The XXIII Symposium will provide a scientific forum for the presentation of new technical studies in art history, concentrating on art from the Middle Ages and Early Modern period (1400-1600). The conference will focus on the technical examination of art in a variety of media and supports: panel paintings, painting on parchment and canvas, drawings, cartoons, sketches, model- and sketchbooks, prints and manuscript illuminations. The main theme will be cross-media perspectives in the context of artistic materials, working methods, and the dissemination of concepts. Similarities in design might indicate cultural, social, geographical, or chronological connections in paintings, drawings, prints etc. as well as links across other artistic media. Recent developments in viewing platforms, artificial intelligence and machine learning can offer alternative possibilities in this research field, stimulate contacts and the exchange of experience, and form a bridge between art and science.

After the successful Van Eyck Studies (2012), Imaging Utopia (2017), Bruegel Success Story (2018), and Alla Maniera (2021) symposia, the 23rd Symposium of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting will be held in Leuven and Brussels and will coincide with the exhibition “Dieric Bouts. Creator of Images” in Museum M. The conference aims to stimulate networking and provides a unique opportunity for professionals to share knowledge and experience on important cases. It also provides a forum for the discussion of innovative developments in tools and methodologies for the study of artworks.

Programme :

Program, 11- 13 January 2024

https://technicalartstudies2024leuven.be/#
Registration: https://technicalartstudies2024leuven.be/registration/

Wednesday, 10 January 2024, Leuven University Library KU Leuven, Digital Labs ( 2 pm – 5 pm)

Pre-symposium workshop: Non-invasive imaging techniques. Narrow-Band, Multisp White light & Multispectral Microdome
VIEW, Core Facility for Heritage Science and Digitisation Technologies

Thursday, 11 January 2024, Leuven

Session 1 Location: Maria-Theresiacollege ( lecture hall 01.03, 10am – 12.30 pm) Registration opens at 9.00 am

Keynote Lecture

Looking Across Media

Susie Nash

Deborah Loeb Brice Professor of Renaissance Art, The Courtauld, London, UK

Decoding Memling: Technical examination and collaborative research on Hans Memling’s paintings.

Joyce Klein Koerkamp, Anne van Oosterwijk, Musea Brugge, Belgium

Diversifying the past: The utilization of non-Carbon black underdrawing materials in 14th to 17th century paintings.
Mareike Gerken, Jochen Sander, Christoph Krekel

Bruker Nano Analytics, Berlin; Städel Museum, Frankfurt; Goethe University, Frankfurt; State Academy of Art and Design, Stuttgart, Germany

From Panel to Paper: The Visconti-Sforza tarocchi cards as amalgamation of 15th century Northern Italian artistic techniques.
Francisco Trujillo, Marie-France Lemay, Lydia Aikenhead

Thaw Conservation Center, The Morgan Library & Museum; Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Library’s Center for Preservation and Conservation, Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, United States of America

Session 2 Location: Maria-Theresiacollege (lecture hall 01.03, 2.00 pm – 4.30 pm) Keynote Lecture

Dieric Bouts’ Granada Triptych. Results from a pre-treatment examination. Bart Franssen, Valentine Hendriks
KIK-IRPA, ULB Brussels, Belgium

The life of the Virgin, Dieric Bouts in the Prado Museum. Technical Study.

José Juan Pérez Preciado
Museo National del Prado, Madrid, Spain

‘Ils etaient alors dans un etat déplorable’*

David Laine
IPARC bv, Belgium

Clone or Twin? The Boutsian Virgin and Child Paintings in New York and Berlin.

Sumihiro Oki
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Museum M Leuven (5.00 pm – 11.00 pm)

Visit to the exhibition ‘Dieric Bouts. Creator of images’ Museum M

Welcome by Marjan Debaene, Head of Old Masters, Museum M and introduction to the exhibition by curator Peter Capreau

Conference Dinner

Posters, Maria-Theresiacollege

Posters are presented in the coffee and lunch room. Full poster program will be published 20th September 2023

Sponsors, Maria-Theresiacollege

Publications and Product presentation in the coffee and lunch room

Friday, 12 January 2024, Leuven
Session 3 Location: Maria-Theresiacollege (lecture hall 01.03, 9.30 am – 10.30 pm)

Production and Innovation in Early Netherlandish Copy Practice: Gerard David’s Descent from the Cross in the Chimei Museum.
Yu Han Hsu

Radboud University, The Netherlands; Chimei Museum; Chimei Cultural Foundation, Taiwan

High-praised artists in Antwerp paint on broad wainscots from the shop of ‘RB’, an unidentified panel maker (1611-1613).
Jørgen Wadum, Angela Jager, Aoife Daly

RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, The Netherlands; Wadum Art Technological Studies WATS, Denmark; Dendro.dk, Denmark

Session 4 Location: Maria-Theresiacollege (lecture hall 01.03, 11.00 am – 12.30 pm)

Who fathered the Rotterdam Schoolboy (1531)? Bringing home the technical evidence for its attribution.
Ruben Suykerbuyk

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, The Netherlands

Out of sight: On the process of dating a hidden composition.

Anne Haack Christensen, Lisbet Tarp, Annette S. Ortiz Miranda
National Gallery of Denmark; Aarhus University, Denmark; The Walters Art Museum, US

Tracing hidden gestures: invention and copying. Hyperspectral Imaging study of panel paintings from SaintAugustin Acolman’s, New Spain.
Nathael Cano, Oscar de Lucio, Miguel Pérez, José Luis Ruvalcaba Sil,

LANCIC IF UNAM, Mexico

Session 5b Location: University Library (Colloquium Room, 2.00 pm – 3.30 pm)

The use of Photometric Stereo for documenting and comparing successive phases in restoration treatments.
Lieve Watteeuw, Hendrik Hameeuw, Bruno Vandermeulen, Marc Proesmans, Vincent Vandeweddingen

KU Leuven, Belgium

Study of traces of underpainting and censorships in a Book of Hours of the Brazilian National Library through imaging exams.
Isamara Lara de Carvalho, Alexandre Cruz Leão, Márcia Almada, Luiz Antônio Cruz Souza

Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil

A webapp platform to study, preserve, valorize and disseminate visual and analytical data.

Manuela Serando, Matteo Ventrella; ETT, Italy

Session 6b Location: University Library (Colloquium Room, 4.00 pm – 5.00 pm)

Multianalytical non-invasive investigation of three paintings attributed to Cavalier d’Arpino.

Vittoria Bruni, Edoardo Colonna, Anna Candida Felici, Gianluca Mazzei, Candida Moffa, Annalisa Pascarella, Francesca Pelosi, Francesca Pitolli, Fabio Porzio, Domenico Vitulano

Department of Basic and Applied Sciences for Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome; Department of Mathematics, University of Rome Tor Vergata; Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo « Mauro Picone » – CNR; Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Rome, Italy

Antonio de Saliba’s 1515 Titular Altarpiece for the Franciscan Observant Church in Rabat, Malta: an analytical and scientific investigation.
Charlene Vella, Andrea Luca Bartolo

University of Malta, Malta

Evening Meeting STUK cafe ( 6.00 pm – 8.00 pm)

KU Leuven, Illuminare, Friends and Drinks, STUK, Naamsestraat 96, 3000 Leuven http://www.illuminare.be/

Saturday, 13 January 2024
Session 7 Location: Royal Library of Belgium / KBR (10.00 am – 1 pm)

Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Christ and the Woman taken in adultery: a critical revaluation of Pieter Perret’s Print.
Maarten Jan Bassens, Illuminare – KU Leuven, Belgium

The Evolution of Late-medieval Gaelic Manuscripts: Comparing and Understanding Construction, Art and Materiality.
Fenella France, Pádraig Ó Macháin

Library of Congress, United States of America; University College Cork, Ireland

Collation Modelling in the Study of Flemish 14th Century Manuscript Marginalia.

Alina Heiremans; KU Leuven, Belgium

From “feuilles volantes” to altarpieces: Renaissance prints and their uses in the oeuvre of Simon Pictor from Sibiu/ Hermannstadt (ca. 1515-1530).
Ciprian Firea

Institute of Archaeology and Art History. Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca Branch, Romania

The Brussels Cartoons: Division of Labor And International Interdisciplinary Collaboration In 17th Century Stained-Glass Practices.
Margot Steurbaut; Rice University, United States of America

The Leuven Saint Peter’s building site and the dissemination of geometrical design. Oliver Kik; KIK-IRPA, Belgium

Session 8: Workshops: Royal Library of Belgium / KBR ( 2 pm – 16.00 pm)

KBR, Department of Prints and Drawings

Daan van Heesch, Joris Van Grieken https://www.kbr.be/en/collections/prints/

KBR, Department of Chalcography

Leen Van Hulst, Maarten Bassens https://www.kbr.be/en/collections/chalcography/

KBR Museum, Collection of Manuscripts the Library of the Dukes of Burgundy

Ann Kelders, Lieve Watteeuw https://www.kbr.be/en/museum/

Source : Technical Art Studies