Research into and analysis of the materials of easel paintings

This chapter covers instrumental methods of analysis used by conservation scientists and their research associates in universities and national conservation and research facilities. Many journals and conferences covering the conservation and analysis of the moveable heritage – which includes paintings – and professional bodies which acted as publishers and organisers, were instituted from the early 1950s onwards. The electrons in the beam have different interactions with the paint sample: different detectors can provide information about the surface topography, paint morphology and stratigraphy, or else the elemental composition of paint samples. There are great advantages to having one conservation scientist or conservator carry out all the X-ray analysis for the institution, to maximise the benefit of experience with different sample types. There is a wide range of organic constituents in paints ranging from single molecules like wax esters in beeswax or terpenoids in varnishes to large natural and synthetic polymers.