National Gallery

Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757) was the most celebrated woman artist in eighteenth-century Europe. Working in the inherently fragile medium of pastel she was always concerned for the well-being of her creations. The 350th anniversary of her birth (2023) created an opportunity to celebrate her life and work. Together with the substantial documentation of her career, the study of many of her pastels unframed has allowed a focus on Rosalba’s technique and enabled new conclusions about her working practice. This essay will follow Rosalba’s footsteps, from her Venetian residence to the European courts for which her pastels were destined.

In 1982, eight people—archaeologists, colour scientists and analysts—met in a room in King’s Manor, York University, to discuss a subject of significance to them all: the analysis of dyes on archaeological and historical textiles [...]

The study of painted artworks using scientific methods is fundamental for understanding the techniques used in their creation and their appropriate conservation. The ethical constraints involved in the handling of, and sampling from, these objects has steered recent developments in the field of Heritage science towards a range of new non-invasive/non-destructive spectroscopic techniques capable of providing important insights into their elemental or bulk chemical compositions. Due to the inherent complexities of heritage artefacts, however, their organic components are especially difficult to study in this way and their identification and degradation pathways are thus often best investigated using mass spectrometric (MS) techniques. The versatility, sensitivity and specificity of MS techniques are constantly increasing, with technological advances pushing the boundaries of their use in this field. The progress in the past ten years in the use of MS techniques for the analysis of paint media are described in the present review. While some historical context is included, the body of the review is structured around the five most widely used or emerging capabilities offered by MS. The first pertains to the use of spatially resolved MS to obtain chemical maps of components in cross-sections, which may yield information on both inorganic and organic materials, while the second area describes the development of novel sample preparation approaches for gas chromatography (GC)-MS to allow simultaneous analysis of a variety of components. The third focuses on thermally assisted analysis (either with direct MS or coupled with GC-MS), a powerful tool for studying macromolecules requiring zero (or minimal) sample pre-treatment. Subsequently, the use of soft ionisation techniques often combined with high-resolution MS for the study of peptides (proteomics) and other macromolecules (such as oligosaccharides and triglycerides) is outlined. The fifth area covers the advances in radiocarbon dating of painting components with accelerator MS (AMS). Lastly, future applications of other MS techniques to the study of paintings are mentioned; such as direct analysis in real time MS (DART-MS) and stable isotope ratio MS (IRMS). The latter, having proven its efficiency for the study of lipids in archaeological artefacts, is envisioned to become a valuable tool for this area, whereas DART-MS is already being utilised to study the surface composition of various museum objects. Rapid technological advances, resulting in increased sensitivity and selectivity of MS techniques, are opening up new approaches for paintings analysis, overcoming the fundamental hurdle of sample size available for destructive analysis. Importantly, while the last decade has seen proteomics applications come to the fore, this review aims to emphasise the wider potential of advanced MS techniques for the study of painting materials and their conservation.

This paper reflects on the recent collaboration between the National Gallery Research Centre and the Department of Digital Humanities at King's College London (NG/DDH). Using the stock books located in the archives of the art dealers Thos. Agnew & Sons as an example, NG/DDH sought to address the potential that such archival sources might have in the world of digital research and Digital Asset Management. Building on this research, NG/DDH participated in the Getty Advanced Workshop on Network Analysis and Digital Art History, which encouraged us to think particularly about the role and nature of network analysis in the field of Digital Art History. In this paper we briefly describe the technical process of digitization, and the possibilities opened up by converting the transactional information contained in the stock books into structured data. We then set this in the historical context of network structures, as embodied by the World Wide Web and social media, and especially the distinction that these types of network have entrenched between objects (or persons) and topics (or other abstract entities). We conclude with an argument that problematizing this distinction – which is enshrined in the whole concept of networks and network analysis – is key if this method is to be applied to art history research.

Abstract The authors share an emerging analytical approach to designing and studying STEAM programs that focuses on how programs integrate the respective epistemic practices—the ways in which knowledge is constructed—of science and art. They share the rationale for moving beyond surface features of STEAM programs (e.g. putting textiles and electronics on the same table) to the discipline-specific ways in which participants engage in creative inquiry and production. They share a brief example from a public STEAM event to demonstrate the ways in which this approach can foster reflection and intentionality in the design and implementation of STEAM programs.

Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664) and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682) spent most of their career in Seville where their paths mostly overlapped in the mid-seventeenth century. Both competed for the growing number of commissions from local religious orders, parish churches and private patrons. Zurbarán’s sharp figures against dark backgrounds were preferred during the first half of the seventeenth century whereas Murillo’s lighter soft compositions became increasingly popular in the second half. Whereas Zurbarán and Murillo competed at a local level, Zurbarán was recorded as having been much more active on a global scale, exporting over 200 paintings to Latin America from Seville, one of Europe’s main ports to the Americas. This article will for the first time develop a comparative approach considering both artists’ presence in the Spanish viceroyalties. There have been several studies on Zurbarán’s presence in Latin America, especially by Zurbarán specialist Benito Navarrete Prieto, and an increasing number of scholars considering Murillo’s American presence. Navarrete Prieto has focused on Zurbarán’s workshop paintings destined to the Americas and their print sources. There has also been some work on the documents related to Zurbarán’s painting shipments overseas which will be discussed later. Whereas there are several studies on Zurbarán’s presence in the Americas since the viceregal period, most work on Murillo focuses on paintings by his circle, the circulation of copies and his influence on Latin American artists. This study will focus on both artists’ presence in the Spanish viceroyalties considering documentary and written evidence of their involvement with the Americas, how their families facilitated these transactions, existing and lost paintings by them in Latin America which provenance dates to the colonial period, their presence in Lima’s Convent of Buena Muerte and finally how they perceived the Americas.

November 2019, MelbourneThe late Mirka Mora (1928–2018) is a Melbourne icon and well-known and much-loved artist with an instantly recognisable style. Born in France and as a teenager miraculously ...

This postscript describes new information that has come to my attention since my article ‘Illuminating the Old Masters and Enlightening the British Public’ went to press.

This bibliography aims to provide an up-to-date resource of both primary and secondary literature in the field of nineteenth-century British women art writers. The first section, ‘Selected publications’, presents a general overview of scholarship in the field, including examples of foreign-language work on women art writers. This is followed by individual bibliographies for each of the key writers featured in the articles of this issue. Each individual bibliography includes ‘Archives’, indicating where a writer’s principal archival material can be found; ‘Primary sources’ presents a chronological list of the writer’s art/old master-focused publications; finally, an overview of the scholarship on that writer to date can be found in ‘Secondary literature’.