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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.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Nouchka De Keyser is a junior researcher at the science department of the Rijksmuseum within operation Night Watch and a PhD student at the AXES research group of the University of Antwerp. Her research focuses on 17th-century paint technology and tries to gain a comprehensive understanding of how and why particular optical effects are systematically more affected by degradation using non-invasive imaging techniques.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Antonio Iaccarino Idelson is an art conservator based in Rome, Italy, with a degree from Istituto Centrale per il Restauro. CEO and co-founder of Equilibrarte, he works on paintings, wall paintings and sculptures. He has been doing research on the effects of tension in canvas paintings and their mechanical behavior since 1992, and published a book on the subject in 2004. Currently a PhD candidate with Dr. Roger Groves as Promoter, at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering of the Technical University Delft, with a research project entitled "The determination of the value of tension of canvas paintings through the impulse of a sound wave”. Canvas paintings are intimately connected with their stretchers and they often conflict on one specific subject: tension. Tension regulates the appearance of the painting, avoiding distortions, but it also regulates the conservation of the paint layers. Insufficient tension is often perceived as a problem because of its visible effects, but excessive tension is the main cause of cracks and other structural problems.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Mitra Almasian is a postdoctoral researcher at both the Rijksmuseum and the Amsterdam UMC, University Medical Centers. Her research focusses on the use of optical techniques for non-invasive imaging and diagnostics, with a main focus on OCT. Within Operation Night Watch, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) was applied to non-invasively image the varnish and paint layers. In collaboration with the Biomedical Engineering and Physics department of Amsterdam UMC, virtual cross-sectional images from selected regions of interest were collected. These images revealed the internal structure of varnish and semi-transparent layers, and enabled the micro-scale mapping of the paint topology underneath semi-transparent layers. During this talk some high-lights, the added value of OCT within Operation Night Watch and possible future perspectives of OCT research in cultural heritage are discussed.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

René Lugtigheid recently obtained her Ph.D. on the research 'From Earthly Fabric to Heavenly Praise: An Object-Based Research into Why Women Gave Their Best Dresses to the Catholic Church in the 18th Century' at the University of Amsterdam. The bodice of a precious gown in a Catholic Church drawer and conspicuous sewing holes and fold marks in the beautiful fabrics of old mass vestments were the reason for research into eighteenth-century Catholic ecclesiastic robes in Dutch churches. It became clear that mainly wealthy ladies donated their best silk dresses to the church. Vestments made of used clothing raise questions, especially as a gift of wealthy women. Little has been recorded in writing as to why women donate used clothing to the church. However, the objects themselves turn out to be a rich source of information. This presentation explains which research method has been used to answer the question. The research shows, among other things, that the women attached a special significance to these worn clothes and this sacred reuse.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Alba Alvarez is a Junior Scientist at the Science Department of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, where she is in charge of the scientific analysis of organic materials by GC/MS. GC/MS analysis has been traditionally associated with destructive analysis, however due to the improvements of the instrumentation, progress has being made towards more sensitive and less invasive analysis. This presentation will show the new protocols that are being implemented at the Rijksmuseum, such as monitoring the reactions that take place during (and after) the cleaning of paintings or carrying out non-destructive sampling inside the museum galleries.