Remaking the X-Ray as an Instrument of Authentication

Abstract

With its capacity to plumb the depths of a painting and, like a geologist’s stratigraphic section, to reveal information about the painting’s inner material condition and history, the X-ray is a valuable tool of connoisseurship emblematic of the additional dimensions that the application of technology can contribute to conservation, authentication and attribution. Like the many other tools and approaches detailed on the posters outside and that we’ll hear about over the coming two days, the X-ray is often cast in opposition to aesthetic judgment and to the connoisseur. Science to art.