Ancient art preservation has undergone significant advancements over
the years with the help of modern technology. Today's art conservators
usually have a background not only in art but in sciences such as
physics, chemistry and geology.
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At
Harvard University's Straus Center for Conservation, X-rays are used to
find cracks in art works, tiny chips of paintings are extracted with
needles and then examined under microscopes and infrared cameras are
employed to look beneath paint surfaces to see drawings used in the
artist's planning and preparations. These techniques have proven
especially helpful in determining and restoring a painting's original
coloring, which may have changed dramatically over time.
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Med-Colour-Tech,
a European research project, is using a physiochemical approach to
improve preservation techniques. Scientists for the project use
spectrographs (pictures produced through instruments that measure
light) and chromatography (measurements of absorbency) to reproduce and
renew traditional coloring techniques.
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Because
synthetic dyes fade away quickly, scientists at the Faculty of Fine
Arts of the University of Marmara in Istanbul are experimenting with
ancient coloring methods--by altering the amount of organic compounds,
temperature or dissolving time--to produce pigments identical to those
historically used.
