The unvarnished truth
Subtitle: exploring the material history of paintings = Mise à nu : une exploration de l'histoire matérielle de la peinture
Contributors: MacDonald, Brandi Lee, author, organizer; Hathaway, Nenagh, author, organizer; McMaster Museum of Art
Publisher: McMaster Museum of Art
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Hamilton, ON
Language: eng; fre
Number of pages: 279
ISBN-13: 9781926632124
Copyright date: 2015
Subjects: Exhibitions; Painting; Expertising; Peinture; Expositions; Expertise; McMaster Museum of Art
Other titles: Mise à nu; Unvarnished truth.; Unvarnished truth. French.
Description: This compendium of original essays features discoveries made by an international team of researchers - scholars of applied radiation sciences, anthropology, art history, biomedical engineering, as well as conservators, conservation scientists, forensic art historians, and curators - who examined several paintings from the museum?s collection, including works by Vincent Van Gogh, Alexander Rodchenko and Peter Paul Rubens? workshop. The result is a multidisciplinary, collaborative study of paintings as complex physical objects whose component parts tell us a story about their history. Drawing on the expertise of such an uncommon range of specialists, the thoroughly illustrated volume develops a large number of themes including painting technique and materials, attribution, connoisseurship, as well as issues of object condition and stability. Often referred to as technical art history, this relatively new approach reveals the valuable insights that are generated when scientific equipment is used to answer art historical questions.
Notes: Editor: Joan Padgett, Winnipeg.

Includes bibliographical references.

Text in English and French.

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, Ontario, from September 5 to December 19, 2015.
Table of contents: title: Foreword / Carol Podedworny; title: Introduction / Nenagh Hathaway & Dr. Brandi Lee MacDonald; title: The art of connoisseurship / Dr. Stephanie S. Dickey; title: Conservation science and paintings / Dr. Alison Murray; title: Conservation and condition issues / Gianfranco Pocobene; title: Histories of selected artists' pigments / Dr. Brandi Lee MacDonald; title: The analysis of inorganic pigments using spectrometric techniques / Dr. Brandi Lee MacDonald; title: The technical art historian's methods of investigation : some tools & practices / Nenagh Hathaway; title: Imaging using x-rays and neutrons / Dr. Fiona McNeill; title: Limits of the eye and the engine of curiosity / Dr. Ihor Holubizky; title: Disciplines in motion: the changing roles of museum curators, art conservators, and conservation scientists / Dr. Ron Spronk.