Research Projects
CORE PROJECTS
A. Sources on oil painting techniques / M. van Eikema Hommes.
B. Experimental reconstruction of paintings and their artificial ageing / R. Hoppenbrouwers.
C. Paint media and restoration materials
D. Comparative microscopic studies of painting technique / Karin Groen (JB)
E. Development of advanced analytical instrumentation
MOLECULAR LEVEL STUDIES
Natural resins and varnishes
1. Diterpenoid resins: identification and behaviour in paintings
2. Triterpenoid varnishes: identification and behaviour in paintings
3. Identification of fresh and aged Copaiba balsam
Polymer networks
4. Macromolecular aspects of natural resins
5. Mobile phases in oil paint / J. van den Berg
6. Oil network polymers: stationary phases in oil paint / J. van den Berg
6* Linseed oil drying / W. Muizebelt (MOLART Fellow)
7. Effect of additives and driers on paint composition / G. Languri (JB)
8. Lipid autoxidation in egg tempera paintings / O. van den Brink
9. Protein networks in paintings / O. van den Brink
Pigments
10. Copper green glazes.
11. Indigo used in easel paintings / M. van Eikema Hommes and E. Hendriks (JB)
12. LD-ITMS in the analysis of natural organic pigments / N. Wyplosz (RH)
13. Asphalt.(Incorporated into project #7)
14. Orpiment, deterioration of arsenic sulphide pigments.
15. Smalt / J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer, A. Wallert, and J. J. Boon (AW)
16. Cadmium pigments.
17. Secondary ion mass spectrometry on paint cross sections. / J. J. Boon and R. Heeren (JB)
MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROJECTS
Conservation
18. The application of the wax/resin lining procedure and its effects on paintings
19. Drying problems in nineteenth-century paintings and the use of bituminous paints
20. Mathematical modelling of cracking patterns
21. Effects of regeneration methods on paint layers - with special reference to the effects of solvent vapour and Copaiba balsam / S. Schmitt (MOLART Fellow) (JB/HP)
22. Effects of cleaning procedures on paintings / K. Sutherland (de la Rie)
23. Dosimetry of the museum environment: Environmental effects on the chemistry of paintings
Spectroscopy
24. Infrared reflectography and spectroscopic analysis of paintings / J. van der Weerd, R.M.A. Heeren, and J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer (RH)
25. Spatially resolved FTIR and MS analysis of paint cross-sections / J. van der Weerd and N. Wyplosz (RH)
APPLIED STUDIES
26. Oranjezaal, Royal Palace Huis ten Bosch / G. van der Doelen and L. Speleers (HP)
27. Still-life paintings in the Rijksmuseum
28. Nineteenth-century paintings / K.J. van den Berg (KJ)
29. Historical Reconstructions of Artists' Oil Paint / Leslie Carlyle (MOLART Fellow)
COORDINATING WORKGROUP
Macroscopic, microscopic and molecular aspects of ageing.
J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer and J.J. Boon.
ORGANISATIONAL RESEARCH UNITS IN MOLART
The project leaders responsible for the daily management of the projects are:
AW A. Wallert
HP R. Hoppenbrouwers
RH R. Heeren
KJ K.J. van den Berg
JB J.J. Boon
Organisation and relationships of MOLART research units
Central in the project is the group macroscopic, microscopic and molecular aspect of ageing where research proposals are reviewed and progress is discussed on a regular basis. There are several wheels of activity which are organised as core projects, molecular level studies and multidisciplinary projects. These wheels move with respect to each other and symbolise the flexibility of the organisational form, which revolves around knowledge transfer between all participants. New knowledge spins off to parties outside the project in the form of teaching, lectures and presentations in workshops and conferences.
The group ‘Macroscopic, microscopic and molecular aspects of ageing’ operates very much as a think-tank and addresses issues that relate to a wide variety of materials and problems, and it acts as the forum in which matters of a more general nature relating to ageing are discussed and assimilated into the more specific research units. This unit, therefore, has a logical function as the central coordinating workgroup of an essentially radial organisation.
The research units immediately outside this centre were recognised as being core activities which inform and support many of the material-specific projects. Accordingly, these units have been separated in function under the general heading ‘Core projects’, and they might be considered to have potential links with any of the research units in the outer belts of the scheme.
Much of the work of MOLART focuses on molecular-level studies of specific materials that occur in painted works of art, and three broad groups of materials might be defined - Resins and varnishes, Polymer Networks and Pigments. Material-specific projects have, therefore, been grouped into these general classifications, although it is recognised there is inevitably much overlap between the groups. In turn, many of the material-specific projects have links with the more applied, conservation-related projects which form the outer belt of the scheme. These projects are also Multidisciplinary projects involving participants from several institutions, and their placement towards the outer periphery of the scheme implies contacts with other bodies and individuals. In general, these Multidisciplinary projects have relevance to a particular aspect of Conservation or to advanced methods of Spectroscopic analysis or examination of paintings, and the various Multidisciplinary projects are grouped according to these two classifications.
New knowledge spins off to parties outside the project in the form of teaching, lectures and presentations in workshops and conferences and printed publications. SRAL plays a special role in the knowledge transfer with Drs. R. Hoppenbrouwers as liaison between the project and the SRAL group of students in conservation and restoration.
http://www-old.amolf.nl/research/biomacromolecular_mass_spectrometry/molart/ResearchProjects.htm
