Radiography and Painting

Radiography is a technique which has been employed in the study of paintings for more than a century. The history of this method of analysis indicates that its development has been modest since the 1960s, as its use has been limited to reductive approaches that take into account no more than the immediately intelligible signs. By systematically considering the physical mechanisms involved in the creation of an image, this volume seeks to demonstrate that we can access new fields of radiological analysis by identifying two categories of 'signs': those that may be obvious, but whose meaning is misleading, and those which are not immediately comprehensible. This study has been primarily based on a thorough and essential reviewing of current literature concerning the materials and processes used for the production of paintings. The semiological analysis is based on the understanding of the physical phenomena occurring in the formation of the image, and on correlations between the radiographic images of a painting and the information stemming from its observation, other scientific results and the restoration reports. Furthermore, a number of experiments were conducted in order to consolidate certain assumptions regarding image-formation mechanisms. Ultimately, this book hopes to show how data resulting from radiographic analysis can be seen and set in a broader context of information on a specific work, or a group of works, in order to enrich our knowledge of art history, history of technology, and conservation as well as restoration.