An interdisciplinary team will present a half day Tutorial Workshop on the automated study of canvas weave from x-rays. Workshop participants will receive user training for a newly developed software tool that produces and archives accurate local (or spot) thread counts from x-rays of paintings on plain weave canvas. Examples of using the tool to create weave maps, which provide overall mapping of canvas weave density variations across a picture support, will be shown. The tool also provides thread angle maps, which measure and record weave distortions such as cusping from stretching. Together these different types of information can help, for example, to match pieces of canvas cut from the same bolt of primed canvas or to identify later additions and mutilations to canvas picture supports. The Van Gogh case studies will illustrate how use of the new tool, evaluated against traditional hand thread count methods, can lead to more advanced findings.
Computer Needs: Software will be distributed from a USB thumb drive or a CD that will run on computers using Windows XP as the operating system (the software is not available at this time for any other operating systems). The software will be loaded onto the users’ computers prior to the training session of the workshop. Each pair of participants is expected to have access to a computer, thereby assuring that each person has sufficient keyboard time to learn how to operate the thread counting software. Participants are encouraged to bring their own computers, as only a limited number will be available on-site.
To book a place: £8.00 payable in cash on the day (Free for staff and students of The Courtauld and the Hamilton-Kerr Institute conservation training programmes). Participation is limited to 30 persons on a first come first served basis so please register in advance. For registration and a more detailed description of the workshop programme, see workshop website: http://www.ece.rice.edu/~dhj/Workshop. The registration fee covers the cost of break refreshments, a CD compilation with the software tool and instruction manual, plus a paper copy handout version.
Organised jointly by The Courtauld Institute of Art and the Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam)
PROGRAMME
09h30 – 10h00
Registration and installation of software on participant laptop computers
10h00 – 10h05
Dr. C. Richard Johnson, Jr. (Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick Senior Professor of Engineering, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University): Short introduction to the workshop and the Thread Count Automation Project
10h05 – 10h35
Dr. Ella Hendriks (Head, Conservation Department, Van Gogh Museum): Thread Counting in Technical Art History: Van Gogh Case Studies Using the New Tools
10h35 – 10h45
Refreshment break and further installation of software
10h45 – 11h45
Dr. C. Richard Johnson, Jr. (Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick Senior Professor of Engineering, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University): Collecting and Visualizing Spot Counts
11.45 – 12.00
Refreshment break
12h00 – 12h45
Dr. Don H. Johnson (J. S. Abercrombie Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer engineering, Rice University): Creating and Interpreting Weave and Angle Maps
12h45 – 13h00
Closure
Monday, 21 September 2009
9h30am – 1h00pm
Seminar Room 1
The Courtauld Institute of Art
Somerset House, Strand
London WC2R 0RN
Organised by Drs. Aviva Burnstock and Ella Hendriks