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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Aga Wielocha is a collection care professional and a researcher specialised in contemporary art. Currently, she holds the position of Conservator, Preventive at M+ in Hong Kong. She holds a PhD from the University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture. Her doctoral research carried out within the program “New Approaches in the Conservation of Contemporary Art” (NACCA) situated at the crossroads of art history and theory, conservation, museology and heritage studies was focused on the lives and futures of contemporary art in institutional collections, particularly on works which are variable and unfold over time.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Jan Dorscheid is working as Furniture Conservator at the Rijksmuseum since 2015. In this presentation, he tells about the Japanese Lacquer Cabinets from Huis ten Bosch. Japanese lacquer of the highest quality commonly exclusive for the emperor and high officials in Japan is decorating the two cabinets from Huis ten Bosch Palace. Made in c. 1680 for the Dutch market the cabinets are representative for the unique Dutch-Japanese relationship in the 17th century. Japanese motifs executed in fine powders and strewings of different gradations and alloys of gold, copper, and silver are combined with depictions of the Dutch VOC trading post Deshima in the port of Nagasaki and the annual tribute procession to the shōgun‘s court in Edo passing by mount Fuji. Following the exhibition Asia in Amsterdam in 2015 the two cabinets remained at the Rijksmuseum to be treated. Under the influence of light the once so pristine lacquer has become increasingly dull due to propagating micro-cracks. The embedded strewings are at risk to be dislocated and ambient air causes the silver powders and particles to corrode. The treatment was accompanied by material research to identify the materials and decorative techniques the cabinets were made with and better understand degradation processes.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Fahed Ibrahim graduated from the master’s program Technical Art History at the University of Amsterdam in 2020. Currently, he is working as a researcher at the Cultural Heritage Laboratory of the RCE. In this presentation, he talks about Hanemans’s skirt in Frans Hals's Portrait of Aletta Hanemans (1625, Mauritshuis). This skirt seems to have lost its original colour and tonal contrasts. The significant degradation of pigments used – smalt, red lakes and lead white – resulted in a loss of the modelling of the pale robe. This study aimed to investigate the skirt’s original appearance. By examining and analysing the painting, reconstructions were made, using historically appropriate materials and techniques, so as to better understand the artist’s original technique and the changes that have occurred in the painting. The final result suggested that it is possible to recreate an impression of the artistic effects that Hals originally intended.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Amin Livani's (Technical University Eindhoven) research fields are micromechanical and multi-physics modeling of materials. In this work, he aims at exploring the relationship between the hygro-elastic properties at the mesoscopic cellular level and the effective material responses at the macro-scale of oak, which is widely used in historical art objects. Panel paintings and decorated furniture are among the most significant timber art objects. Timber is generally a durable material. However, it is extremely sensitive to climate variations, which may cause its accelerated aging and degradation. A true mechanistic understanding of aging and degradation of panel paintings and decorated furniture needs the investigation of hygroelastic properties of wood at smaller levels of observation.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Liselore Tissen is based at Leiden University and Delft University of Technology, where she is currently preparing a doctoral dissertation on the significance of 3D printing for the art field and the moral and ethical discussions prompted by the introduction of this technology to the art world. In the basis of this framework, her research attributes to the development and applicability of 3D printing for material science, technical art historical research and practical conservation and presentation purposes.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Guus Verhaar is a post-doctoral researcher at the Rijksmuseum, Corning Museum of Glass and the University of Texas at Dallas. His main research interest is the chemical deterioration of glass in museum collections. This talk concerns the results of laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) elemental depth profiling of unstable historic glass. Three historic glass samples from the Corning Museum of Glass (CMG449; CMG1050; CMG4011) were used for depth mapping of 55 elements. As expected, the depth profiles indicate the depletion of sodium and potassium from the top layer of the glass, while no calcium depletion is observed. Surprisingly, potassium was not observed to have been leached from one of the samples (CMG1050). Because of its low detection limits, the obtained pseudo cross-sections also provide information on the distribution of trace elements, such as lithium. The lecture will demonstrate how this approach, not previously applied in historic glass studies, reveals quantitative information on the depletion of glass constituents. The visual representation makes it straightforward to draw conclusions on the degradation process. Comparative information being gained from XPS studies on the same samples will be briefly presented as well.