Symposium organized by the international study group Art Technological Source Research.

Title:	"Approaching the Art of the Past: Sources & Reconstructions"
Organization:	Study group Art Technological Source Research (ATSR)
Language:	The official language of the symposium is English
Venue	Instituut Collectie Nederland (ICN), Gabriël Metsustraat 8, Amsterdam
Date:	Thursday 14 October and Friday 15 October 2004

Recipe books, treatises and manuals on artists' materials, tools and methods are of fundamental importance for an understanding of how art objects were made.

Historically accurate reconstructions on the basis of these sources provide insight into the original appearance of an object, as well as workshop practices, and provide models for understanding material degradation.

The interpretation of artists' intent rests on this kind of basic knowledge. For example: Van Gogh never intended the blossoms in his series of orchard paintings (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam) to appear quite as pale as they look today. How would they have looked originally? The recipe sources and reconstructions may answer this and help us understand what has happened.

A two day symposium is being organized by the Art Technological Source Research (ATSR) group to discuss the role of source research and the use of reconstructions in the emerging field of art technological research.

Keynote speakers will be

Registration fee and deadlines

Payment before 1 August 2004: Euro 125,00. Payment after 1 August 2004: Euro 150,00 Student's fee before 1 August 2004: Euro 40,00. Student's fee after 1 August 2004: Euro 80,00

The symposium fee includes:
- admittance to the sessions
- symposium program
- proceedings (postprints)
- coffee breaks
- lunch breaks
- excursions (partly)

[download info, program and registration form]

Program - Approaching the Art of the Past: Sources & Reconstructions

Preliminary program

NB: there will be five minutes for questions at the end of each talk and 15 minutes for discussions at the end of each session.

Lectures symposium ‘Approaching the Art of the Past: Sources & Reconstructions’

Symposium organised by the study group Art Technological Source Research ICN, Gabriël Metsustraat 8, Amsterdam – Thursday 14 and Friday 15 October 2004

Abstracts

Lorne Campbell -

Keynote on the value of accurate reconstructions to the art historian.
Art-historians should be conscious that we are constantly, directly or indirectly, dependent on the research and opinions of those who reconstruct materials and investigate their properties. Jan van Eyck’s Giovanni(?) Arnolfini and his Wife and Rogier van der Weyden’s presentation miniature in the ‘Chroniques de Hainaut’ provide starting points for a discussion of the importance of understanding the materials used by these two painters. Reconstructing the biographies of all those who were in contact with Rogier can lead to possible sources not only for his ideas or for information that he used but also for his materials and techniques. The achievements of Bruegel, another artist of extraordinary skill, are perhaps best explained as the culmination of centuries of experience of painting in oils as well as in other, faster-drying media.

Leslie Carlyle -

Historically Accurate Oil Painting Reconstructions for the Mayerne Project.
Reconstructions of oil paintings can take many forms- from the painstaking reproduction of an early panel painting done as part of a conservation training course, to strips of sample paints prepared for mechanical testing. The degree of historical accuracy required will vary according to the purpose of the reconstruction- in many cases it is neither necessary nor desirable- for example when the toxicity of the materials rule out their use in a workshop setting. This talk will cover the preparation of reconstructions intended as reference materials for analytical and physical studies where historical accuracy is of primary importance. This work relies heavily on documentary sources for historic recipes, analytical results from actual paintings and on sourcing materials commensurate with those used in the past.

Margriet van Eikema Hommes -

Blue and green, understanding historical recipes and phenomena on old master paintings.
This lecture focuses on the role of historical texts on painting techniques in the study of ageing processes in old master paintings. By means of the examples of two important problems of discoloration in 16th-17th century oil paintings: the darkening of copper green glazes and the fading of indigo, it is demonstrated that the information in contemporary written sources provides insight into the original composition of the paint and the way this paint was applied by the artists. It is shown that due to the fragmentary character of the old written information, a great number of texts has to be analyzed. Only then one is able to correctly correlate the bits of information and obtain a coherent image of the techniques used by painters at the time. The information from the sources, combined with results from the technical examination of paintings, was used for the set-up of paint reconstructions that have been subjected to artificial ageing. Examples are given how these reconstructed paints have helped to better understand the ageing phenomena in the old paintings and how they also contributed to more insight into the original appearance of the discolored paint areas, and consequently in a better understanding of the painters’ intentions.

Jo Kirby -

Reconstruction of French 19th-century red lake pigments for the De Mayerne project on the Painting Materials and Technique of Vincent Van Gogh.
Brilliantly-coloured pigments made from fugitive cochineal, madder, brazilwood and eosin dyestuffs played an important part in Vincent Van Gogh’s work. As similar pigments are not available today, it was necessary to make them, following 19th-century recipes, to provide comparative material for scientific investigation. Potentially, a wide range of documentary sources from the 19th century is available, and that used for the reconstructions, supported by information derived from artists’ materials, will be discussed. However, a contemporary recipe is not the only requirement for successful pigment reconstruction, particularly as the original pigments were made on a large scale: documentary evidence on workshop conditions and practice, which would be derived from the experience of the manufacturer, was lacking. The extent to which the reconstructed pigments resemble the authentic 19th-century products, and thus their suitability for experimental purposes, may therefore be variable.

Doris Oltrogge -

Cologne database for Medieval painting materials and reconstructions.
[abstract pending]

Ad Stijnman -

Introduction to ATSR in general and the subject of the symposium in particular.
20 March 2002 saw the foundation of the ATSR working group. Its core subject was defined as art technological source research. Art technology is defined as knowledge concerning the production of works of art or craft. Various kinds of sources are distinguished with an emphasis on documentary material. The main objective of the ATSR working group is to encourage research into art technological sources on a professional basis. Another important objective for the working group is to be a platform for the exchange and dissemination of information on the subject, reason for the organisation of the present symposium. The introduction to art technological source research will approach questions such as: what is a source, what kinds of sources can be distinguished, how can a source be used, what is the value of a reconstruction, what is the value of sources in making reconstructions?

Ad Stijnman -

Levels of reconstruction of black iron gall inks for the InkCor project.
Within the InkCor project (InkCor stands for Ink Corrosion) the behaviour of iron-gall ink on paper is researched in order to come to non-aqueous treatment methods. Historical ink recipes are studied, objects observed and inks analysed. During the project iron-gall inks are produced for various purposes and various levels of research. Reconstructions of iron-gall inks are related to historical ink recipes, observations of objects with iron-gall ink, scientific analysis, the aims of the research and the capabilities of the researcher. Reconstructions are made to train people in understanding the production process of an iron-gall ink, but also for a better understanding of an actual recipe or a group of recipes. Model inks are used to test the behaviour of iron-gall ink, to develop analysis methods and to test conservation treatments.

Joyce H Townsend, Jacqueline Ridge and Leslie Carlyle -

Cobalt blue, emerald green and rose madder in copal-based media used by the Pre-Raphaelites.
The reconstructions of copal-based media formed part of extensive research into the materials, methods and aims of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood during 1848-56, the period of its formation and dissolution (now published as Townsend, Ridge and Hackney, Pre-Raphaelite Painting Techniques, Tate, 2004). Analysis of the paintings indicated that these artists regularly used the transparent pigments cobalt blue, ultramarine, emerald green and rose madder, while ‘copal’ occurs often in their letters, notes on canvases, and in their accounts with artists’ colourmen. Yet copal-based paint could not be identified by eye, in cross-sections or initially by medium analysis. We used previous research into nineteenth-century colourman’s recipes ( Carlyle, The Artist’s Assistant, Archetype, 2001) to design and make two sets of sample boards that were then stored in different conditions (dark, room lighting, and accelerated light ageing), assessed visually and by colour measurement, and compared to Pre-Raphaelite paintings. The boards included lead white and zinc white primings, the four commonly-used pigments noted above in four typical copal-based recipes from the mid-nineteenth century, the same pigments in oil medium for comparison, and copal varnish over all colours. As far as possible, nineteenth-century production methods (such as oil extraction by pressing seeds from the linseed plant, grinding paint by hand or with a small triple roll mill, and the use of pre-World War II pigments where possible) were used in re-creating Pre-Raphaelite paint. The sample boards were designed to answer a number of questions about materials. Their success for this purpose will be evaluated.

Ernst van de Wetering -

Keynote on reconstruction research, some cases and their contexts.
In this short lecture some examples of the risks and benefits of reconstruction research will be discussed. The benefits dominate the risks by far. The combined research of historical sources and scientific results –however thorough- proved again and again not capable to produce sufficient data for reconstruction of the complete recipe for/of a historical material or object. Sometimes a tentative reconstruction, based on a thorough autopsy of the object, can produce new insights causing renewed analysis and interpretation of sources and scientific results. It’s fundamental that economic and aesthetic aspects, as also art theory, are being considered in this investigation. For a deeper understanding of the optical characteristics of the historical object or material, it is of the greatest importance to always consider the influence of ageing in the materials and techniques used.

Posters and demonstrations at “Approaching the Art of the Past: Sources & Reconstructions”

Symposium organised by the study group Art Technological Source Research ICN, Gabriël Metsustraat 8, Amsterdam – Thursday 14 and Friday 15 October 2004

Abstracts

Olivier Béringuer -

When glass is made of plastic…: restoration of the model of the “Pavillon Saint-Gobain” for the international exhibition of 1937.
The “restoration”, or “reconstruction”, of the scale model of the Pavillon of Glass created by the architects Coulon and Adnet in 1937 (musée national d’art moderne, Centre G. Pompidou, Paris, AM 2002-2-509) represents the principal interest of this project. The diversity of materials employed for the model led us to various levels of intervention according to the nature and the state of degradation of the materials used. The pavilion was demolished after the exhibition, but the model was kept. It was, however, in a poor state mainly due to the degradation of some of the components. The project started by placing the object in its historical context. Early pictures of the model and the actual building were compared with the model in its present state, while publications and documentary information about the pavilion from the archives of the architects were studied. The composite construction of the model, with various kinds of plastics and metals, had brought it to an heterogeneous state of degradation. The walls, made out of cellulose nitrate now completely destroyed, were replaced. The concept of the cupola was still coherent, while the cohesion of the materials was sufficient enough to consolidate it only. The engraved decorated panel in front of the building was replaced by a facsimile ensuring a better comprehension and conservation of the object. The various levels of intervention and the reconstructions were necessary in order to come to a homogeneous and a well conserved model.

Hayo de Boer -

Demonstration ArTeS database.
Short tour through the ICN to see the working space for art technological source research at ICN, storage of documentary source material, with a demonstration of the ArTeS database.

Andreas Burmester -

Inventory of a pharmacy in Kolberg.
As a new type of primary sources, pharmacy price lists (taxae) allow valuable conclusions about artists' materials. The poster will present an inventory list of a pharmacy in Kolberg (today in Poland). The Kolberg inventory from 1589 reflects the artists' materials available, the amount of material as well as its prize. The relevance of the Kolberg inventory will be discussed in the context of the Münchner Taxenprojekt.

Mark Clarke, Leslie Carlyle -

Page–Image Recipe Databases, a new approach to making art technological manuscripts and rare printed sources accessible (The Winsor & Newton archive).
A novel approach to digitisation can make documentary sources rapidly accessible. A database displays full page images from the source, alongside database fields that index and analytically summarise page contents. This removes many problems of labour-intensive full-text entry (e.g. uncertain readings). Data summary fields allow rapid searching (e.g. for specific ingredient quantities) and sorting (e.g. by date). Because original page images are always visible to the user researchers are not restricted to the entered interpretation but may add their own contributions. Diagrams are available, and visual clues to the use and history of the source (e.g. additions or corrections in different hands or inks) are clear. The 6000 page archive of C19th oil paint recipes from Winsor & Newton is being entered. The page-image database is time-saving and highly flexible. It combines the advantages of photographic reproduction with those of electronic text management, greatly facilitating correlation between laboratory findings and documentary sources.

Alan Derbyshire, Nick Frayling, Timea Tallian -

C16th portrait miniatures.
Current research at the V&A/RCA conservation course and the V&A Museum is looking into the reconstruction of painting techniques related to C16th portrait miniatures. These are watercolour on vellum paintings usually on a small scale (average 5 cm diameter) often set into precious lockets. Our research involves several methods of investigation: looking at C16th and C17th treatises related to the English miniature painter Nicholas Hilliard; examination of Tudor miniatures from the National Collection of Portrait Miniatures at the V&A; practical reconstruction of materials and techniques and also computer reconstruction and visualisation.The purpose of this research is to evolve a greater understanding of how miniatures were painted and to give an insight into their deterioration processes with a view to better informing conservators, historians and the public.

Joris Dik, Paul van Alkemade, Valerie Sivel, Jan van der Lubbe, Yuval Garini -

Reconstructing the yellow cloak of the ‘Girl at the Virginals’ by Vermeer.
Recently, the painting 'A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals' was re-attributed to Johannes Vermeer on stylistical, art historical and technical grounds. One of the conclusions was that the yellow cloak of the seated lady must be considered a later overpainting. It was found out that the overpainting contains large amounts of discoloured schietgeel. The original appearance of the yellow cloak must have been much more colour intensive than the present state of the painting suggests. Spectral analysis of the undiscoloured lower part of the yellow paint layer revealed the original spectral properties of the yellow painting. Using image processing techniques we performed a digital reconstruction of the approximate original appearance of the modified yellow cloak.

Vaios Ganitis, Ekaterina Talarou -

Sources and Preparatory Drawing in Byzantine Iconography (C15th-C19th).
This poster explores the techniques used to create preparatory drawings on the ground layer of Byzantine icons (C15-C19). The research was source-based, that is, based on Greek treatises on painting that deal with the preparation of materials and the techniques of icon construction. The study also compares this information with information gleaned from Russian and Bulgarian treatises on icon painting and manuals on the technology of the constituent elements and the methods of constructing icons published in those countries in C15th-C19th. These sources give clear descriptions of techniques used to make preparatory drawings of icons. One basic technique was to make an outline print from an existing icon. To do this, the icon painter would paint over the outlines of an already varnished icon, using natural pigments and natural binders. A sheet of paper would then be pressed over the original, yielding a negative of the drawing, which would then be transferred either to the ground of the new icon or onto another sheet of paper (the positive imprint of the drawing). This technique made it feasible to mass produce icons. Another technique described in the sources involved creating a paper stencil following the contours of the original icon. Charcoal dust was then forced through the perforations to transfer the pattern to the preparation of paint layer of the icon. Mass production could also be assisted by using an outline traced from the original onto a sheet of paper coated with linseed oil or some other fatty substance to make it transparent. Byzantine icon painters also used a form of carbon copying: a drawing would be created on a sheet of paper, the underside of the paper would be coated with charcoal, and some pointed object used to transfer the design to the ground of the new icon. The next stage in the project is to reproduce the techniques described for creating preparatory drawings of icons in order to verify the accuracy of the information contained in the sources.

Angie Geary -

3D Digital Visualisation and Virtual Restoration of Polychrome Sculpture.
This poster and demonstration presents virtual restoration case studies carried out as part of a Ph.D. research project at The Royal College of Art and V&A Museum. The project focused on the virtual restoration of C16th German polychrome sculpture, with severely damaged and discoloured painted and decorated surfaces. The sculptures were laser scanned in 3D and reconstructed as full colour virtual models. The virtual restoration of the polychromy and decoration was based on historical, conservation and technical evidence from chemical analysis and microscopy.

Erma Hermens, Margaret MacDonald -

Whistler's Correspondence: an artist in the studio.
10,000 letters and documents relating to the American born artist James McNeill Whistler are being made available on-line by the Centre for Whistler Studies in the University of Glasgow. The documents cover his life and work in Paris, London, Holland and elsewhere during the second half of the 19th century. They provide an enormous amount of first hand information on studio practice, exhibitions, and works of art. Whistler's use of colours and materials, his approach to conservation, and his concern with the finish and presentation of his work, can now be searched more fully than every before. We shall demonstrate the richness and variety of these documents, and the triumphs and pitfalls of this form of research. When compared with other sources of information such as contemporary press cuttings, and recent conservation reports, it may be possible to establish the original aims of the artist and the changing condition of his paintings. However, any such comparison has to be conducted with care, bearing in mind the varying precision and purpose of the language used by the artist and his contemporaries, and the changing meanings of words. Using this newly available resource, we shall present case studies based on important works by Whistler, who was one of the most influential artists of the late 19th century. We shall analyse the letters of the artist, dealers, gallery owners and collectors, as well as press-reviews, to explore the meaning, development and appearance of his paintings. Glasgow University also owns the painting materials present in the artist’s studio at the time of his death. Easels, custom made brushes, palettes, painting boxes, paint tubes (watercolour, oil, and petroleum paints) from a variety of colourmen; forming an important collection of 19th century materials. The Whistler archive and materials provide unique resources for a technical art historical research into Whistler’s studio practice.

Kathrin Kinseher -

Reconstruction of recipes for flesh colours in mediaeval artist manuals.
The reconstructions are based on research of recipes for painting flesh colours in artists’manuals. The project was performed by art students at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich, who studied and next reconstructed recipes for flesh colours in the treatises by Theophilus Presbyter, Cennino Cennini, De Mayerne and in the Strassburg Manuscript. The flesh colours were painted on sample boards, while the palette consisted of historical pigments and different binders such as egg yolk, skin glue and linseed oil. Then modern pigments were used, trying to find an equivalent to the traditional palette. At the end the students developed their own work, mostly by painting portraits, incorporating source research in their own visual language.

Aurélie Nicolaus -

Demonstration of the one of Durer’s drawing machines.
Demonstration of the use of one of Durer's drawing machines that has been remade. Having described in depth the dimensions and qualities of the machine, Durer writes: "once the drawing has been done on the glass you can easily transfer it onto your paper, canvas or panel". Easier said than done to transfer a line drawing from a piece of glass ... However, in less than ten minutes a drawing can be made using the glass, transfer it to paper then onto a panel, being able to keep the drawing on paper (inverted).

Doris Oltrogge -

Demonstration Cologne database.
Demonstration of the database for medieval painting materials and reconstructions of the Fachhochschule Köln. The demonstration coincides with the lecture on the topic.

Mark Richter -

Smalt glazes on silver leaf gildings of baroque and rococo polychromy in southern Germany.
Blue smalt glazes on silver leaf gildings, a polychroming technique typical of C17th-C18th in southern Germany, have only recently been studied in great detail. This research is based on results obtained from a number of technical examinations and the evaluation of contemporary documentary sources. A selection of 10 multi-layered blue smalt glazes on silver leaf gildings from baroque and rococo polychrome works of art were microscopically examined and analysed during this study. Unfortunately, the original appearance of the majority of these coloured glazes with their luminous deep blue colour and gloss has often been drastically altered by various factors. This includes damage caused from earlier renovation and restoration measures (e.g. overpainting, the effect of solvents upon the removal of overpainting, mechanical damage), and the yellowing of the transparent gloss lacquer (mostly composed of natural resins) used as a binding medium for the multi-layered original smalt glazes. In order to provide more insight into their original appearance it was necessary to prepare historically accurate reconstructions of this polychroming technique based on contemporary documentary sources and technical examination results.

Elzbieta Szmit-Naud -

(In)stability of pigment mixtures described in artist manuals.
The first research results concerning certain pigments mixtures as described in manuals on artists' materials shows that some are unstable or "wrong". Ageing and colorimetric assessment of watercolour mixture samples shows their (in)stability.

Arie Wallert -

Chrozophora tinctoria: a mediaeval colorant in the seventeenth century.
Most organic colourants in mediaeval manuscript illumination are the result of metallo-organic complexation: the organic substance (antraquinone, flavonoid) is precipitated with a metal (Al, Fe, Sn) salt into an insoluble pigment lake. Sometimes miniature painters used very specific different colourants in a pure and uncomplexed form, known as clothlets. Coloured juices were expressed from seed kernels, berries or flowers and pieces of cloth were dipped into it. When enough of the colouring substance was taken up, the clothlet was dried and stored. For use a small piece was wetted so that the colour dissolved out of the clothlet and into the medium. This water colour paint was used for thin translucent washes. Different botanical sources and their colouring components could be used for this purpose. The most important of these is Chrozophora tinctoria Juss. This greyish-green annual, belonging to the Euphorbiaceae, has found description in several mediaeval technical treatises. It is generally thought that Chrozophora clothlets ceased to be used with the ascend of the bookprinting industry after C16th. However, a fairly late C17th manuscript contains a wealth of Chrozophora recipes.

Phoebe Dent Weil, Darah Belchetz-Swenson -

Exploring Rembrandt’s painting materials and techniques: Rembrandt and burnt plate oil.
Rembrandt’s medium, which has been a subject of long-standing interest and speculation, became a focus of exploration in the process of producing reconstructions. Indications, as expressed in modern literature, to the possible use of egg in Rembrandt’s medium gives rise to the idea that he perhaps had a “secret formula” incorporating egg into the oil to make an emulsion for producing a pastose paint. However, imitations of the special effects of Rembrandt’s pastose technique by using burnt plate oil and pigments such as chalk, smalt, lead white, and lead tin yellow were successful. Through boiling and burning linseed oil, following historical literature, a very useable range of oil medium was obtained having greater or lesser viscosity. Lower viscosities ground with lead white could produce small beads and strings of paint typical of Rembrandt’s early work, whereas higher viscosity oil produced a more viscous and pastose paint. A small amount of this viscous burned oil could be combined with unheated linseed oil to produce a paint of a desired viscosity. The dark colour of burnt plate oil did not affect the colour of any paint, including lead white. Following Rembrandt’s practice, chalk as an additive proved to be effective in manipulating paint characteristics.

Sally Woodcock, Libby Sheldon -

Imitating ultramarine: artist’s economies reconstructed.
This research has been suggested by pigment combinations that appear to be imitating natural ultramarine, found on paintings from a range of periods. In order to clarify these findings, documentary sources are being examined for evidence of practices replicating the pigment’s colour while avoiding the high cost. Samples of pigment combinations cited have been painted out to assess their effectiveness and original appearance. In addition, the weight and associated cost of the different pigments compared to natural ultramarine will be judged in relation to the actual coverage of paint per ounce. The manufacture of artificial ultramarine in C19th provides a natural end date for this research.

Symposium coordinator: Ad Stijnman (ICN)

Postal address:
Instituut Collectie Nederland
ATSR-symposium
c/o Ad Stijnman
P.O. Box 76709
1070 KA Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel.: ++-31-(0)20-3054601 (reception)
tel.: ++-31-(0)20-3054738 (direct)

ATSR contact: atsr@icn.nl

Electronic registration form can be found here

At the top click on number '5', select 'Cursussen' - 'Cursusaanbod' - 'Symposium "Approaching the Art of the Past: Sources & Reconstructions".
An English language version of the ICN website will be available from March 2004.

About ATSR, this symposium, its updates, and the registration check the ATSR website frequently.