Metal Soaps in Art

This go-to reference work surveys the current state of knowledge in the field of metal soap-related degradation phenomena in art works. It contains detailed descriptions and images of the different phenomena and addresses the practical aspects of soap formation, preventive conservation, and treatment.

The occurrence of metal soaps is one of the defining issues in the conservation of painted surfaces, and one that presently leaves innumerable open questions. It is estimated that around 70% of paintings in museum collections are affected by some form of metal soap-related degradation. In recent years, significant advances have been made in the detection and characterization of these compounds through interdisciplinary approaches including conventional spectroscopy and microscopy as well as emerging synchrotron-based techniques. 

This book for the first time captures a panoramic overview of the state of knowledge of metal soaps related to both scientific analysis and implications for conservation and treatment. It also critically examines open questions. The book is accessible to audiences with varied backgrounds (e.g. conservators, students of conservation science) while simultaneously presenting the technical details indispensable for academics and researchers active in this field.

• painted surfaces
• isomeric networks
• soap-related degradation
• Metal soaps and oxalates
• metal carboxylates
• inorganic salt crusts
• Synchrotron X-ray diffraction and imaging
• reflection mid-FTIR spectroscopy
• synchrotron deep-UV photoluminescence imaging
• vibrational spectroscopy

• The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA

  Francesca Casadio

• Conservation Department, Rijksmuseum, Van’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  Katrien Keune

• Conservation Department, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  Petria Noble, Annelies Van Loon

• Programme Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  Ella Hendriks

• Department of Scientific Research, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

  Silvia A. Centeno

• Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia

  Gillian Osmond

Francesca Casadio joined the Art Institute of Chicago in July 2003 as the Museum's first A. W. Mellon Senior Conservation Scientist. Since January 2018 she is the Grainger Executive Director of Conservation and Science. With a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Milan, Italy, Casadio is also the founder and co-Director of the Northwestern University / Art Institute of Chicago Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts (NU-ACCESS). Her research interests are interdisciplinary studies mainly focused on artistic materials and practices of the 19^th and 20^th century.

Katrien Keune is research scientist at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Netherlands. She is responsible for the scientific research in the conservation studios. She also holds an appointment as Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and contributes to the Netherlands Institute for Conservation, Art and Science (NICAS) at a scientific and organizational level. She received a PhD in chemistry from FOM Institute AMOLF, UvA. Her expertise lies in the ageing, deterioration and migration processes in oil paintings, especially related to pigment-binding medium interactions.  

Petria Noble is senior paintings conservator and Head of Paintings Conservation at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, a position she has held since 2014. Prior to this she worked for 18 years at the Mauritshuis in The Hague. As an expert in the material aspects and conservation of 17th-century Dutch paintings she has published widely in conservation and scientific journals. She is strong advocate for scientific investigations of paintings as a key to understanding changes in appearance. Her current research activities include the development and application of non-invasive imaging techniques for the study of late Rembrandt paintings.

Annelies van Loon trained as a chemist and a paintings conservator, before specializing inthe materials analysis and ageing processes of Old Master Paintings. She received a PhD in chemistry from FOM Institute AMOLF/ University of Amsterdam on the topic of ‘Color changes and chemical reactivity in seventeenth-century oil paintings.’ From 2012 till 2016 she was project leader of the Science4Arts PAinT Project focusing on aspects of metal soaps and pigment-binder interactions. Currently she holds a position as paintings research scientist at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Ella Hendriks is full Professor of Conservation and Restoration of Moveable Cultural Heritage at the University of Amsterdam. She holds a bachelor degree in art history (University of Manchester, UK), a post-graduate diploma in the conservation of easel paintings (Hamilton Kerr institute, University of Cambridge, UK) and a PhD in technical art history/conservation (University of Amsterdam). From 1987 to1999 she was Head of Conservation at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, and from 1999-2016 Senior Paintings Conservator at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Silvia A. Centeno is a Research Scientist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where her main responsibilities include the investigation of artists’ materials and techniques and deterioration processes in paintings, photographs, and works of art on paper. She has published and lectured in a number of topics including soap deterioration in oil paintings, pigment- and platinum-based photographic processes, daguerreotypes, early lithographic inks, and nineteenth century and Renaissance paintings. She received a PhD in Chemistry from Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina

Gillian Osmond is a paintings conservator at the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art in Australia with 3 decades of industry experience. She has a longstanding interest in the technical examination of paintings and paint cross sections and has been studying incidences of zinc soaps in paintings for more than 15 years. In 2014 Gillian was awarded a PhD from the University of Queensland for her research on zinc oxide centred deterioration in artists’ oil paints and consequences for paintings.

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