Digital Clinical Charts for Works of Art
Since the mid-1980s, CISA3 director Maurizio Seracini has advocated for a new approach to conservation of artwork in museums and private collections. The “digital clinical chart” is based on the same concept as clinical medical charts, and would involve a complete battery of tests to gauge the “health” of the artwork. Now, in conjunction with the San Diego Museum of Art, CISA3 has decided to embark on a pilot project to demonstrate the value of clinical charts as a baseline for future efforts at restoration, preservation and conservation of individual artworks. In spring 2007, CISA3 will begin studies of half a dozen major works in the SD Museum of Art permanent collection, including Giorgione’s “Portrait of a Young Man”, Juan Sánchez Cotán’s “Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber”, Bernardino Luini’s “The Conversion of the Magdalene”, Lorenzo Monaco’s “Madonna and Child with Saints Romuald, John the Baptist, Peter and Paul”, and “Portrait of a Florentine Noblewoman” by a hitherto unknown artist. The results of these investigations will guide the museum in deciding how to protect and preserve those works from future damage. At the same time, the Museum of Art hopes to use the process as a learning tool for museum audiences – a tool that will be integrated into the museum experience, for example by displaying x-ray, infrared or ultraviolet fluorescence scans of a painting on a plasma monitor positioned next to the artwork itself. If funding becomes available, the digital clinical chart project will be expanded to other works in the San Diego museum’s collection, and eventually, to other institutions.