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NICAS COLLOQUIUM EXTRA+

NICAS COLLOQUIUM

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NICAS COLLOQUIUM EXTRA+

In September 2021, NICAS launched the international project ‘A Global Infrastructure for Heritage Science’, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The initial phase will map out the common ground between different cultures of conservation and find ways that interdisciplinary and international collaboration can be better used to preserve the material integrity of the object, its layered cultural significance, and its historical context. The international and interdisciplinary team of six Research Associates will introduce ourselves and our goals, which include identifying the major global challenges faced by the field now and in the future, and the opportunities that exist for more fruitful collaboration. We invite attendees to join the conversation and share their experiences, insights, and ideas.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

In this NICAS-colloquium presentation, Sanne Berbers will share her PhD project which she started in September 2021. The research will focus on the relation between lipids and synthetic organic pigments (SOP’s). The combination of SOP’s and oil paint in 20th and 21st century oil paints has been shown to give problem of solubility of the paint, migration of SOP components, and colour fading. The lipid fraction and SOP’s of these paints have not yet been studied in relation to each other. This includes both chemical changes and interactions that occur at the start of the drying process and those that occur when the painting ages over time.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Marya Albrecht is working at the Mauritshuis and as a freelance paintings conservator in The Hague, focusing on the research and treatment of old master paintings. In this presentation, she tells about the research about Jan Steen's eclectic use of green and blue pigments. Jan Steen, a prolific Dutch 17th-century artist, has been the focus of a research project at the Mauritshuis since 2012. The aim of the research project is to shed light on the chronology of his works based on the materials he used. Samples of green and blue areas on 37 paintings were analysed using optical microscopy, SEM–EDX and synchrotron μ-XRD. This showed that Steen used a large variety of blue and green pigments: smalt, ultramarine, blue verditer, azurite, indigo and green earth. Elemental analysis of the smalt used by Steen showed that it varies in composition in the different artistic centres Steen worked in. Ultramarine of different qualities was found in many paintings, even peasant scenes. His use of a brightly coloured type of green earth is remarkable, and this pigment was found in ten of the paintings analysed, dating from 1660 onwards.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Video presentation for the 19th ICOM-CC Triennial Conference, 2021 Beijing, Working Group Preventive Conservation. It accompanies the published paper 'Loans to non-museum organisations: concepts for crossing boundaries'. The presentation illustrates the decision-making process and tools described in the paper with a case study of a loan of artworks from the Dutch state collection kept by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands to Story House Belvedere in Rotterdam. The decision-making process is founded on the principles of value management, weighing the possible gain of social-societal values against the possible loss of cultural-historical values. The tools assist in finding affordable solutions to make non-museum loans happen in a responsible manner. Experience shows that non-museum loans are often possible, are highly rewarding, and allow lender and borrower to make optimal use of the connecting power of heritage to bridge gaps in society.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Esther van Duijn works as paintings conservator and researcher at the Rijksmuseum. She has specialized in the conservation history of the paintings collection of the Rijksmuseum and is currently part of the Operation Night Watch team. Between 1945 and 1947, Rembrandt’s iconic masterpiece The Night Watch (1642) was treated by C.H. Jenner (liner) and H.H. Mertens (restorer). As a result of the painting’s fame and changing attitudes towards restoration and technical research in the post-war Rijksmuseum, the 1945–47 treatment was exceptionally well documented for its time. This paper discusses the materials and methods used during this treatment and places them in a broader context by examining how they compare to later sources describing the materials and methods used by Mertens or under his supervision.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Lambert van Eijck is assistant professor at the Applied Sciences faculty of TU Delft. He develops neutron methods for materials science and has been applying neutron computed tomography and neutron diffraction techniques to cultural heritage objects over the last few years. In this presentation, Lambert will show his latest research on the enigmatic 17th century microscopes of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, the founder of 'microbiology'. His skills in microscope instrumentation were unsurpassed worldwide for more than 150 years, with his contemporaries being very eager to learn his tricks. During his life and up till recently, the exceptional optical performance of these microscopes was assigned to his lens-making skills, about which he was very secretive. With only a few Van Leeuwenhoek microscopes left in the world, Lambert embarked on a quest with Tiemen Cocquyt of Rijksmuseum Boerhaave to reveal the secret of the Van Leeuwenhoek microscopes. This presentation will address the long and winding road to revealing the secret, after 350 years.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Marjolein Koek works as a textile conservator at the Rijksmuseum. The Rijksmuseum holds a number of weighted silk objects in its costume collection. During the late 19th and early 20th century silk was often weighted with metal salts. This process was done in order to increase its value (silk was sold by weight) and to improve processes such as dyeing. The care and conservation of degraded weighted silk is highly problematic. Costume collections worldwide are having trouble managing and conserving this type of objects. This presentation will discuss the developments of finding an easy method to identify objects made from weighted silk in the costume collection of the Rijksmuseum.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Tirza Mol is associate furniture and shipmodel conservator at Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. The maritime collection of the Rijksmuseum contains around 300 half hull shipmodels. A halfmodel is a scale model from the starboard or portside half of a ship hull, mounted on a wooden backboard. They are constructed in wood, polychromed and finished with a transparent varnish. Little is known about the function of these halfmodels, their provenance and date of production. It is assumed they played a role in the 18th and 19th century Dutch shipbuilding industry, but what role exactly is not defined. By means of tool trace research and the study of construction, the production process is analyzed. Dendrochronological research will lead to more accurate dating of the models. Eventually, by clustering the models according to stylistic features, materials and tool traces, as well as dendrochronological and archive data, they may be attributed to specific ship wharfs. This lecture shares the preliminary results of this fascinating interdisciplinary research.