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SYCH: Intersectional Symposium Cultural Heritage in the Light of Physical Methods
SYCH 2: Cultural Heritage in the Light of Physical Methods II
SYCH 2.1: Invited Talk
Thursday, March 17, 2011, 16:30–17:00, HSZ 02
Looking below the surface of paintings by help of neutrons — •Claudia Laurenze-Landsberg1 and Carl Otto Fischer2 — 1Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin — 2Helmholtz-Zentrum für Materialien und Energie
The research using the Neutron-Autoradiography method is in collaboration with the Helmholtzzentrum für Materialien und Energie, Berlin and the Gemäldegalerie of the Staatliche Museen Berlin. The Gemäldegalerie Berlin is the only institute world wide, which systematically employs the method of Neutron-Activation-Autoradiography to analyse paintings. Today we have investigated about 70 mainly 17th century works.
The paintings to be investigated are scanned by means of neutron activation. The isotopes arising during this process have specific half-lives and emit gamma and beta energies. For a period of up to six weeks after activation x-ray films are placed on the painting exposing them to the radiation. Hereby, paint layers, which vary in colour, can be separated on different films and supply valuable additional data to x-radiographs.
Deeper paint layers are made visible. In this way, it is possible to gain insight into the work process and the artistic approach of the painter. A hidden composition might reveal another artist's influence on the painter, which might be important for the dating. The elucidation of the brushstroke can be read as the handwriting of the artist responsible for the painting. Examples for these various findings by using non-destructive autoradiography will be shown.