The National Gallery bought a special scanner for €125,000 that has yet to be used, but what is it actually for?
In November 2017 the gallery bought a high-end, high-priced X-ray scanning system to be deployed as part of its digital investigative imaging project.
What does that mean? Why would the gallery want to X-ray its collection?
It wouldn’t be X-raying all of the collection but the technology can be deployed in some pretty incredible ways. By scanning a work, significant details of an artist’s processes and techniques can be uncovered. A scan can show – in remarkable detail – how a painting was created and reveal everything from the earliest sketches to how many layers of a particular paint were needed in a particular work of art to achieve a certain effect.
What else can the scanners do?
X-rays can also reveal what the artist originally intended to paint by highlighting the original brush strokes and shading, and pinpointing changes made as the work continued. In essence, a good scanner paints a far more complete picture of a picture than the artists could ever have imagined possible.
So high-tech scanning is just used to tell the back story of a painting is it?
No. Used effectively, X-ray scanning can determine the exact pigments used and in what quantities, and this information can be deployed when it comes to sensitive restorations. Scanning also gives museums and galleries advance warning if a particular painting or part of a painting is damaged, allowing them to act faster to protect key works.
What is the National Gallery’s scanner that cost €125,000 and what would it be used for?
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X-rays are used to detect fraud – how does the technology do that?
The best art forgers know they can’t paint fakes on to new canvas as that will be pretty evident to anyone who knows anything about the world of art. So, what they tend to do is paint fakes on to old canvases to add an extra layer of duplicity and make it harder to spot with the naked eye.
[ Department of Arts alerted to problems with idle €125,000 scanner in 2021Opens in new window ]
But scanners reveal all and quickly identify if a supposed Caravaggio from the 16th century was in fact painted on a canvas originally containing a 19th century painting. And if an X-ray of a painting by an artist who was known to use only unblemished canvases shows another painting underneath, it’s an obvious red flag.
How does it work?
In essence, different materials and paints in a work of art absorb and expel X-rays at different levels, and skilled personnel can work out exactly what they need to do to bring a faded piece of work back to where it was on the day it was first painted.
How heavy was it that they couldn’t find a floor to bear its weight anywhere in the National Gallery?
It is not just the weight of the machine. The scanners rely heavily on X-rays and any room it was to be housed in would have to have been lined with lead – something which is in itself pretty weighty.
So, where is it now?
It is in a couple of places. Most of the machine is sitting in the National Gallery’s basement, but the X-ray bulb that the machine requires is still with the supplier in the UK.
