The analytical study of art and historic artifacts in museum and library collections, also known as cultural heritage science, may be roughly split into four related pursuits: technical studies, which involve materials identification to aid both the care of an object and its scholarship; model studies designed to understand how these materials typically age and degrade; development of ever-improved methods for the treatment and care of historic collection items; and improvement of analytical methods to do this work.  This talk will focus on several case studies that probe materials identity, information of which provides clues to how the object was manufactured, who manufactured it, the history or “provenance” of the object, and/or a better understanding of differences between an object’s original and condition. These types of studies also shed light on the artist as an alchemist, who made or understood something about the materials he/she used.<br/>

Scientific studies of museum objects: The artist as alchemist

254th National Meeting (2017)

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