SCIART: Instrument Development and Analysis Tools for Standoff Identification and Mapping of Binders in Paintings

在化学测量和成像计划的支持和国际科学与工程办公室的共同资助下，乔治华盛顿大学的Murray Loew教授和国家艺术馆的John Delaney和Suzanne Lomax博士正在进行研究，旨在开发能够对整个艺术品进行全面检查的现场方法，提供所用颜料的图像或媒体地图，从而深入了解艺术工作方法。具体地说，该团队正在建造一种红外成像光谱仪，能够以高空间和光谱分辨率远离并扫描整幅画。扫描将被分析，以提供涂料中使用的粘合材料的组成地图。这些知识将帮助历史学家更好地理解重要的艺术作品，帮助保护人员更好地修复这些重要的艺术作品。它将帮助艺术保护者和历史学家了解进化变化如何影响艺术家的绘画技巧和风格。它将阐明画家如何通过更多地使用粘合剂而不是单独使用颜料来改变绘制表面的外观。最后，对于保管者来说，找到共同结合剂的区域对于确定处理方法是重要的。新仪器很可能在艺术品保护领域之外具有实用价值；在生物医学成像和国土防务中都存在具有挑战性的材料识别问题，对峙、高灵敏度、高分辨率的能力将直接适用于这些问题。这项工作将通过阐明化学和工程中的分析技术在艺术保护中的价值，为研究生和博士后提供实践经验。学生们将在意大利佩鲁贾与合作者一起学习几个月，学习他们解决问题的方法，并进行一些基准、校准和新样本库的研究。这种接触应该是无价的，因为它将澄清这个界面中存在的各种观点的异同，并迫使学生从多个方向审视问题。还将受益于跨文化接触和理解。结果将广泛传播，例如通过在科学和流行期刊上发表，以及通过乔治华盛顿大学和国家美术馆的网站和展品。

With support from the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program and co-funding from the Office of International Science and Engineering, Prof. Murray Loew of George Washington University and Drs. John Delaney and Suzanne Lomax at the National Gallery of Art are undertaking studies aimed at developing in situ methods capable of comprehensive examination of entire artworks, providing images, or media maps, of the pigments used, which in turn provide insight into the artistic working method. Specifically, the team is constructing an infrared imaging spectrometer capable of standing off from and scanning an entire painting, with high spatial and spectral resolution. The scans will be analyzed to provide maps of the composition of the binding materials used in the paints. That knowledge will help historians to better understand, and conservators to better restore, important works of art. It will help art conservators and historians understand how evolutionary changes can influence an artist's painting technique and style. It will clarify how painters worked to alter the appearance of painted surfaces by experimenting more with the binders than with the pigments alone. Finally, for the conservator, finding regions of common binders is important for determining treatment approaches. The new instrument is likely to have utility beyond the field of art conservation; there are challenging material-identification problems in both biomedical imaging and homeland defense to which the standoff, high-sensitivity, high-resolution capabilities would be directly applicable. The work will provide hands-on experience to graduate and postdoctoral students by making clear the value of analytic techniques from chemistry and engineering in art conservation. Students will join collaborators in Perugia, Italy, for several months, learning their approaches to the issues and conducting some of the benchmarking, calibration, and new-sample-library studies. That exposure should be invaluable because it will make clear the similarities and differences of various points of view that are present in this interface, and force the students to examine problems from multiple directions. There also will be benefit from cross-cultural exposure and understanding. Results will be disseminated broadly, such as by publication in scientific and popular journals and by Web sites and exhibits at both George Washington University and the National Gallery of Art.