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{"id":2662,"date":"2015-04-15T16:04:45","date_gmt":"2015-04-15T16:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/urban-plains.com\/2016\/?p=2662"},"modified":"2016-04-21T00:54:11","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T00:54:11","slug":"underneath-the-paint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urban-plains.com\/2016\/innovation\/underneath-the-paint\/","title":{"rendered":"Underneath the Paint"},"content":{"rendered":"

Words by Taylor Siedlik | Photography Provided by The Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Northwestern University | April 15, 2015<\/p>\n

Oliver Cossairt loves to destroy famous works of art \u2014 at least digitally. He\u2019s an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Northwestern University with a love of art and an urge to understand how it\u2019s made. How that perfect shadow ended up on the canvas. How that one brush stroke completed the story.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Oliver<\/a>

Oliver Cossairt and team begin the process of \u201cpeeling back paintings.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But rather than spend decades mastering his technique and chasing the masters one painting at a time, Cossairt attacked the problem in the way he knows best: with math. He and his team developed an equation that can lift colors from the canvas to \u201cpeel back the paintings.\u201d Layer by layer. Brush stroke by brush stroke. All in the hopes of discovering precisely how artists created their paintings. And it answers one huge, longstanding historical question: how these artists’ methods evolved over time.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The engineers at Northwestern University are able to recreate Gauguin\u2019s ink transfer process.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cA lot of what I do is imaging techniques for scientific purposes,\u201d Cossairt says. \u201c[I was] asked if there was any way to apply imaging techniques that I work on to art analysis techniques useful for art conservators at The Art Institute of Chicago<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer: Heck yeah. Cossairt came up with the idea of using the \u201cphotometric stereo\u201d technique<\/a> to see the works of art \u2014 in this case, Paul Gauguin\u2019s 1902 print<\/a> \u201cNativity (Mother and Child Surrounded by Five Figures)\u201d \u2014 in ways they never have been before. The whole process starts by creating a 3-D image of a painting or print. Doing that requires snapping multiple pictures of it. First, Cossairt and his team set up a light at a precise angle. They snap a picture, then slightly move the light to another angle. Click. Repeat \u2014 until they\u2019ve covered the entire piece. They compile the photos digitally. Then \u2014 and here\u2019s the odd part \u2014 the color is removed. But without all that color in the way, the real surface is revealed: the hidden divots and slopes at a microscopic level.<\/p>\n

\"3\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n

\u201cThis is the equivalent of removing make-up from a face,\u201d says Marc Walton, research associate professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern. \u201cThe make-up, or color, masks the underlying structure of the skin, which may contain wrinkles, spots, etc. Same thing with paint on a canvas. The dimensionality of the paint is often obscured by the color.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"The<\/a>

The black ball is used to signal to the engineers which angle the light is coming in from on the photo.<\/p><\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And that dimensionality can help academics and art historians figure out things they never thought possible. Take Gauguin\u2019s \u201cNativity\u201d for example. Historians knew the French Post-Impressionist\u2019s methods involved transferring black ink onto a sheet of paper. But how? Well, that part was up for debate. Using the imaging process, Cossairt and his team looked extensively at \u201cNativity\u201d to figure out the master\u2019s technique. What they saw were dark indentations that revealed bulges on the surface of the work \u2014 like someone had applied pressure from the back of the canvas to create microscopic ridges. That led to a new theory: Gauguin used a technique called monotyping. (Think: putting a piece of paper on an inkpad and then \u201cdrawing\u201d on the surface facing you. The pressure from the paper pushing the opposite side into the ink creates an instant masterpiece.)<\/p>\n

\n
\"Gauguin<\/a>

Gauguin used a monotype, or singular surface, to create his series of prints seen here.<\/p><\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe were able to verify that Gauguin used a monotype process for his prints by measuring the 3-D image of these shapes,\u201d Cossairt says. But he also saw something else. \u201cWe were able to observe \u2026 all these broken lines.\u201d Translation: Indents on the canvas that didn\u2019t have corresponding ink on the other side. What was even odder was that these un-inked indents seemed to correspond to other Gauguin works. \u201cThe idea was that maybe the piece of paper that Gauguin used to start out \u2018Nativity\u2019 was on the bottom of a stack of paper,\u201d Cossairt says. So just like when you write on a stack of sticky notes and leave indents on several layers of paper, \u201cNativity\u201d bears the scars of other Gauguin works created before it.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Engineers<\/a>

Engineers begin making a new print, using Gauguin\u2019s \u201cNativity\u201d as a template.<\/p><\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For art historians like Joni Kinsey, a professor of art history at the University of Iowa, knowing that gets her and her colleagues one step closer to what they really want to know: the artists’ intent behind their work. Of course, a 3-D image doesn\u2019t answer every question. In fact, as more works are analyzed, 3-D imaging might result in even more questions than answers. But for now, Kinsey sees possibilities in these new techie \u201cwonders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\"7\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThose wonders are not in the digital technology; they are through the digital technology,\u201d Kinsey says. \u201cWe need to use those as a springboard to engage with the world around us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is the whole point of art to begin with.<\/p>\n\n

\"These<\/a>

These are just two pieces from Gauguin\u2019s printmaking series.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New technology sheds light on centuries-old paintings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[21,22,65,66,78],"yoast_head":"\nUnderneath the Paint | Urban Plains<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Engineers digitally peel apart paintings to reveal something hidden at a microscopic level. 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