The Science of Art
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the typical linseed oil in oil painting. While Stan Taft gives an overview of the painting media, Richard Newman focuses on the adhesive materials used to bind the pigments together—the "binders"—in paintings. The binders influence the optical properties, transparency, and depth of color as well as handling properties, flow, and drying rate of the paint layers. Newman describes the analytical techniques that have been applied to identification of the binders. Debora D. Mayer focuses on support for the paint layer and chooses paper, which is one of the most common supports for painted, printed, or drawn images. Paper is composed of fibers intertwined into a thin sheet. Her article introduces the principles of fiber identification, which delineates the paper type and helps in dating its manufacture. These three articles analyze the materials used to create a work of art: media, the binders, and the support. The last two articles have different focuses: decorated ceramic ware in the U.S. Southwest and cave paintings in Southern Europe. The pottery, pigments, and firing techniques used in the platform mound communities in the Tonto Basin in Arizona
are described by Arleyn W. Simon. She focuses on the Classic period (A.D. 12751450) in the U.S. Southwest in terms of pigments for red, black, and white paints used in pottery making (paddle-andanvil to coil-and-scrape). Analyses of the composition of clay, temper, and paints showed that the distinctive white, black, and red decorated Salado polychrome developed out of an amalgamation of pottery-making and decorating traditions. Michel Menu examines the techniques used in prehistoric times to ornament cave walls. Analyses of cave paintings have occurred since the discovery of prehistoric art. Analysis requires an interdisciplinary approach involving archaeologists, art historians, and materials scientists. Materials scientists study the structure of pigments and quantification of trace elements. Scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and proton-induced x-ray emission are some of the techniques used. In addition paint recipes have been defined for the Niaux caves. Menu has coined the field of study, "archaeological materials science." These five papers show the importance of materials science and its analytical techniques in the creation of art. The issue specifically focuses on the use of pigments, binders, and supports. Pigments are a common theme, though different pigments have dominated different time periods. Binders and supports (here we chose analyses of paper) provide diversity. Southwest ceramics and cave paintings illustrate that the science of art stretches from present day back to prehistoric times. •
Figure 1. Lecturers at the Science of Art symposium at Arizona State University (ASU) on June 14, 1996. From the left: Dusan Stulik, Getty Conservation Institute; Jim Mayer, ASU and symposium chair; Pam Vandiver, Smithsonian Institute; Arleyn Simon, ASU; Maryan Ainsworth, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Helen Billmire, symposium sponsor; Michel Menu, Palais d
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