Detective scientists discover ancient clues in mummy portraits

A Northwestern University research team has taken CSI to a whole new level: employing sophisticated scientific tools to investigate details of the materials and methods used by Roman-Egyptian artists to paint lifelike mummy ...

Light reveals new details of Gauguin's creative process

French artist Paul Gauguin is well known for his colorful paintings of Tahitian life—such as the painting that sold recently for nearly $300 million—but he also was a highly experimental printmaker. Little is known, however, ...

Using math to study a masterpiece

Combining the mathematics of digital image processing with the history, craftsmanship and science of art conservation, the Bass Connections Image Processing Algorithms for Art Conservation team spent last year working with ...

Science to the rescue of art

Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" are losing their yellow cheer and the unsettling apricot horizon in Edvard Munch's "The Scream" is turning a dull ivory.

In the war against dust, a new tool inspired by geckos

Micrometric and sub-micrometric contaminant particles—what most of us call "dust"—can cause big problems for art conservators, the electronics industry, aerospace engineers, and others. These nanoparticles can prevent ...

Imaging method for eye disease used to eye art forgeries

Scientists in Poland are describing how a medical imaging technique has taken on a second life in revealing forgery of an artist's signature and changes in inscriptions on paintings that are hundreds of years old. A report ...

Climate change may be accelerating ancient rock art degradation

Climate change may be accelerating the degradation of ancient rock paintings in Indonesia, including the oldest known hand stencil in the world which dates back to 39,900 years ago, according to a study published in Scientific ...

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