Quantitative colour comparison of grounds and paints in paint cross-sections from a selection of paintings from the Paris period by Vincent van Gogh
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book Chapter |
| Language: | English Slovak |
| ISBN: | ISBN 1-84407-253-3 |
| Online Access: | http://www.viks.sk/chk/14tmh_45.doc |
| Abstract: | SUMMARIES. Classification and distinction between different formulations and production batches of supports, grounds and paints is useful for conservators and art historians to establish a chronology or to prove authenticity of pictures. We explored the performance of a quantitative method of classification of light-microscopic images of painting cross-sections based on their colour content using the histogram quadratic distance method and cluster analysis. In particular, we applied the technique to classify the grounds in a group of paintings by van Gogh on readyprimed supports. The colour-based classification partly follows and complements a qualitative classification, based on technical investigations that include the material composition of the grounds. CONCLUSIONS. In this paper we made a classification of ground paints in ready-primed carton supports from paintings by van Gogh on the basis of their colour content. The classification was made on the information extracted from carefully calibrated light-microscopic image data from cross sections. The method consists of histogram comparison by histogram quadratic distance and cluster analysis. The application is conceptually simple but to our knowledge new in the application to the field of painting studies. The resulting classification partially follows a previous subjective classification, made on the basis of technical investigations that include qualitative information about the material composition of the paints. Because the colour data are related to the composition in a complex way, the colour-based classification complements the previous qualitative one. The results obtained so far show that the technique has potential in the application to colourspecific case studies. The method of classification could also be expanded to include for example spatial information, and to provide a more complete characterization by handling and combining different types of data such as visible spectroscopic, elemental or molecular data. |
|---|---|
| ISBN: | ISBN 1-84407-253-3 |
