AIC's 44th Annual Meeting

The Thomson Collection of European Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA) each holds an impressive number of early 16th century, miniature boxwood carvings known as prayer beads and miniature altars. These intricate objects have fascinated collectors and now museum visitors with their diminutive scale, intricacy and somewhat mysterious methods of construction. A technical research project exploring these objects is underway at the AGO and MMA: findings will be shared in an exhibition at the AGO, MMA and the Rijksmuseum. The study of carving techniques and strategies of joining tiny, interlocking pieces will help group the objects into clusters of makers and/or workshops and perhaps even determine a chronology of manufacture. Conservators and curators at the AGO and MMA have profited from different institutional collection strategies and staff expertise for the benefit of the project. The AGO’s investigation relies on micro-computed tomography (high-resolution X-ray tomography), a non-invasive tool which reveals the carvings’ internal structures and features. Imaging software allows 3D virtual models to be created from the high resolution X-radiographic scans which can then be examined and manipulated in a so-called “virtual deconstruction.” With the information provided by the micro CT scans of their objects, the MMA took the additional step of deconstructing their boxwood objects to the extent possible. With greater access to their interiors, specifics of tooling and fabrication could be documented microscopically, intrusive restorations reduced, broken elements re-adhered, and accumulated dirt and insect casings reduced. The AGO has also embarked on an ambitious program to photograph the entire opus of prayer beads and miniature altars extant internationally (about 130 objects) using high resolution, focus stacking software. This will allow the comparison of objects and examination of detail impossible to date with the constraints of traditional photography, which was only able to produce hazy images of these tiny works. To more thoroughly understand original manufacture and subsequent repairs and restorations, minute samples of the AGO works’ adhesives, coatings and polychromy are being analysed at the Canadian Conservation Institute with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR); scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS); pyrolysis gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS); and with a Bruker Senterra dispersive Raman microscope. Similar analytical work is being undertaken at the MMA. The employment of new technologies such as micro CT scanning, and focus stacking software along with the analytical work carried out at CCI and MMA, is providing previously inconceivable access to the prayer beads and miniature altars. The resulting data, including high quality images and previously hidden construction details, will allow conservators to posit credible theories about makers and chronologies of manufacture. The collaboration between institutions is yielding greater results than would otherwise be possible: there is access to a greater number of works for research purposes as well as the benefit of a collegial environment in which to share findings and deliberate their meaning.