Abstract-Terahertz Time-Domain Imaging to Guide a Conservation Intervention on a Stratified Easel Painting

Corinna L. Koch Dandolo, Gilda María Pasco,  Saldaña, Mirta Asunción,  Insaurralde Caballero, Monserrat Alma Gómez Sepúlveda, Arturo Ignacio Hernández-Serrano, Alejandro Mesa Orozco, Joselyn Alvarado Calderón, Melba Samara Calderón Zárate, Karen Luna González, Eunice Corazón Peralta de Dios, Gerardo Hernández Rosales, Enrique Castro-Camus

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10762-018-0505-3

Very few real easel paintings have been scanned by means of terahertz time-domain imaging (THz-TDI) up to now. In this study, four different areas of an eighteenth century easel painting have been scanned by THz-TDI with the aim of proving useful information to the conservators for its imminent restoration treatment, owing to the complexity of its structure. Despite the unevenness of the layers composing the painting (lining canvas, original canvas, patching materials, and paint layers), the recorded THz dataset has been processed so that the THz images of the single layers composing the multilayered object have been clearly obtained. Relevant information about the painting structure, the presence of structural defects, overpainting, and the existence and extension of the original remains could have been determined. Infrared photography and X-ray radiography have been used for integrating the collected THz data and comparing the different outputs.