Combining different types of sources for a better understanding of tempera painting around 1900

• Autores: Patrick Dietemann, Wibke Neugebauer
• Localización: Making and Transforming Art: Technology and Interpretation / Hèléne Dubois (ed. lit.), Joyce H. Townsend (ed. lit.), Jilleen Nadolny (ed. lit.), Sigrid Eyb-Green (ed. lit.), Sylvie Neven (ed. lit.), Stefanos Kroustallis (ed. lit.), 2014, ISBN 9781909492165, págs. 95-101
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In this research project on German tempera painting around 1900, detailed information on written sources on specific paintings was linked with the respective objects. Some of these paintings were available for technical study and material analyses. It was thus posible to obtain and combine information from different types of sources such as written information, visual examination of the paintings and chemical analysis; furthermore, findings were complemented by reconstruction of the paints. This approach allowed us to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of different kind of sources. This paper focuses on a painting case study, "Villa am Meer II", painted by Arnold Böcklin in 1865. Although it was not surprising to find that each type of information needs interpretation, it was quite unexpected to realise that the interpretations needed for the correlation of information from different sources are based on (sometimes unconscious) models and paradigms. It is necessary to become aware of this and to further study how materials such as mixtures of aqueous and oleoresinous binders interact, how they determine the properties of paints they compose, and how these properties can be applied to create a painting. This critical process is necessary to prevent both misinterpretation and the false inference that a particular source is unrealiable.