Stories tagged art
Madonna of the Goldfinch: Raphael's painting is known in Italy as Madonna del cardellino.
Courtesy WikipediaAfter surviving centuries of damage, previous patchwork, and a major catastrophe a painting by Italian Renaissance artist Raphael has been brought back to its former condition thanks to science, technology, and a lot of long-term microscopic care. About 10 years of it!
Raphael painted the masterpiece titled Madonna of the Goldfinch around 1506 as a wedding gift for a local wool merchant. The 42 by 30-inch oil on wood panel depicts the Virgin with two children (representing Christ and John the Baptist) holding a goldfinch. It’s an amazing this thing isn’t languishing in some Florence landfill, because in 1547 the collapse of the owner’s house shattered the painting into seventeen pieces.
A contemporary of Raphael salvaged the artwork by nailing the pieces back together and painting over the breaks. Subsequent owners made further restorations to it, patching them with glue and more paint, and obliterating even more of Raphael’s original brushstrokes, On top of that four plus centuries of dirt and grime covered the image with an ugly yellowish hue that obscured Raphael’s original colors and added to the painting’s deteriorated condition.
When the cobbled-together painting arrived at Florence's Opificio Delle Pietre Dure, it was - needless to say - nothing to behold. Opificio Delle Pietre Dure is one of Italy's finest art restoration laboratories established by the state to protect Italy's many art treasures. The laboratory is set up with the cutting edge technology and expertise necessary to carefully restore many kinds of artwork including tapestries, parchments, stonework, jewelry, textiles, and paintings. The condition of Raphael's ailing painting was so bad; it was first x-rayed from various angles to determine the best way to approach its restoration.
"We spent two whole years studying it before deciding whether to go ahead because with the damage it suffered in the past -- which was clearly visible in the x-rays -- a restoration attempt could go wrong," said Marco Ciatti, head of Opificio’s department of painting.
Watch a video report on the restoration
Chief restorer Patrizia Riitano spent most of the last 10 years with her eye to a microscope poring over the painting while carefully removing layers of added paint and gunk to reveal more of Raphael’s original image. Earlier restorations had used paint similar to that used by Raphael, making it difficult to distinguish one from the other. But Riitano’s work wasn’t solitary. She headed a team of more than 50 technicians and specialists who used CAT scans, lasers, and infrared photography to revive the work of art back to its former glory. Fractures were sealed, and wood experts determined the large nails holding the pieces together should be left in place because removing them would cause more damage. But smaller deteriorating nails were removed.
The lab's efforts seems to have paid off, because the restoration's results are stunning. Vivid blue, red, and golden colors long obscured by the paint of previous restorations radiate once again from the canvas, and in some cases unknown background elements buried under centuries of gunk have re-emerged into the light of day.
Three panel comparison with before, during, and after images
The painting will go on display later this month in the Palazzo Medici in Florence, the centerpiece of an exhibition about the restoration. After that it will be returned to its home the Uffizi Gallery.
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Tags : Researchers in Australia have developed a way to mark artwork with an invisible chemical fingerprint. A forensic chemist named Rachel Green has been developing the technology for the past five years. The process involves determining the trace elements present in a painting and then adjusting the mixture of trace elements to make its own signature. Artwork can be treated with this signature a of couple different ways, by mixing it in with the paint or spraying it on previously completed works. Green claims it does not harm the painting.
The technology could prove valuable in preventing art forgery and Green hopes that it will also help indigenous artists by increasing the value of their art and reducing fraudulent works. Earlier this month, a painting by Freddy Timms of Australia was the first painting to be treated by this process.
Spacey artists: Alan Bean was the subject of an artistic photo taken on the moon in 1969. The former NASA astronaut now creates space art.
Courtesy NASA/Charles ConradHere's an interesting story about former NASA astronaut Alan Bean and his new calling as a space artist. If you really want to check out his artwork, go to his website here to see some very cool space art. In some of his works, Bean incorporates actual tools and artifacts from his moon trip. Bean was the lunar module pilot of Apollo 12 and also commanded a Skylab mission.
Ancient wall art at Cave at Lascaux, France: Was music used here to soothe the savage breast?
Courtesy Thag the cavemanDo you enjoy hearing your favorite rock group perform their ear-splitting music in a huge cavernous concert arena with flashing colored lights and giant video imagery? Or listening to hymns and spirituals bounce off the vaulted ceiling of a church full of colorful stained-glassed windows and religious icons? Well, I’ve got news for you. It could be you’re attracted to such things by a deep-seated urge to mix echoing music and art; a practice mankind has apparently been doing since the Stone Age. At least according to a new theory coming out of the University of Paris.
Professor Iegor Reznikoff, a specialist in the resonance of building and spaces, theorizes that the most resonant areas of prehistoric-era caves are also the locations where most of the cave wall paintings appear.
Reznikoff stumbled upon the idea by accident.
"The first time I happened to be in a prehistoric cave, I tried the resonance in various parts of the cave, and quickly the question arose: Is there a relation between resonance and locations of the paintings?"
Reznikoff tested his theory inside various well-known French caves where prehistoric art adorned the walls. As he moved about each space, singing and humming, Reznikoff measured where the optimum resonance occurred.
To his surprise, the most resonant areas of each cave were usually spots where most of the cave art was concentrated. And where the resonance was the greatest, the artwork was the densest. In smaller spaces, such as narrow passages between larger cavern rooms where painting would have been difficult, the walls were marked with red lines.
Bear Bone Flute: Neanderthal-aged flute made from bear's femur
Courtesy WikipediaIt occurred to Reznikoff that perhaps a cave’s acoustics was important to prehistoric culture, and may be the reason why primitive musical instruments, such as a Neanderthal flute made out of the femur of a bear, have been found in similar caves.
"The [prehistoric] tribes could make sounds with stones, pieces of wood, different types of drums and so on," Reznikoff says. "Of course the Paleolithic tribes did sing, as do all cultural groups from other regions. That they did so in the caves is shown by my studies. The ritual purpose appears very convincing."
This may explain why the popularity of cavernous concert halls, and large arena music performances, or even subterranean music clubs continue to be popular to this day. Perhaps the ancestral effects of long ago cave rituals still resonate in us.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.: Or, as the poets say, "hubba-hubba."
Courtesy beardenb
Is there an objective standard of beauty which everyone agrees on? Or does every individual have their own definition of “beauty”? Turns out it’s a bit of both.
Researchers showed images of famous sculptures to test subjects and monitored their brains’ response. When shown images that had normal proportion, a certain part of the brain was active. When shown distorted images, that brain region was silent. This implies that our brains are hard-wired to recognize and respond to beauty.
However, when asked to judge whether an image was beautiful or ugly, a different part of the brain, one associated with learning and emotion, became active. The researchers conclude that, while our reaction to an image may be hard-wired, what we think about the image is up to us.
Origami and scienceWe've blogged about the new science TV show, Wired Science here before. They covered lots of interesting angles for their first show last night. Both me and a friend were most intrigued by Robert Lang's work, mixing the art of origami with science problems. He looks at how computers mixed with the art of origami can help figure out how to pack airbags and even space telescopes more efficiently. I'm a bit of an origami nut but then I am a science nerd also, so you can see why I found his site pretty fun.
Bee driven sensors: Courtesy Susana Soares.An artist at the Royal College of Art in the United Kingdom has designed some beautiful glass sculptures that could help use bee's amazing powers of smell to help detect disease. Susana Soares was inspired by recent news on research to use bees to sniff out chemical weapons and bombs.
Also check out:
University of Montana's Bee Alert program.
More on bees from Science Buzzzzzz
Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS exhibition provokes intrigue and questions about the scientific, cultural, and ethical aspects of anatomy and the preservation of human specimens, particularly in a public display.
Please join University of Minnesota experts for a FREE community forum series.
The Body on Display: Controversies and Conversations
Wednesday, June 28
Anatomy: Why We Dissect
Ken Roberts, Program in Human Anatomy Education, John Eyler, Program in the History of Medicine, and Dave Lee, Anatomy Bequest Program
Thursday, July 6
Boundaries and Bodies: Cultural and Religious Perspectives
Mary Faith Marshall, Center for Medical Humanities
Wednesday, July 12
Anatomy as Art, Art as Anatomy
Lyndel King, Weisman Art Museum, and John Eyler, Program in the History of Medicine
Wednesday, July 19
Stiff Morality: The Ethics of Using Bodies
Jeff Kahn, Center for Bioethics, will lead a panel discussion
Admission is free, but space is limited. Reservations for each session required.
To register, visit the University of Minnesota’s Academic Heath Center web page for the forums.
Location: Weisman Art Museum
333 East River Parkway, on the University of Minnesota campus.
7 - 8:30 p.m.
Light refreshments beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Parking is available for an hourly rate in the museum’s garage.
Questions? Call (612) 624-5100.
Sponsored by the Academic Health Center, Weisman Art Museum, Center for Bioethics, and the Center for Medical Humanities at the University of Minnesota.
Princeton University is sponsoring its first Art of Science competition. They have asked scientists in the large Princeton University science community to submit images that were created in process of scientific inquiry. One of my favorite examples is a composite picture of 150 people's faces created as part of a Computer Science study.
Here at the museum we often try to think of unique ways to combine art and science. Try this fun activity making paints out of acid base indicators or this activity making bubble art (our results).
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