'Leave it or take it away': ethical considerations on the removal of overpainting: the case of the Ghent Altarpiece

During the current conservation of the Ghent Altarpiece, carried out by a team of KIK-IRPA, a large amount of old overpaint has been discovered. These are studied with a number of innovative analytical techniques. It is argued here that the introduction of these techniques allows for a re-evaluation of the conservation theoretical and ethical dimensions of coping with such phenomena

Staging the Scene: Bart Ramakers’ exuberant dialogue with artistic heritage

Historical context of the genre of staged photography as performed by Belgian contemporary photographer Bart Ramaker

Some observations on Gustave van de Woestyne's working routine

IRR-examination of a selection of paintings by Gustave van de Woestyne, revealing the evolution in his underdrawing style

Artistic patronage in Bruges institutions, ca. 1440-1482

Between 1440 and the early 1480s, Bruges experienced a stable political and economic climate, which created favorable conditions for artistic patronage. As a favorite ducal residence where many important events were held, and an international center of commerce, Bruges counted many potential patrons of art amongst its residents. This attracted first-rate artists from all over the Burgundian lands. The Burgundian dukes stimulated artistic production by commissioning works of art, such as illuminated manuscripts and decorations for festivities. The City magistrature and the Franc employed artists chiefly for decorative tasks. They often expressed their political aspirations through artistic means, as is seen in the decorations for triumphal entries of the duke. Artistic patronage in churches derived from three different sources: the church itself, individuals and foundations of social groups. The social prestige of a church determined the artistic patronage it enjoyed. The churches employed artists for various decorative and maintenance tasks. Guilds and confraternities endowed chapels and held religious services at the altars of Bruges churches, which they furnished with all sorts of precious sacerdotal garb, ritual ornaments, liturgical manuscripts, and sometimes altarpieces, stained glass windows and sculptures. vii Some wealthy citizens, who usually belonged to the city's upper class, financed the foundation of such chapels with their own private funds. Often these chapels also had a funerary function. The cloister churches of the mendicant orders attracted the patronage of the foreign merchants. Some abbots and priors had a prominent influence on the cultural life in the abbeys or cloisters they headed. Patronage in hospitals issued mainly from affluent members of the community that served the institution, and sometimes from pensioners: senior laymen who rented lodging in the institution. Major works of art seem to have originated when diverse considerations -- and not only devotional ones-- coincided and made the expenditure an attractive investment. The easy identification of the patron of a certain object was certified by the application of such personal marks as his coat of arms or devices. The patron often attempted to guarantee the survival of his foundation and secure its administration by appointing a guild as trustee of the foundation

Uncovering elements of style

This paper relates the style of 16th century Flemish paintings by Goossen van der Weyden (GvdW) to the style of preliminary sketches or underpaintings made prior to executing the painting. Van der Weyden made underpaintings in markedly different styles for reasons as yet not understood by art historians. The analysis presented here starts from a classification of the underpaintings into four distinct styles by experts in art history. Analysis of the painted surfaces by a combination of wavelet analysis, hidden Markov trees and boosting algorithms can distinguish the four underpainting styles with greater than 90% cross-validation accuracy. On a subsequent blind test this classifier provided insight into the hypothesis by art historians that different patches of the finished painting were executed by different hands