Blog #1: Intersections of Art + Science
One of the most successful intersections of art and science takes place in the practice of radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon dating is a technique that uses Carbon 14 atoms to detect forgeries and “fakes” in the art world. Carbon 14 atoms are an essential aspect of this scientific method because they decay at a consistent rate. To detect a forgery, scientists take samples from the artwork under examination, and “establish the ratio of Carbon 12 to Carbon 14 atoms in the sample and compare it to reference values.” The biggest issue with this process comes up when skilled forgers take old paints and other materials to recreate the works they claim are “x years old.” This makes it more challenging for scientists to clearly identify the age of a work, because the materials would correspond to different periods of history. I’ve included a diagram that explains “how Carbon 14 is formed and moves through the atmosphere: ”
A team of scientists led by Laura Hendriks, at the laboratory of Ion Beam Physics at ETH University in Zurich, have been working on this issue and have now published their solution in the PNAS journal. These are some photos of the team and some of the radiocarbon dating machinery that they use to analyze samples:
In this photo, there are three main accelerator facilities: TANDEM, TANDY, and MICADAS.
The team in Zurich used their technique on an infamous forgery case in which “ a man named Robert Trotter painted a picture in American primitive style folk art, signed it ‘Sarah Honn’ and dated it back to ‘May 5, 1886 A.D.’” This is a photo of the artwork being analyzed by the team:
The scientists were able to measure “two micro samples from this painting: fibre from the canvas and paint particle weighing less than 200 micrograms” by using ion beam physics. They were ultimately able to determine that the canvas did come from the 19th century, however the paint particles were mixed with a binder that unveiled the truth about the painting’s age. It is challenging to deconstruct the properties of the binder because it is mixed with the paint. However in this case, the binder contained “an excess of Carbon 14, which is characteristic of the 20th century. The deployment of nuclear weapons led to a dramatic increase in the Carbon 14 concentration in the atmosphere, meaning that samples from this time are dated with great precision. The seeds used to produce the binding agent were harvested between 1958-1961 or 1983-1989.” The team was able to verify that the artwork was a fraud, and the forger responsible plead guilty in court.
Although this new technique is not entirely sound, it does provide a more precise method for scientists to evaluate the authenticity of artworks under fire. I think it is fascinating that the materials of an artwork become equally important to the scientists evaluating it, as they once were to the artist or forger that created the work. The intersection of art and science in this modern example shows how a binding material like linseed oil can be of equal value to both sides of this intersectional spectrum. I looked up a photo of what linseed looks like because I realized I didn’t know what it looked like before it had been processed and packaged for art purposes.
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