Art and autoradiography
Subtitle: insights into the genesis of paintings by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and Vermeer.
Contributors: Ainsworth, Maryan Wynn.; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.); Brookhaven National Laboratory. Chemistry Dept.
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Published: 1982
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 112
Subjects: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669; Van Dyck, Anthony, Sir, 1599-1641; Vermeer, Johannes, 1632-1675; Painting -- Autoradiography
Description: This book reports the most significant results of a scientific study of thirty-nine paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The works under investigation are by seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish artists, mainly Rembrandt and his school. Art and Autoradiography publishes data obtained by the use of a new technique: neutron activation autoradiography. Through this method, it is now possible to study the substructure of paintings, their genesis, and their condition in far greater detail than had been possible with the conventional techniques of X-ray radiography and infrared photography. As a result, an artist's creative process can now be studied very closely. Autoradiography provides significant information for resolving questions about an artist's oeuvre and about workshop variations, attribution, dating, and even doubted authenticity. -- Metropolitan Museum of Art website.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Research conducted jointly by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Chemistry Department of Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, Maryan Wynn Ainsworth, principal investigator.