Academy of Fine Arts Prague

This study introduces an innovative approach to the long-standing challenge of determining the animal origin of blood used in artworks - an issue of central relevance to art historians aiming to understand historical techniques, symbolic meanings, and the cultural traditions associated with artistic materials. Using LC-MS/MS analysis, species-specific peptide sequences of blood proteins were identified, allowing for the discrimination of seven animal species (cat, cow, dog, goose, hen, human, and pig). This analytical approach was successfully applied to a series of model samples containing blood, confirming both the proteinaceous composition and the animal origin of the blood. Furthermore, the method enabled the identification of pig blood in historical samples taken from Japanese and Chinese lacquer artefacts dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. The novelty of this work lies in a new strategy for data evaluation that facilitates the creation of custom peptide databases tailored to distinguish specific animal species. This approach overcomes a major limitation in proteomic studies - namely, the lack of complete sequence data for many animals - by incorporating homologous sequences from closely related species. The strategy demonstrates a high degree of effectiveness when implemented within a clearly defined group of animal species, such as those historically utilised in the production of blood-based artistic materials. This approach offers a novel pathway for the molecular identification of animal origin in cultural heritage contexts and establishes a robust foundation for future interdisciplinary investigations bridging art history, conservation science, and molecular biology.

The issue of transition and transformation of communities has a long history. Particularly in today's context of increasing aging trends, cities and communities are facing unprecedented multiple challenges that drive the transition to a more inclusive and sustainable future to enable community stakeholders to have a higher quality of life experience and to fulfil their visions for the future. This paper systemically reveals insights from the past of the ageing issue in the Yangfangdian community in Beijing through a multi- level perspective (MLP) framework created with local residents, a museum and design students to understand the historical foundations of the issue and its multiple dimensions (landscape, regime, and niche) to inform community residents’ long-term visions of the future and systemic design interventions for the present day.

This work focuses on a non-invasive study of two selected painted miniature portraits on ivory to describe the degradation processes resulting from the interaction between mercury-based and lead-based pigments with oils. In the studied miniatures, containing both lead white and cinnabar, the formation of metal soaps has been clearly detected. However, until now they have been identified exclusively as lead soaps. In this study, the formation of mercury soaps has been evidenced in painted artworks for the first time, together with the well-known lead soaps. The fully non-invasive analytical approach involved the use of large-area X-ray fluorescence scanning, X-ray powder diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy accompanied by Raman spectroscopy. It enabled complex description of the miniatures, leading to both the identification and the deduction of approximate composition of mercury soaps. In addition, approximate calculations of the amount of pigments consumed by saponification unveiled the complex processes taking place in the oil-based paint containing both cinnabar and lead white, which were further studied within long-term model experiments monitored by both Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffraction.

The lack of an appropriate methodology makes numerous important issues related to miniature paintings unresolved-despite the fact that the portrait miniatures of the seventeenth to the nineteenth century represent a highly specific and significant field of European fine art. One of these issues is represented by chemical degradation of miniatures and its analytical evidence. Fragility, variability of the employed materials, and detailed execution make their analysis highly challenging-since no sampling is usually allowed and any change on their surface is immediately noticeable. Therefore, this study focused on finding a fully non-invasive multi-analytical approach to describe degradation processes resulting from the interaction of lead pigments and oils. For this purpose, a representative set of miniature portraits on various supports (ivory, metal, glass) has been selected. For the first time, Pb carboxylates (lead soaps) have been evidenced in miniatures painted in oil and also in a combined technique (gum + oil). Their distribution and crystallinity was described by a combination of X-ray-based (X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction) and micro-spectroscopic methods. At the same time, a number of new findings about the employed painting technique and involvement of various pigments in the degradation processes were obtained. For example, a possible saponification of a mixed Pb-Sn-Sb yellow was indicated for the first time. Although the degradation is clearly at an advanced stage, it has not shown yet any visible symptoms that might warn restorers and curators. Therefore, without targeted analysis, it would remain overlooked.

This chapter addresses the issue of privacy settings with a focus on Generation Y from a technological, social, generational, cultural and philosophical point of view. After introducing the issue of Internet privacy and other relevant areas—generational and cultural differences, the philosophical framework, the postinternet condition, the possibilities of processing and (mis)using personal data, and privacy policy—the authors present their perspective on the issue, drawing implications for individuals and organizations based on their own research and other relevant studies. The authors discuss the possible implications in terms of a prospective use of personal data by companies (e.g. for marketing and management) and possibility of processing user data. Such perspective will allow them to formulate a critical basis for further assessment of social networking and Generation Y's attitudes to privacy. The chapter concludes by outlining several recommendations concerning the commercialization of social networking services with respect to the constantly changing conception of privacy.

A carving of the indoor main altar of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague (Czech Republic) is made of the opuka stone—a clayey–calcareous silicite—which now exhibits the development of decay phenomena such as the formation of salt-laden case-hardened subsurface layer (approx. 150 mm thick), with detachment of the case-hardened layer manifested by blistering and/or flaking. Formation of this gypsum-rich layer is linked to the reaction of components (SO2) from polluted air (both outdoor and indoor) and from the rock itself (calcium ion from calcite). Development of brittle damage in the subsurface layer and underlying stone is interpreted based on the results from previous environmental monitoring in the Cathedral’s interior, which indicated highly fluctuating temperature and humidity, resulting in a hygrothermal stress in the material described by the “double-layer sandwich” model. The sensitivity of the studied stone to the above-mentioned processes is evidenced by its microstructural properties, specifically parameters of the pore spaces which indicate an extremely high susceptibility to damage by the actions of freezing water and/or salt crystallisation.