Topic

The primary goal of the project is to research and understand the surface qualities of varnish seen under Day- and UV-light. The investigation was based on a careful and thorough analysis of the previous published scientific literature and cultural historic aspects.

Scientific standards regarding UV-light photography where set and applied, leading to reproducible scientific environments. Only under such conditions can a layer profile of the varnish be extracted in a comparable non invasive manner, thus leading to important conclusions of the actual work techniques.

This non invasive approach also includes the use of microscopic analysis, which leads to even further insights regarding pigments and substances that have been applied.

Tableaus

Project photographer Jan Röhrmann shot all the life size Day- and UV-light pictures, as well as the detail shots up to 5 x magnification. He is using a high – resolution digital back with 45 Mio pixels on a 3.7 by 4.9 cm chip. The raw image was then fed into a special conversion software to account for a real life colour reproduction. Finally a “proof” was generated for each image to guarantee the true colours in the printed book.