GRIEG-Craquelure

Presentation

Looking at paintings, we admire colours, shapes formed, the brushwork … but we see also crack patterns – the craquelures which give historical “patina” to painted surfaces and enrich viewer’s aesthetical perception. Variations in the craquelure pattern geometry have been recognized – distances between cracks, shapes and sizes of “islands” created by cracks, or crack orientation in relation to wooden or canvas substrates. Since these geometries depend on the substrate of the pictorial layer, ground layer thickness and the binder used in its manufacturing, or pigment/filler grain size in the layers, the crack typologies may be correlated with different – geographically and chronologically - artistic traditions. However, the mechanisms along which the stress fields in paintings are generated and dissipated in the crack development are understood in the heritage science only in very general terms. More importantly, there is no quantitative understanding of the ways in which craquelures influence vulnerability of paintings to further damage induced by changes in temperature and relative humidity (RH) in their environments. Therefore, the strategic aim of the project is to develop a global three-dimensional physical model of original cracked pictorial layers and through this decisively contribute to the development of evidence-based environmental specifications in museums. The implementation of this cross-sectoral project blending problems of humanities with methods and instruments used by natural and engineering sciences is possible owing to collaborative effort of partners from Poland and Norway, supported by research groups or museums from France, UK and USA to advance knowledge in the area at the interface between natural sciences, history of art and conservation.