19th Symposium Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting

The Université catholique de Louvain (UCL, Louvain-la-Neuve), the Laboratoire d'étude des œuvres d'art par les méthodes scientifiques (Musée de Louvain-la-Neuve) and the Flemish research centre for the arts in the Burgundian Netherlands of the Groeningemuseum (Musea Brugge) are honoured to announce the XIXth symposium for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting which will be held in Bruges on 11-13 September 2014. This series of prestigious conferences, already in their nineteenth edition, was initiated in 1975 by the Université catholique de Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL). The colloquium is alternately organized by the UCL, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KULeuven) and the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK/IRPA) and its Centre for the Study of the Flemish Primitives, who hosted the XVIIIth symposium dedicated to Jan van Eyck in 2012.

The 2014 colloquium is dedicated to Technical studies of paintings: problems of attribution (15th-17th century). Attributions are central questions in art history. Since the introduction of new examination methods such as radiography, infrared photography and reflectography, conventional art history has undergone major changes. Technical examinations can provide additional arguments for attributing works of art to individual artists or their workshops. However, technical studies often also reveal complex working methods, while new scientific imagery sometimes challenges accepted attributions and instigates reconsiderations of traditional attributions. This symposium focusses on the various ways in which technical studies can provide answers to the often complex issue of attribution and will discuss the challenges that art historians face in proposing conclusive theories.

Scientific Committee:

Till-Holger Borchert (Musea Brugge, Flemish research centre for the arts in the Burgundian Netherlands), Jacqueline Couvert (UCL, Laboratoire d'étude des oeuvres d'art par les méthodes scientifiques), Christina Currie (KIK/IRPA), Anne Dubois (UCL, FRS-FNRS), Bart Fransen (KIK/IRPA), Valentine Hendericks (ULB, KIK/IRPA), Vanessa Paumen (Musea Brugge, Flemish research centre for the arts in the Burgundian Netherlands), Cyriel Stroo (KIK/IRPA), Jan Van der Stock (KULeuven), Anne van Oosterwijk (Musea Brugge, Flemish research centre for the arts in the Burgundian Netherlands), Dominique Vanwijnsberghe (KIK/IRPA), Lieve Watteeuw (KULeuven)

Honorary member: Hélène Verougstraete (Emeritus Professor, UCL)

Programme and practicalities

(News item 31 January 2014)