Editor: Joan Padgett, Winnipeg. Includes bibliographical references.
Contents:
Foreword / Carol Podedworny -- Introduction / Nenagh Hathaway & Dr. Brandi Lee MacDonald -- The art of connoisseurship / Dr. Stephanie S. Dickey -- Conservation science and paintings / Dr. Alison Murray -- Conservation and condition issues / Gianfranco Pocobene -- Histories of selected artists' pigments / Dr. Brandi Lee MacDonald -- The analysis of inorganic pigments using spectrometric techniques / Dr. Brandi Lee MacDonald -- The technical art historian's methods of investigation : some tools & practices / Nenagh Hathaway -- Imaging using x-rays and neutrons / Dr. Fiona McNeill -- Limits of the eye and the engine of curiosity / Dr. Ihor Holubizky -- Disciplines in motion: the changing roles of museum curators, art conservators, and conservation scientists / Dr. Ron Spronk.
Summary:
This compendium of original essays features discoveries made by an international team of researchers - scholars of applied radiation sciences, anthropology, art history, biomedical engineering, as well as conservators, conservation scientists, forensic art historians, and curators - who examined several paintings from the museum?s collection, including works by Vincent Van Gogh, Alexander Rodchenko and Peter Paul Rubens? workshop. The result is a multidisciplinary, collaborative study of paintings as complex physical objects whose component parts tell us a story about their history. Drawing on the expertise of such an uncommon range of specialists, the thoroughly illustrated volume develops a large number of themes including painting technique and materials, attribution, connoisseurship, as well as issues of object condition and stability. Often referred to as technical art history, this relatively new approach reveals the valuable insights that are generated when scientific equipment is used to answer art historical questions.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.