Weave analysis of paintings on canvas from radiographs

Authors:
Don H. Johnson;C. Richard Johnson, Jr.;Robert G. Erdmann
Affiliations:
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, United States;School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, United States;Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, United States
Venue:
Signal Processing
Year:
2013

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Abstract

A spectral algorithm is described for measuring from radiographs the weaving densities of the horizontal and vertical threads that comprise a painting's canvas. A framework for relating spectra to canvas weave type is presented. The so-called thread density and angle maps obtained from the algorithm reveal the canvas's distinctive density variations and provide insights into how the canvas was prepared. Applying a two-stage correlation procedure to the density variations allowed determination of which paintings' support could have been cut from the same piece of canvas. The first stage uses a nonparametric test of the similarity of the probability distributions of two painting's thread counts. The second stage is a new correlation procedure more stringent than the usual cross-correlation function. Examples drawn from the paintings by Vincent van Gogh illustrate the algorithms.