The Science of Paintings The Structure and Analysis of Paintings Paint Organic Binders The Painter’s Color and Light Color and Light Optics of Paint Films Beyond the Eye Detection of Fakes Object of Interaction. The beauty mystery joy and inspired observation of the human spirit that paintings evoke result from a complex of intuitive and cognitive choices made by the artist. An understanding of the genesis of these choices can be as elusive as the resulting imagery but great paintings seem to initiate in us a curiosity about the ideas methods and mate als used by their creators. In the twentieth century connoisseurship has been enriched by the application of methods of scientific analysis. The results of these investigations into the physical properties of paintings have shed new light on their authenticity and individual histories as well as on the craft in general. Developments in the fields of physics and chemistry have allowed us to understand still more about how we p ceive and interact with paintings. This book is intended for those both inside and outside the field of art who wish to gain insight into the making of paintings. It is directed toward students teachers and scientists in engineering physics and chemistry as well as those in art art history and art conservation. This book grew out of the interdisciplinary undergraduate level course Art Isotopes and Ana sis taught at Cornell University by the two authors and supported in l tures and seminars by three of the contributing authors: Dr. Richard Newman of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston; Dr. Dusan Stulik of the Getty Conservation Institute; and Prof.