Imaging Puccio under a new light.
The Art Imaging Initiative began as a pilot project to determine the utility of pump-probe microscopy in imaging historical pigments funded by the Center for Molecular and Biomolecular Imaging. It then grew into a partnership with the North Carolina Museum of Art, then the National Gallery of Art, and has since received federal funding support as part of NSF Awards CHE-1309017, CHE-1610975, and CHE- 2108623 under Prof. Martin Fischer.
The techniques used to explore tissue and artwork are surprisingly similar, and pump-probe microscopy is excellent for performing three-dimensional imaging of both. The key is depth. Just as the structure of human tissue changes as you look deeper below the surface, the structure of a painting changes as you look through the visible layer to see what lies beneath. By coupling two different colored pulses with a variable inter-pulse delay it is possible to take 3-D chemical specific images of historical art pigments.
The project was initially intended to map historical pigments in paint layers, but the chemical specificity of pump-probe microscopy has led to impactful applications in cultural heritage conservation by studying pigment degradation that occurs as artworks ages. For example, we have investigated the degradation of vermilion and Cadmium sulfide, common red and yellow pigments, and have shown that we can differentiate the pigments from their degradation products and map the extent of degradation microscopically. Some of the degradation could even be observed with pump-probe before visible changes to the eye, making pump-probe imaging promising to detect early-stage degradation.
Media Coverage
- Laser Imaging Could Offer Early Detection for At-Risk Artwork | Duke News
- Could Laser Imaging Help Us Preserve At-Risk Art? | PBS
- 3D Imaging Reveals How Paintings Were Made | Science
- Laser Looks Under the Surface of Art | Nature
- Pinpointing Pigments in 3-D | Chemistry & Engineering News
- Art Under a New Wavelength | UNC-TV
- New Use for Laser in the Art World | phys.org
- Nonlinear microscopy looks beneath the surface of historic artwork | Physics Today
Publications
- H. V. Kastenholz, M. I. Topper, W. S. Warren, M. C. Fischer, and D. Grass, “Noninvasive identification of carbon-based black pigments with pump-probe microscopy,” Science Advances 10, eadp0005 (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp0005
- Y. Zhou, D. Grass, W. S. Warren, and M. C. Fischer, “Non-destructive three-dimensional imaging of artificially degraded CdS paints by pump-probe microscopy,” J. Phys. Phot. 6, 025013 (2024). DOI: 10.1088/2515-7647/ad3e65
- J. Yu, W. S. Warren, and M. C. Fischer, “Visualization of vermilion degradation using pump-probe microscopy,” Science Advances 5, eaaw3136 (2019). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw3136
- J. Yu, W. S. Warren, and M. C. Fischer, “Spectroscopic Differentiation and Microscopic Imaging of Red Organic Pigments Using Optical Pump–Probe Contrast,” Analytical Chem. 90, 12686 (2018). DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b02949
- T. E. Villafana, J. K. Delaney, W. S. Warren, and M. C. Fischer, “High-resolution, three-dimensional imaging of pigments and support in paper and textiles,” J. Cultural Heritage 20, 583 (2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.culher.2016.02.003
- T. E. Villafana, W. Brown, W. S. Warren, and M. C. Fischer, “Ultrafast pump-probe dynamics of iron oxide based earth pigments for applications to ancient pottery manufacture,” Optics for Arts, Architecture, and Archeology V, Proc. SPIE 9527, 952709 (2015). DOI: 10.1117/12.2184758
- T. E. Villafana, W. P. Brown, J. K. Delaney, M. Palmer, W. S. Warren, and M. C. Fischer, “Femtosecond pump-probe microscopy generates virtual cross-sections in historic artwork,” Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 111, 1708 (2014). doi: 10.1073/pnas.1317230111
- P. Samineni, A. deCruz, T. E. Villafana, W. S. Warren, and M. C. Fischer, “Pump-probe imaging of historical pigments used in paintings,” Opt. Lett. 37, 1310 (2012). doi: 10.1364/OL.37.001310
