Word: arts
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Even the Vatican's chief restorer, Gianluigi Colalucci, concedes that future computers will recall in an instant visual information that used to require years of research, including, he adds with a laugh, "the errors we are making now." But more important, the restoration marked the beginning of the Italian art establishment's love affair with technology. Nowadays, computers linked up to gamma-ray detectors, infrared cameras and thermographic sensors are turning up in art-restoration projects all across Italy, from the vast ruins of Pompeii to the crowded workshops of Venice. In tasks ranging from simple cataloging to advanced image...
...past, technological advances in art have moved from the new world to the old, as when computer techniques developed by NASA to enhance satellite photos were adapted for use on the works of the old masters. That flow has, to some extent, been reversed. With a major portion of the world's ancient art treasures located inside its borders, Italy has become the capital of high- tech restoration. Experts from such citadels of art as the Louvre, the Getty Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are making pilgrimages to Italy to see how it is done in Rome...
...finished artwork and analyzing the various layers of paint it contains. The technique, computerized infrared reflectoscopy, is based on the fact that some pigments that reflect light in the visible range (like cadmium red) are more or less transparent to infrared light. By looking through these layers, art historians can catch glimpses of the artist's original handiwork: rough sketches, repaintings and the occasional erasure. Other techniques, notably X-ray analysis, had been used in the past. The major advantage of using a computer with a video display screen is that the artwork can be superimposed over the infrared image...
Other women stubbornly refuse to be intimidated. Chicago art-gallery owner Eva-Maria Worthington, for instance, does not hesitate to wrap herself in beaver against the winds on the Magnificent Mile. "If they're so concerned about animals," she sniffs, "I think they should go to a pound and clean cages and take care of the dogs and cats. Some people have replaced their religion with animal rights." But it's a jungle out there: even women who have switched to fake furs to assuage their conscience do not feel comfortable. Many protectively wear large buttons that proclaim...
...Art of Florence by Glenn Andres, John M. Hunisak and A. Richard Turner (Abbeville; $385). The cradle of the Renaissance in glorious color and reverential grandeur -- and at more than 25 lbs. the lap breaker of the season. There are no crowds of tourists to block the view and no shadowy churches to obscure...