Category: Research and Technical Studies

Posts on research, materials & techniques used in and by conservators

Apply for the Rathgen Heritage Science Scholarship 2012 by February 12th

Rathgen Heritage Science Scholarship 2012
Friends of Rathgen (Farderkreis des Rathgen-Forschungslabors e.V)

The Rathgen Research Laboratory is
the leading institution for conservation science, art technology and
archaeometry at the National Museums in Berlin. It carries out
investigations on a broad variety of materials within the museum
environment and focuses its research on scientific issues concerning
the care of monuments and archaeological sites.

It carries forward the tradition of the world ‘s oldest scientific
museum laboratory, the Chemical Laboratory of the Royal Museums in
Berlin, which was founded on April 1, 1888 and bears the name of its
first director, Friedrich Rathgen.

It is the mission of the Friends of Rathgen (Farderkreis des
Rathgen-Forschungslabors e.V.) to support the work of the Rathgen
Research Laboratory in various ways, among others by supporting
research projects of young professionals in heritage science.

To this end, the Rathgen Heritage Science Scholarships have been
established in 2009 and are awarded annually.

The Rathgen Heritage Science Scholarship enables young professionals
to undertake a project at the laboratory within 1-3 month duration.
The topic is proposed by the applicant. Successful applicants will
receive a scholarship for Post-Graduate Scholarship of 900 Euro per
month and Post-doc Scholarship 1200 Euro per month.

The application consists of:

1-2 pages explaining the research proposal, the required
resources and the envisaged time frame, including preliminary
work accomplished and short bibliography

CV including list of publications

2 reference letters of support

Deadline for 2012 applications is February 12, 2012.

Please submit your application electronically to
rf-info [at] smb__spk-berlin__de or by mail to

Rathgen-Forschungslabor
Schlossstrasse 1 A
14059 Berlin, Germany

Prof. Dr. Stefan Simon
Rathgen-Forschungslabor
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
+49 30 326749 0
Fax: +49 30 326749 12

Beneath the Wrappings: Conservation of Emory’s Old Kingdom Mummy

In 1921, William Arthur Shelton, a professor in Emory’s Candler School of Theology, purchased an Old Kingdom mummy from the sacred site of Abydos in Middle Egypt. In storage at the Carlos Museum for over 90 years, its linen in tatters, its head in a separate box, and many bones missing or exposed, the mummy provided an extraordinary challenge for conservators Renee Stein and Mimi Leveque. This video documents their almost year-long treatment of the mummy in close consultation with curator Peter Lacovara, students and faculty at Emory University, doctors at Emory Hospital, and other consultants.

For more information, visit carlos.emory.edu

View the 16 minute video on Emory’s YouTube channel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

High-Tech Art Sleuthing in the Harvard Magazine

Call them art detectives. Using scientific methods, the researchers at the Fogg Museum’s Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies gather evidence and help solve art mysteries: Who painted this? What materials did the artist use?

One such mystery involves the self-taught American artist James Castle. Profoundly deaf, perhaps autistic, he never learned to speak or write. He lived in rural Idaho, creating compelling, intimate works, including hundreds of drawings using only woodstove-soot mixed with his own saliva. He sketched with color as well, and assembled three-dimensional figures from bits of packaging. His work was still largely unknown outside Idaho when he died in 1977 at the age of 78.

Flash forward three decades. Conservators wanted to know where Castle obtained his pigments, what tools he used, and how he worked. Castle’s family had provided some clues, through artifacts and memories. For more precise information about certain pieces, Daniel Kirby, an associate in conservation science at the Straus Center who has a background in biotechnology, used an instrument common in biology but fairly new to art conservation: a laser-desorption-ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer…

Read the full Harvard Magazine article online to learn more about Kirby’s results and the use of LDMS in conservation.

Relaunch of the Journal for Conservation and Museum Studies

The Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies (JCMS), an Open Access and fully peer-reviewed journal, is being relaunched with a newly constituted international editorial board.

We are currently welcoming contributions focusing on:

  • Collection and exhibition management
  • Critical approaches to conservation, museum collections and exhibitions
  • Learning, communication, interpretation and evaluation of museums
  • Materials science and technical studies of objects, collections and conservation materials
  • Participatory processes
  • Professional and ethical issues
  • Remedial or preventive conservation

Check the JCMS website and get in touch with Renata Peters (m.peters@ucl.ac.uk) and/or Anastasia Sakellariadi (a.sakellariadi@ucl.ac.uk) if you wish to contribute.

Editorial board:

  • Renata Peters, UCL Institute of Archaeology, UK
  • Dr Anastasia Sakellariadi, UCL Institute of Archaeology, UK
  • Eleni Asderaki, Archaeological Museum of Volos, Greece
  • Dr Kalliopi Fouseki, UCL Centre for Sustainable Heritage, UK
  • Dr Alan J. Hogg, University of Michigan, USA
  • Emily Kaplan, National Museum of the American Indian, USA
  • Dr Barry Knight, The British Library, UK
  • Dr Theano Moussouri, UCL Institute of Archaeology, UK
  • Eric Nordgren, The Mariners Museum Norfolk, USA
  • Prof Elizabeth Pye, UCL Institute of Archaeology, UK
  • Prof Bethania Reis Velloso, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil
  • Dr Cordelia Rogerson, The British Library, UK
  • Devorah Romanek, The British Museum, UK
  • Tracey Sweek, The British Museum, UK
  • Brian Hole, Ubiquity Press, UK

Hidden Goya portrait discovered

An early portrait of a Spanish general was found under a Rijksmuseum painting using new x-ray technology

By Martin Bailey. From Web only
Published online: 21 September 2011
The Rijksmuseum’s “Portrait of Ramon Satue”, 1823, and right, a diagram of the underlying image compiled by the restorer Anna Krekeler

A hidden portrait by Goya has been discovered under one of the artist’s paintings at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It lies beneath the Portrait of Ramón Satué, 1823, which depicts a judge. The original image was revealed using scanning macro x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, a new technique developed by the universities of Antwerp and Delft.

Who did Goya originally depict? The sitter wears a uniform, embellished with a medal, which has been identified as that of the highest level of the Royal Order, a chivalric order founded by Joseph Bonaparte, king of Spain. This means that the hidden portrait must date from 1809 to 1813. Only 15 generals, plus Joseph, were entitled to wear the uniform and medal, although so far it has proved impossible to pin down exactly which of them is depicted.

Read more: http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Hidden+Goya+portrait+discovered/24627

Western Science Seeks Cultural Knowledge

Baskets are important not only amongst the Cahuilla, but for Native peoples throughout the west and northwest regions of the United States.  It seems fitting, then, to focus the eyes of conservators on baskets and other items made from plant materials in the collections of the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum.  The online exhibition Western Science Seeks Cultural Knowledge demonstrates the kinds of discoveries that UCLA/Getty graduate conservation students made in the research, investigation and treatment of cultural objects and sandals in the Museum collections.

 

An auction house advertises that the works it offers for sale have undergone scientific analysis

In a full page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal, TK Asian Antiquities, an auction house with branches in New York, Virginia and China, notes that the works it offers for sale are “scientifically documented”.The ad features a Chinese “Earth Spirits” guardian figure which has undergone radiographic examination and thermoluninescence testing. While this is a positive development, the auction house’s website does note that it is not able to perform extensive testing on every antiquity that it handles.

National Archives Conservators Reveal Previously Illegible Text in Magna Carta

Read the full July 20, 2011 press release about the  conservation treatment, re-encasement and public display of Magna Carta conducted by National Archives senior conservators Terry Boone and Morgan Zinsmeister. The project manager is supervisory conservator Catherine Nicholson.

A short documentary video produced by the National Archives chronicles the document’s conservation treatment during which ultra-violet photography revealed previously illegible writing in the text of the document that had been obliterated by water damage at some unknown time in the past.

Participate in Zorbix humidification sheet product survey

Artifex Equipment, Inc is conducting a survey of humidification methods and the applicability of Zorbix in those projects.  Zorbix sheets are thin, reusable sheets that absorb up to 50 times their weight in water. Once water is absorbed into a sheet of Zorbix, the water can only be released as vapor–even under pressure.  Zorbix can be placed directly on materials with no need for a vapor barrier such as Gore-Tex.

Zorbix in action

Zorbix can be dampened all over and the sheet does not wick sideways, allowing the practitioner to apply water to a specific zone for humidification in one area such as a creased corner. With the rest of the Zorbix sheet dry, this creates an effective method for controlling humidification to one spot.

Volunteers will be given free samples of 10 inch x 12 inch Zorbix sheets to test in their humidification projects and will be asked to describe their current humidification methods, test Zorbix as a replacement material, compare their results and provide feedback to Artifex Equipment, Inc. on their experience.    (feedback is requested by September 1, 2011)

If you would like participate in the study and receive free samples in exchange for your impressions of the product, please fill out the Survey Monkey version of the questionnaire at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MZZK89H or request a Word version of the form by contacting Nicholas Yeager at 415-329-5809   or

nicholas.yeager [at] artifexequipment__com