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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Dr. Margriet van Eikema Hommes is an art historian specialized in historical painting techniques and Dutch 17th and 18th century painting ensembles. In this talk, Margriet will go into the process of creating a virtual reconstruction of the early eighteenth-century appearance of the “Golden Room” in the Mauritshuis, The Hague. This room was made between 1708 to 1718 and includes fifteen paintings by the Venetian painter Giovanni Pellegrini. The virtual reconstruction is based on the results of historical and analytical research into the room’s original colour scheme and the original appearance of Pellegrini’s paintings.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

In 2018, a set of six paper rolls came to light from the depths of Rijksmuseum storage rooms. Besides the lack of a clear provenance or clues as to who created these rolls, their historical function was puzzling. In preparation for the exhibition XXL Paper (summer 2022), a team of paper conservators conserved the larger piece of the set and conducted a study on it, aiming at unlocking some of the many secrets this mysterious object brings with it. This presentation by Femke Coevert and Dafne Diamante, will focus on the technical description of the panorama and its past use and will give insights on scientific research done up till now. Femke Coevert is paper & book conservator at Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. Since 2015 she has led the conservation team within ‘Printroom Online’, preparing the vast paper-based collections for digitisation. Last year she was project leader for Cyclorama Reichardt’s research and treatment. Dafne Diamante is working at the Rijksmuseum in the Paper Conservation team for the 'Print Room Online' project. In March 2020 she took part as Junior Conservator in the team in charge of the conservation treatment of a 23 meters long Cyclorama Reichardt, in preparation for Rijksmuseum's exhibition 'XXL Paper'.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Siavash Maraghechi is a post-doctoral researcher in the Chair of Applied Mechanics at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). His research interest is in the field of multiscale experimental mechanics, that he is currently applying to study degradation of historical paper as a part of ColletionCare project, that aims to develop an innovative preventive conservation decision support system for museums and collections. In this presentation he introduces the experimental methodology to study the mechanical behaviour of single cellulose fibres, the building block of paper. An optical profilometer, a micro-tensile stage and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique come together to result in a deeper understanding of the mechanics of each fibre. Such detailed assessment of cellulose fibres’ properties can be applied to naturally aged paper samples, or combined with accelerated aging experiments to shed valuable light on the degradation of paper, and provide better guidance for conservators.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Anna Krekeler started working at the Rijksmuseum as a painting conservator in 2007. She is a team member of Operation Night Watch and currently involved in the technical research of Rembrandt’s masterpiece. Operation Night Watch is the largest research and conservation project, that Rembrandt’s masterpiece The Night Watch (1642, oil on canvas, h 378.4 x w 453 cm) has ever undergone. When looking at The Night Watch, one area in particular has often been noted by public and scholars alike: the indistinct, blotchy, almost faded-looking dog, which is vaguely visible in the lower right corner of the composition. This talk discusses what is compromising the dog’s current appearance and how he might have looked like originally.
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NICAS COLLOQUIUM

Emanuela Bosco is Assistant Professor in the Chair of Applied Mechanics at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Her research interest is in the field of computational mechanics, in particular on multi-scale and multi-physics methods to predict the degradation of historical art objects. This study focusses on the prediction of craquelure and delamination mechanisms in historical paintings due to indoor climate fluctuations.
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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.