Art Technology

The study of art technology has gained importance in recent decades as a relevant source of information, not only for determining the material history of an art object, but also for contributing to cultural aspects concerning its creation and use: aesthetic, economic, social, religious, etc. Often the results of such investigations are carried out within a narrow discipline and are only made available within it. The success or failure of multidisciplinary approaches depends on the capacity to share information. Specialised researchers on sources relevant to the history, technology and production of art object as a whole can overcome this obstacle. But under what disciplinary aegis?

This volume contains papers in either English or Spanish, with abstracts in both languages, which address these issues through case studies, paying special attention to methodology. Different types of art technological sources and the theory of source research are examined. While there is an emphasis on textual sources, which are the most widely available and relatively easy to understand, an extensive range of subjects is covered: Hispano-Islamic gilding techniques; mediaeval recipe books and Baroque painting treatises; precolonial and colonial Latin American pigments; industrial archives and patents;�realia�from the 18th and 19th centuries; audiovisual sources for contemporary art; and the importance as a source of laboratory analysis and reconstructions of historic recipes. All the studies are based on an unambiguous working method and accurate interpretation of results.

Proceedings of the second symposium of the Art Technological Source Research study group.