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It's always interesting to see research like this and sit back and wonder about how and why certain things get studied. Like, this required some funding and ti

It's always interesting to see research like this and sit back and wonder about how and why certain things get studied. Like, this required some funding and time. And I'm someone who enjoys a lot of classical art, but I find it hard to care this much about an old painting... When I was in university studying materials science I remember a grad student friend vying to get time and funding to get to a certain syncrotron for X-ray diffraction studies of potential new solar cell substrates (diffused AL/amorphous silicon:H iirc..). I can't imagine the level of facepalming if he'd have been told the department had to bump that research because.... 'hey we need to look at properties of the paint from the Mona Lisa....'

dieselgate 3y ago
Indeed, I have a Mexican friend (I'm American) who when we met was a chemistry postdoc in CDMX. His entire focus (as a postdoc) is to examine chemical compositions of paintings and artwork (from pre-modern artifacts to Diego Rivera murals/frescos). Not sure where all the funding comes from but believe a lot of it is from the Mexican Gov for cultural and regional restoration efforts. A few years back him and a colleague traveled to San Francisco to analyze a multi-panel Rivera piece ("Pan American Unity" [1]) that was on display at (and owned) by City College San Francisco. The goal was to move the panels from CCSF to the SFMOMA [2] for display and their task was to make sure it could be moved properly to minimize damage. It was super cool to visit and see their workspace and tooling. For the mural itself - it's amazing and huge and recommend folks take a look if they can. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_American_Unity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_American_Unity [2]: https://riveramural.org/ https://riveramural.org/
- lazide 3y ago
  Funding for these kinds of things often comes from cultural restoration needs - and from forgery/debunking needs. Knowing the actual compositions and behaviors of the chemicals and materials used at different times can be absolutely critical for both.
joewferrara 3y ago
To counter point, the Mona Lisa makes so much money from people going to see it, it’s not surprising that some money could be found to do this research. And the write up on the composition of the Mona Lisa paint would get exponentially many more readers than any real research your friend would be doing.
- daniel-cussen 3y ago
  [dead]
dylan604 3y ago
You can't counterfeit something accurately if you don't truly know how it was made
serf 3y ago
>wonder about how and why certain things get studied. i've seen paint composition studies that were used to understand earlier century chemical mortality; it's not entirely impractical.
atoav 3y ago
Well we have a lot of old stuff that is valuable. And shockingly the stuff doesn't get any newer — quite the opposite. Knowing what it consists of is important for keeping it in good condition. Which a thing like the Mona Lisa this is both culturally and economically a no-brainer.

dieselgate 3y ago

Indeed, I have a Mexican friend (I'm American) who when we met was a chemistry postdoc in CDMX. His entire focus (as a postdoc) is to examine chemical compositions of paintings and artwork (from pre-modern artifacts to Diego Rivera murals/frescos). Not sure where all the funding comes from but believe a lot of it is from the Mexican Gov for cultural and regional restoration efforts. A few years back him and a colleague traveled to San Francisco to analyze a multi-panel Rivera piece ("Pan American Unity" [1]) that was on display at (and owned) by City College San Francisco. The goal was to move the panels from CCSF to the SFMOMA [2] for display and their task was to make sure it could be moved properly to minimize damage. It was super cool to visit and see their workspace and tooling. For the mural itself - it's amazing and huge and recommend folks take a look if they can. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_American_Unity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_American_Unity [2]: https://riveramural.org/ https://riveramural.org/

lazide 3y ago
Funding for these kinds of things often comes from cultural restoration needs - and from forgery/debunking needs. Knowing the actual compositions and behaviors of the chemicals and materials used at different times can be absolutely critical for both.

joewferrara 3y ago

To counter point, the Mona Lisa makes so much money from people going to see it, it’s not surprising that some money could be found to do this research. And the write up on the composition of the Mona Lisa paint would get exponentially many more readers than any real research your friend would be doing.

daniel-cussen 3y ago
[dead]

dylan604 3y ago

You can't counterfeit something accurately if you don't truly know how it was made

serf 3y ago

>wonder about how and why certain things get studied. i've seen paint composition studies that were used to understand earlier century chemical mortality; it's not entirely impractical.

atoav 3y ago

Well we have a lot of old stuff that is valuable. And shockingly the stuff doesn't get any newer — quite the opposite. Knowing what it consists of is important for keeping it in good condition. Which a thing like the Mona Lisa this is both culturally and economically a no-brainer.