Multispectral imaging for digital painting analysis: a Gauguin case study

Abstract

This paper is an introduction into the analysis of multispectral recordings of paintings. First, we will give an overview of the advantages of multispectral image analysis over more traditional techniques: first of all, the bands residing in the visible domain provide an accurate measurement of the color information which can be used for analysis but also for conservational and archival purposes (i.e. preserving the art patrimonial by making a digital library). Secondly, inspection of the multispectral imagery by art experts and art conservators has shown that combining the information present in the spectral bands residing in- and outside the visible domain can lead to a richer analysis of paintings. In the remainder of the paper, practical applications of multispectral analysis are demonstrated, where we consider the acquisition of thirteen different, high resolution spectral bands. Nine of these reside in the visible domain, one in the near ultraviolet and three in the infrared. The paper will illustrate the promising future of multispectral analysis as a non-invasive tool for acquiring data which cannot be acquired by visual inspection alone and which is highly relevant to art preservation, authentication and restoration. The demonstrated applications include detection of restored areas and detection of aging cracks.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 13 citations exist upstream.