The Ghent Altarpiece (1420s-1432) is the masterpiece of the south-Netherlandish painters Jan and Hubert van Eyck. This polyptych has been subject to an extensive restoration by the Royal Institute of Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRP, Brussels) during the last decade, a process that is not completely finished. On the panels of the polyptych that were already conserved [the outer wing panels during...
The Institute of Physics and Materials Science is specialized in characterization of biological and bio-based material including a variety of techniques and fields of application. One of them is the determination of age.
Brief description/core competencies
Chemical changes over time can be used to describe various processes. Provided these changes are slow and uniform, it is possible to use...
Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry with primary ions in the MeV range (MeV-SIMS) was employed as a new accelerator technique for the analysis of synthetic organic pigments (SOPs) and binders in modern and contemporary paints. Due to the so-called “soft ionization” of organic molecules caused by MeV primary ion beam, large intact organic molecules or larger molecular fragments are desorbed from...
