation; The Colours of Indigenous Memory: Non-Invasive Analyses of Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican Codices; Material Study of the Codex Colombino; Unveiling the Artistic Technique of the Florentine Codex: When the Old World and The New World Met; Colour In Medieval Portuguese Manuscripts: Between Beauty and Meaning; The Wall Paintings of the Monumental Cemetery of Pisa: The War, the Restoration, the Conservation;The Chemistry and Chemical Investigation of the Transition from Egg Tempera Painting To Oil In Italy In The 15th Century; Multi-Criterial  Studies of The Masterpiece ‘The Last Judgement’, A Triptych Attributed To Hans Memling, At The National Museum of Gdańsk (2010-2013); Science and Conservation the Florentine O.P.D. and Raphael’s Madonna of The Goldfinch; Underdrawing In the Renaissance Paintings; An Integrated Approach To The Study and Preservation of Paintings Using Laser Light Technology; Diagnosis, Analysis and Cleaning; « Mens Agitat Molem »: New Insights into Nicolas Poussin’s Painting Technique by X-Ray Diffraction and Fluorescence Analyses; Japanese Painting of the Eighteen Century; As Time Passed By Came Sunset. Christen Købke’s View of Lake Sortedam, Its Genesis and Colour Changes; Examination of Vincent Van Gogh’s Paintings and Pigments by Means of State-of-The-Art Analytical Methods; A Vibrant Surface: Investigating Color, Texture and Transparency in Winslow Homer’s Watercolors; After The Fact; Evaluating Our Interdisciplinary Study of Mondrian’s Victory Boogie Woogie; Argentinean Murals: Conservation and Characterization of Pictorial Techniques; Material and Technical Studies of Some Paintings by Candido Portinari, A Major Brazilian Modernist Painter; Modern Painted Palimpsests. Deciphering the Artworks of Osvaldo Licini; The Burri Project: Researches for Technique and Conservation; John Hoyland: A British Master of Acrylic Painting; Outdoor Painted Surfaces in Contemporary Art; The Elusive and Transitory Materials in Contemporary Drawings;

This volume shows a global solution to a long-discussed problem: how to get scientists, art historians and conservators working together. The book presents a host of projects where collaboration has allowed all of these groups to learn from one another. Some chapters describe the science and techniques, useful for scientists wishing to work in a similar setting; others focus on the art, showing how the results of scientific studies have led to a deeper understanding of a corpus of artifacts, linking to particular cultural traditions.Science and art also provides an excellent read for art historians, who will instantly recognise the famous pieces that have been studied, while giving them insight into how a painting was constructed, what it is made from, or how the colours would have looked when they were freshly painted.