media

Nouchka de Keyser - Pararealgar and Semi-amorphous Pararealgar Discovered in Rembrandt's The Night Watch: In July 2019, the Rijksmuseum embarked on a large-scale research and conservation project called Operation Night Watch to meticulously study Rembrandt’s The Night Watch (1642). During the research phase, which included multimodal non-invasive chemical imaging and micro-sample analysis, arsenic sulfide pigments were discovered. Using micro-Raman spectroscopy, pararealgar and semi-amorphous pararealgar were identified. In this presentation, the identification of artificial arsenic sulfides will be discussed and put into a larger context based on historical source research regarding manufacturing, trade, price and availability in Amsterdam in the 17th century. Nouchka De Keyser is a researcher at the science department of the Rijksmuseum and as a PhD student affiliated with the University of Antwerp and the University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on 17th-century paint technology and tries to gain a comprehensive understanding of how and why particular optical effects are systematically more affected by degradation using non-invasive imaging techniques. She is a team member of Operation Night Watch and currently involved in the technical research of Rembrandt’s masterpiece.

Abstract: In its lifetime, an oil painting is exposed to air with fluctuating temperatures, humidity, dust but also to conservation treatments like cleaning and consolidation. Water exposure is an important factor, because water absorbed in oil paintings due to environmental humidity or conservation treatments can result in undesirable changes in an oil painting. The presence of water can accelerate change by increasing oil binder hydrolysis, triggering metal soap formation, facilitating ionic reactions, or altering the mechanical properties of paint layers. Ultimately, we aim to develop a damage function for oil paintings to aid decisions on cleaning strategies and designing acceptable indoor climate conditions. During this NICAS colloquium I will share findings from ongoing research in which (long-term) chemical processes of artificially aged paint films are studied. Bio: Sander van Lith started this year as a PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam and The Rijksmuseum. He obtained his MSc degree in Chemical Engineering with a specialization in materials chemistry from Eindhoven University of Technology in 2020. He is working in the GoGreen project - a European consortium of researchers and conservators dedicated to advancing preventive and remedial strategies for safeguarding cultural heritage. His research focuses on studying the degradation of oil paints under different environmental conditions. Ultimately, he wants to make a well-tailored damage function for oil paints.

Yu Han Hsu - Unveiling The Madonna and Child after Jan Gossart Abstract: This presentation will introduce the research and conservation project of The Madonna and Child with a Veil in the Chimei Museum. The painting belongs to a popular copy series from sixteenth-century Antwerp that was modelled on Jan Gossart’s (1478-1532) design. The Chimei Museum acquired the painting via Christie’s of Amsterdam in 1996. However, it had been ignored for decades due to its unsatisfactory condition. In 2019-2020, the painting was finally examined and restored for a small educational exhibition of traditional Western oil paintings. In this presentation, I will first analyze how art historical research and technical studies helped to discover the connections between the Chimei version and other identical versions. In addition, I will also briefly introduce the restoration process of the painting, and the exhibition. Bio: Yu Han Hsu is a PhD candidate at Radboud University, under the supervision of Professor Ron Spronk and Professor Jos Koldeweij. Her primary research interest is the making of painted copies in the sixteenth-century Netherlands. She is also a junior curator at the Chimei Museum and Chimei Cultural Foundation in Taiwan. From 2018 to 2020, she conducted research on the museum's Western art collection to gain insight into the growing trend of collecting Old Masters' works in Asia. Since 2020, Yu Han has been leading a research project on the early Netherlandish painted copies in the Chimei Museum, with the aim of understanding the copyists’ production methods.

Izanna Mulder - L’Atelier des Delâtre: Artisanal Experiments and Artistic Expertise Abstract: L'Atelier des Delâtre: Artisanal Experiments and Artistic Expertise is a study on an artistic printing house in Paris. Its owners, father and son Delâtre, had a great influence on developments in 19th- and 20th-century printmaking. The most important artists of the period - think of Picasso, Manet and Cassatt - had their etchings printed by the two printers and also learned themselves the different techniques. The more research is conducted on the atelier, the clearer it becomes that it played a key role in the developments within 19th and 20th-century printmaking as an artform. It is not just the exceptional artworks that have been created there, but also the fact that the realization of these creations could only come about through intense collaboration, in which the artist became a craftsman, and the craftsman became an artist. Bio: Izanna Mulder (MA Curating Art and Cultures) is a freelance curator/researcher and an art history lecturer at the ArtEZ Art Academy. She is currently researching the 19th and 20th century Parisian printing house of Auguste and Eugène Delâtre as an external PhD at the University of Amsterdam. Winning the Prix de Paris has granted her the opportunity to conduct archival research in Paris, exploring artist letters, prints and documents related to the atelier.

Angela Cerasuolo, head of the conservation department of the Capodimonte Museum Napoli, presents: Conservation and technical study of paintings from the Capodimonte Museum: experiences and perspectives

Irma de Vries on the Making of Missie Meesterwerk

Amin Livani on Hygro-Mechanical Response of Oak Growth Rings to Varying Indoor Climate Conditions: A Combined Numerical and Experimental Study

Gauthier Patin on the Importance of Data for the field of Cultural Heritage