A Bit OT: Infrared radiation and alterations

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Just thought some might find this interesting. I took the below two photographs of an acrylic painting. The left is a normal visible light photo. The right is an infrared photo. As you can see, the infrared image sees through the paint of the posts to the paint behind it. The painter painted the bushes first, then painted the white posts over. This type of imaging would be useful in the detection of some altered forgeries, ala T206 Magies.

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Posted By: Steve F

Very cool info David. Wonder if the Masters took similar 'shortcuts'.



GEORGE: Well, I'm sure they'll be able to *fix it. You can't stop modern science. Can't stop it, you can't stop it. Can't stop science. Can't be stopped, no way, no how, science just marches--

ELAINE: Shut up, George.


*Fix what?

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Posted By: JK

"Wonder if the Masters took similar 'shortcuts'."

Im no art aficionado, but Im pretty sure painting in layers (ie background, then midground, then foreground) is the norm - not a shortcut.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Infrared and x-rays are commonly used on famous paintings to see how the artist worked. What changes were made, etc. In a Rembrandt, they discovered there was a person who was removed from the image. On paintings, infrared and x-rays work the same way, except x-rays sees to a different level of paint.

These techniques are also used to help authenticate old paintings where it is known how a famous painter went about making his paintings (start with a pencils sketch, lawyer the paint this way, make lots of changes, etc). If a painting was constructed from the canvas up the way a famous painter normally constructed his painting, that's evidence it was by the painter. If it was constructed differently than the famous artist would do it, that's evidence it's a fake or by someone else, perhaps his student.

I would guess that nearly all famous Old Masters paintings have been X-rayed. And a collector's statement "I'm off to have my baseball card x-rayed" isn't as insane as it may at first sound.

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Posted By: Jerry

Couldn't you just get a pair of those X-Ray glasses that they sell on the back of Comic books.

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Posted By: Anonymous

Those old x-ray glasses ads are funny because, 1) If they worked, they would be dangerous beyond belief. You don't want x-ray receivers mounted two inches from your brain; and 2) It's impossible, even on the theoretical level, for them to work. For them to work, you'd need a unit that gives of x-rays on the other side of what you re looking at.