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Neutrons reveal new aspects of old paintings
Looking at a painting of Tizian - for example the "Girl with a Platter of Fruits" from 1555 -
can turn into a whole comic strip when neutrons come into the picture.
That is because there rest several other layers under the image. Like picture puzzles
there emerges - turned by 180 degrees - something like an old man in a wide robe?
Or is it then - turned the other way again - rather a sitting woman in a wide dress?
Birgit Schröder-Smeibidl prooves the latter, by using neutron autoradiography.
However detached the paintings are, they are all done with very earthly pigments.
Those are made up of molecules and atoms. Their nuclei are hit by neutrons in the
instrument at HMI (see below), sure enough only one in 250 billions. Therefore
the investigation only changes tiny bits of the whole and does not destroy it.
The nucleus that is hit reacts at once, it turns into a radioactive isotope. That means
that the nucleus - sooner or later depending on its half life - changes again while emitting
an energy quantum in the range of γ-rays. These are then captured, for example by
X-ray films wrapped around the painting.
After development often a different image of the painting emerges, since also the
pigments under the visible surface react.
Probably the most well-known investigation was done on the "Man in a Gold Helmet". It is -
prooven by the brush stroke - not painted by Master Rembrandt, but only from his workshop.
The boss was just too busy.
Source:
"Tagesspiegel"
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In close collaboration,
the Berlin Picture Gallery (Gemäldegalerie Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz) and the Hahn-Meitner Institute investigate old masters
paintings by means of neutron autoradiography. Neutron autoradiography is a very effective, non-destructive, but
rather exceptional method applied in the examination and analysis of materials and techniques used in painting. It allows the visualization
of structures and layers under the visible surface and, in addition, enables one to identify in detail the
elements contained in the pigments. The instrument B8 at the Berlin Neutron Scattering Center BENSC is dedicated to these investigations.
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Neutron activation autoradiography (NAAR) of a painting by Tizian ("Girl with a Platter of Fruits", c.1555) reveals
details about changes and techniques employed by the artist. A little sensation was the
finding of the pigment Neapel-Yellow (Pb2 Sb2O6). This is the earliest
evidence for use of the pigment, which was first mentioned and described in 1702.
[more]
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