Professional paper
https://doi.org/10.17018/portal.2022.7
Beginnings of X-ray and CT application in restoration in Dalmatia
Ivo Domelli
; Academy of Fine Arts in Split, Conservation-Restoration Department
Abstract
The first radiographic images were made in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen when he took a picture of his wife's hand. The bones of the wrist and two rings on a finger can clearly be seen on the image. X-rays were first used in medicine, but X-ray imaging of objects as a non-invasive method was very quickly used for conservation of works of art to examine colours, layers of overpainting and various damage to paintings of old masters. This method of photographing paintings was used at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna as early as 1914. The use of X-rays is mentioned at the International Congress of Art Historians in Brussels in 1930. The first written data on the use of X-ray imaging for conservation and restoration purposes in Croatia dates back to the late 1940s at the Zagreb restoration workshop, by conservator Zvonimir Wyroubal. The beginning of the non-invasive method for taking pictures of works of art using X-rays in Dalmatia came after a restoration workshop was opened in Split. According to available information, the painting Virgin and Child from the church of St Lawrence in Trogir was photographed using this method between 1957 and 1964. Around 1975, the Archaeological Museum in Zadar began using the X-ray method to photograph archaeological material. The first images of archaeological material in Dalmatia using CT (computed tomography) date back to 1989 and were made at the Firule University Hospital in Split. In addition to paintings by old masters, X-ray imaging has been used as a non-invasive method for archaeological material, especially metals, including alloys, as well as bone, leather, pottery, polychromed wooden sculptures, mummies and stone. In 2006, a radiographic laboratory with an X-ray device was established at the Conservation-Restoration Department of the Arts Academy (University of Split) with donations from the Baptist church in Dubrovnik and University Hospital in Split. Following world trends and standards in conservation and restoration, we can see that the X-Ray and CT machines have long been used in conservation and restoration workshops in Dalmatia, and these techniques have become one of the most common non-invasive methods in material analysis.
Keywords
X rays, CT imaging, isotope, metal, stone, history
Hrčak ID:
290098
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2022.
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