SCIENTIFIC TESTS

Scientific testing can be a useful means of providing evidence. For more information about the scientific test that we offer and may recommend during the authentication process, use the menu to the right.

It is extremely rare for scientific tests to show that a painting is the work of a specific artist.

When it happens it is generally because x-rays reveal some information located below the surface.

For example some other work the artist started painting and that he abandoned to paint something else.

What most scientific tests do is help determine the age of the materials, such as the canvas, panel, paper, plate, metal, board, ceramic or of course the paint pigments.

Once we know the age of these materials the question is did they exist when the artist was active?

It is as this point that owners often become extremely frustrated, because the fact that the materials and the artist are chronologically compatible, does not mean at all that this particular artist produced this particualr painting (or other artwork.)

This is particularly true for paintings before 1900 because there were thousands of artists active at the same time, in the same region or country.

Therefore, keep in mind that scientific tests will tell you if the artwork is of the right period to be by the artist you are researching, but they generally will not show who the artist was.