True Colors: paintings as they were, paintings as they are

As originally painted<br>As it appears today

How do we know this?<br>Hide details

How it works

01<br>Identify the pigments

Conservation labs map a painting's pigments with X-ray fluorescence, reflectance imaging spectroscopy, and microscopic cross-sections, establishing what the artist originally laid down.

02<br>Model the degradation

Each pigment has a known chemistry of failure: red lakes break their chromophore under UV, lead chromate reduces from Cr(VI) to Cr(III), natural-resin varnishes oxidize and yellow. The pathway is published.

03<br>Reverse the chemistry

In CIE Lab* color space we apply the inverse shift to the regions where the failed pigment was present, computationally restoring the light each pigment used to absorb.