Published technical analyses of paintings

Rustin Levenson <rplmiami [at] aol__com> writes

>We are writing a textbook intended to introduce art historians to technical
>analysis of paintings.
>... Please let us know of any articles, museum catalogues,
>or books that contain technical information.

Your idea for a textbook on technical analysis of paintings for art
historians sounds interesting and worthwhile. Several years ago I
wrote an overview of analytical methods for the Proceedings of the
Shared Responsibility symposium held at the National Gallery of
Canada. The bibliography contains examples of the kind of thing you
may be looking for:

    Wainwright, Ian N.M. "Examination of Paintings by Physical and
    Chemical Methods," in: Shared Responsibility, Proceedings of a
    Seminar for Curators and Conservators, National Gallery of
    Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, 26-28 October 1989, Edited by Barbara
    A. Ramsay-Jolicoeur and Ian N.M. Wainwright (Ottawa: National
    Gallery of Canada, 1990), pp. 79-102. (also published as Etude
    des tableaux par les methodes physiques et chimiques in the same
    Proceedings).

Two other more recent papers from this laboratory are:

    Corbeil, M.-C.; Sirois, P.J.; Powell, J.J.; and Wainwright,
    I.N.M., "The 'Leopards' in Montreal, An Attribution to Rubens
    Disproved," The Burlington Magazine, vol. 134, no. 1076,
    November 1992, p. 724.

    Moffatt, Elizabeth A. and Miller, David, "Spectroscopic and
    Chromatographic Analysis of Selected Paintings from the Parisian
    Period of Paul-Emile Borduas," Journal of the International
    Institute for Conservation - Canadian Group, vol. 19, 1994, pp.
    3-13.

    I am not sure how one would best go about making a selection of
    the articles to include in a book of this kind but readers
    should certainly be directed toward the National Gallery
    Technical Bulletin [London], Art in the Making, and Artists'
    Pigments: A Handbook of Their History and Characteristics
    [volumes 1-3; 4 in preparation]

Ian N.M. Wainwright
Analytical Research Services
Canadian Conservation Institute
Department of Canadian Heritage
1030 Innes Road
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0M5
Canada

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 9:73
                    Distributed: Sunday, May 5, 1996
                        Message Id: cdl-9-73-007
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