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In recent years, transformers, initially developed for language, have been successfully applied to visual tasks. Vision transformers have been shown to push the state of the art in a wide range of tasks, including image classification, object detection, and semantic segmentation. While ample research has shown promising results in art attribution and art authentication tasks using convolutional neural networks, this paper examines whether the superiority of vision transformers extends to art authentication, improving, thus, the reliability of computer-based authentication of artworks. Using a carefully compiled dataset of authentic paintings by Vincent van Gogh and two contrast datasets, we compare the art authentication performances of Swin transformers with those of EfficientNet. Using a standard contrast set containing imitations and proxies (works by painters with styles closely related to van Gogh), we find that EfficientNet achieves the best performance overall. With a contrast set that only consists of imitations, we find the Swin transformer to be superior to EfficientNet by achieving an authentication accuracy of over 85%. These results lead us to conclude that vision transformers represent a strong and promising contender in art authentication, particularly in enhancing the computer-based ability to detect artistic imitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A multi-analytical approach for the characterization of colored modern paints was developed. • The method allowed to indentify pigments, binding media and additives for the organic and inorganic characterization of reference samples. • Chronological data about modern paint components was obtained by correlating the chemical information with data compiled from books, articles and patents. • Analytical results and chronological information were compiled into integrated charts to estimate the manufacturing period. • The developed methodology was successfully applied to corroborate the estimated date of an artwork presumably produced in 1946. Throughout the twentieth century, the paint industry developed a multitude of new binding media, pigments and additives that improved the appearance, ease of application, and performance of modern industrial paints. Depending on when and where they were first manufactured, and when they were introduced into paint formulations, some of these new paint components could conceivably be chronological markers useful in assigning attribution to specific artists or in the study of forgeries. The aim of this study was to develop a systematic methodology for characterizing organic and inorganic materials in modern paints, and search for potential chronological markers. Colored reference paints manufactured by local companies in Argentina from the 1940s and 1950s were studied with a multi-analytical approach that included Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis. A wide range of compounds was identified due to the complementarity use of the analytical techniques. Historical references, patents, books, and scientific publications about the materials used in that time period provided invaluable information in establishing tentative timelines for modern paint components. This investigation was part of a broader interdisciplinary investigation of Concrete Art, an international art movement of the beginning of the twentieth century, which took place in Argentina and other nearby countries during the 1940s and 1950s. To prove the concept, a micro-sample from "Obra N° 171" by Raúl Lozza was analyzed. Organic and inorganic fractions were studied and the information collected was correlated with developed timelines to support the authentication process. Ultimately, the information from this study may also have a direct impact on the key areas of material characterization, aging behavior, and conservation of works of art made from these products. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual analysis and authentication of artworks are challenging tasks central to art history and criticism. This preliminary study presents a computational tool for scholars examining and authenticating a restricted class of paintings, with a specific focus on the paintings of Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, more popularly known as Raphael. We applied transfer learning to the ResNet50 deep neural network for feature extraction and used a support vector machine (SVM) binary classifier in support of authentication. Edge detection and analysis algorithms, considered to be crucial for capturing the essence of Raphael's artistic style, including the brushwork signatures, were also integrated and are used as an authentication tool. The machine learning approach we have developed demonstrates an accuracy of 98% in image-based classification tasks during validation using a test set of well known and authentic paintings by Raphael. Of course, a full authentication protocol relies on provenance, history, material studies, iconography, studies of a work's condition, and more. Our work, then, contributes to just a portion of a full authentication protocol. Our findings suggest that machine learning methods, properly employed by experts aware of context, may enhance and expand traditional visual analysis for problems in art authentication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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• The painting was dated 1492 (terminus post quem) and the wood came from Baltic forests connected to the port of Klaipeda as their outlet to the sea. • IR-reflectography and false-colour infrared made it possible to identify the original compositional revisions and subsequent restoration work. • Our results suggest the attribution of the painting to the Master of Frankfurt, an artist active in the city of Antwerp between 1480 and 1520. The panel painting depicting the Virgin Enthroned with Child underwent dendrochronological, multi-spectral, and stylistic/documental analyses. Dendrochronology facilitated the determination of the terminus post quem , which was 1492. Robust correlations with the Baltic1 reference chronology and its recent update, 2021BLT1, indicated a likely origin of the timber in the central-eastern Baltic area. Multi-spectral analyses, such as IR-reflectography and false-colour infrared analyses, aided in identifying preparatory drawings, compositional revisions, and later additions resulting from restoration efforts. By comparing the analysis results with the painting's recent history reconstruction, doubts regarding its possible attribution were effectively addressed. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the painting was executed by the so-called Frankfurt Master around the year 1508. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Librosdelacorte.es is the property of Instituto Universitario "La Corte en Europa" - IULCE and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article shows the possibilities of the method of time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy for solving a wide range of materials science problems on the examples of studying the oxidation of a multilayer wear-resistant coating based on TiAlCrSiYN/TiAlCrN, chemical inhomogeneity in rolled high-strength steel, free-machining steel, and multilayer planar plasmon coatings for solar cells, as well as for more precise attribution of historical art ceramic items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 1950s, Lawrence Gowing, as Professor of Fine Art, King's College, Durham (now Newcastle University) curated significant exhibitions for the College's Hatton Gallery. During 1951 and 1952 these included Pictures from Collections in Northumberland, and two exhibitions concerned with the display of Poussin's series of paintings The Seven Sacraments, loaned from the National Gallery of Scotland. Pictures from Collections in Northumberland engaged Gowing with country house collections, art scholars and connoisseurs, and resulted in the reattribution and global relocations of artworks. The Poussin project similarly drew on academic expertise and involved the Hatton Gallery in what Gowing described as 'the scene of an experiment'. Concurrently, Gowing was also formulating the idea of creating an art collection for the Hatton Gallery. In this article, these projects are described, and examined for their contribution to the art market, art scholarship, art education, and the formation of a university art collection within the structure of a higher education institution. Consideration is also given to how Gowing's use of the Hatton Gallery may have set the scene for its use, later in the decade, for the experimental and acknowledged ground-breaking exhibition-making of Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, an analysis is offered of Athanasius Raczyński (1788-1874), a Polish aristocrat in Prussian diplomatic service and an outstanding art connoisseur and collector, as well as his comprehensive activity in the field of art during his stay in Copenhagen from 1830 to1834. This activity included purchasing works by Danish painters, lending paintings from his collection for exhibitions in Charlottenborg Palace, commenting on exhibitions held in the Royal Gallery of Christiansborg Palace, and questioning the attributions of various works exhibited there. It is argued that Raczyński was an important point of contact for the artistic relations between Denmark and other countries, and some of his activities became exemplary, influencing the attitudes of Copenhagen's art lovers and diplomats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new rock art sites in Irob district of eastern Tigrai, northern Ethiopia, are presented. One of the sites, Ra Bolo, contains images of domestic cattle and human figures while the other, Adhay Bolo, appears to contain only images of caprines, the only example of such a scene not just in the region but in all of Ethiopia. The sites fit well with the already established northern Ethiopian assemblage of paintings and engravings. The paintings belong to the earliest phase of Ethio-Arabian "Surre-Hanakiya" style, an attribution which is supported by other types of archaeological data. These new rock art sites are also compared with other rock art sites in Ethiopia. Archaeological faunal data from northern Ethiopia and elsewhere in Ethiopia is discussed and questions are raised about the validity of the hypothesized ages of the rock art in south-central Ethiopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The piano works of the Ukrainian composer Ivan Karabyts (1945-2002) developed in the wake of the influential avant-garde trends of the second half of the twentieth century. In the style of his piano opuses of the 1960s and 1970s, we can trace the influence of various stylistic discourses of the twentieth century. This stylistic versatility is, on the one hand, a general reflection of the cultural and artistic innovations of the postwar period and, on the other, a manifestation of the trends of the Sixtiers movement, in particular, the Kyiv Avant-Garde, whose activities were shaped by the innovative compositional techniques of the time as a reflection of the avant-garde intentions. The paper aims to study the genre and style attributions of piano works by Ivan Karabyts. The tasks include an analysis of the composer's style focusing on his piano works of the 1960s and 1970s: Sonata for piano (1964), diptych Prelude and Toccata (1965-1966) and 24 Preludes for piano (1976), intonation, thematic, genre and style of these opuses. The article raises the question of the influence of Borys Liatoshynsky on the piano concepts of Ivan Karabyts, both at the level of symphonism of the piano idea, which was initially tested in the field of instrumental compositions, and at the level of allusions to the works of Liatoshynsky himself in the 1920s in the genre of sonata and prelude. On the other hand, the example of the analyzed piano pieces shows the avant-garde principles of building a sonorous musical composition (atonality, diminished and enlarged intervals, septacords, claves, etc.). We should also mention the baroque principle, realized in the early diptych Toccata and Prelude, and the overall baroque direction of the composer's work in large forms in his mature period. The pinnacle of the composer's piano explorations is the 24 Preludes. Their musical language is original, complete with innovative stylistic trends. Important in understanding the composer's intention are the polyphonic method of deployment, the use of the principle of cyclicity, expressive aspects of toccata, stylistic allusions to iconic styles and composers' names, and special attention to the Baroque type of prelude. A separate issue is the symbolic and semantic context of the idea, which is formed in combination with improvisation, theatricalization of images, and symphonic generalization, forming lyrical, sound, tragic, and unifying imagery, their interaction aimed at creating the integrity of the idea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Art / Umění is the property of Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Here presented is the first comprehensive inventory of the paintings on display in Gian Lorenzo Bernini's home by artists other than himself at the time of his death in November 1680. Although inventories of Bernini's household dating from 1681 to 1771 have previously been published, none by itself is sufficient to provide a complete catalogue of the artist's collection. By collating the family inventories with what is known of Bernini's career, personal and professional relationships, the oeuvre of the artists identified in the inventories, and data from art market records and provenance databases, the author has compiled the most detailed description of Bernini's collection so far available, including, wherever possible, proposed new attributions, more accurate subject descriptions, and indications of the present whereabouts of the works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay zooms into the topic of art forgeries and how the refinement of authentication methods and the dissemination of the resulting expert knowledge has led to detectives and forgers alike being better prepared. Following a brief navigation into the mechanics of art forensics, it discusses several relevant case studies that display the importance of authority delegation in solving the puzzle of authentication. In art attribution, a consensus needs to be reached between the main forgery detection “sensors”: the eyes of art historian for stylistic diagnostic; the eyes of hardware analytical and optical devices that gather scientific evidence; the eyes of the scientific experts to interpret the latter properly. Particular focus is given to the correlated effects activated by the increasing popularity of digitization of cultural heritage (CH) objects. Digital repositories of cultural heritage scientific data have themselves become a subject for forgery and contamination. This introduces the need to dive into a new typology of sensors: forensic software, that can identify the alteration of scientific images. Nonetheless, software may also be employed by forgers to maliciously modify digital data in order to influence a certain diagnostic. This essay frames all the above-mentioned aspects in a cyclic adversarial process, where the progress of sensors determines that of forgers and vice versa. Finally, ethical and legal considerations are explored with respect to the prevention of art forgeries and the reciprocal influence between researchers and forgers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the discovery of don Paolo's Albera oil portrait, I review the narratives of the historiography about the relationship between the painter Enrico Reffo and the Salesian Congregation's art patronage, aiming to rebuild the material history of the portrait and to consider a possible attribution to this painter and his school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to present the new purchase by The Royal Castle in Warsaw–Museum of a spalliera by Marco Zoppo. The work was first published by Paul Schubring in his catalogue of Italian secular painting Cassoni. Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Frührenaissance. Ein Beitrag zur Profanmalerei im Quattrocento in 1915. The publication by Berenson in 1968 of its pendant of unknown whereabouts – formerly in the Forbes Collection (London) and Galleria Luigi Bellini (Florence) – has enabled not only the identification of the subject of both paintings as Story of Susannah, but also their attribution to Marco Zoppo. The setting of the two spalliere was probably completed by two fragments first gathered and published by Roberto Longhi in 1940. They are of the same height and represent episodes from Shooting at Father’s Corpse in the Los Angeles County Museum and the second, now of unknown whereabouts, formerly in a private collection in Genoa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For almost 40 years, the British jurist and Fellow of the Royal Society Taylor White (1701–1772) actively engaged in commissioning artists to paint plants and animals for his 'paper museum'. White amassed a collection of almost 1000 drawings of birds, mammals, fish, amphibians and reptiles, acquired by McGill University in 1927. His first recorded purchase was a watercolour by George Edwards (1694–1773). He also acquired works from Eleazar Albin (fl. 1690–ca 1742) and Jacob van Huysum (ca 1687–1740), but the majority of the watercolours were painted by two artists, Charles Collins (ca 1680–1744) and Peter Paillou (ca 1712–1782). In 2018 a research group at McGill University Library received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for the project 'Undescrib'd: Taylor White's paper museum'. The project produced a complete catalogue of the White collection, including attribution of all unsigned works, and digitized all paintings and notes. This paper documents the process surrounding the original creation of the collection, reviewing the careers of the artists and White's relationship with them, the value of the commissions and the challenges of painting natural history subjects. It also describes the mechanics of painting, including pigments, papers used and artists' techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soffientino has written a remarkable book about Manfred's patronage before and during his short reign. As noted, in the final third of the book (the last two sections) the author takes on the attribution of miscellaneous works of art that have been associated with Manfred ("di epoca tardo-sveva"). She also situates Manfred's patronage in the context of the baronial networks whose actions and patronage deeply conditioned the political and military events of his reign, for better or for worse. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Feministische Studien is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Today's global art market is a billion-dollar business, attracting not only investors but also forgers. The high number of forged works requires reliable authentication procedures to mitigate the risk of investments. However, with the developments in the methodology, continuous time pressure and the threat of litigation, authenticating artwork is becoming increasingly complex. In this paper, we examined whether the decision process involved in the authenticity examination may be supported by machine learning algorithms. The idea is motivated by existing clinical decision support systems. We used a set of 55 artworks (including 12 forged ones) with determined attribution markers to train a decision tree model. From our preliminary results, it follows that it is a very promising technique able to support art experts. Decision trees are able to summarize the existing knowledge about all investigations and may also be used as a classifier for new paintings with known markers. However, larger datasets with artworks of known provenance are needed to build robust classification models. The method can also utilize the most important markers and, consequently, reduce the costs of investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]