Challenge

Authenticating a particular artist’s work, or investigating the early techniques used by historic painters, requires a detailed look at the paint and pigments used as well as the brush strokes or layering of revisions to the work.

Known as “technical artistry” this interrogation of paintings uses optical imaging on a fine scale at high resolution for a deeper understanding of complicated and valuable artwork.

Solution

Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) can produce images down to the microscale at high resolution allowing clear identification of individual miniscule pigment particles in paint layers.

Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) identifies what elements are within the pigments, allowing authentication of the painting from a certain era, and clarifying what pigment was used in easy-to-read elemental maps.

Impact

This work allowed the main goals of the IFACS to be achieved – understanding of the fresco technique of painting, as well as restoration of a stunning painting that hangs in the Palace of Westminster [1].

The combination of materials that Watts used were identified, aiding the IFACS’s efforts in restoration.