Information from the organizers, 20 January 2014
The UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN (UCL, Louvain-la-Neuve), the LABORATOIRE D’ETUDE DES ŒUVRES D’ART PAR LES METHODES SCIENTIFIQUES (Musée de Louvain-la-Neuve) and the Flemish Research Centre for the Arts in the Burgundian Netherlands of the Groeningemuseum (MUSEA BRUGGE) are honoured to announce the XIXth symposium for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting which will be held in Bruges on 11-13 September 2014. This series of prestigious conferences, already in their nineteenth edition, was initiated in 1975 by the Université catholique de Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL). The colloquium is alternately organized by the UCL, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KULeuven) and the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK/IRPA) and its Centre for the Study of the Flemish Primitives, who hosted the XVIIIth symposium dedicated to Jan van Eyck in 2012.
The 2014 colloquium is dedicated to Technical studies of paintings: problems of attribution (15th-17th century). Attributions are central questions in art history. Since the introduction of new examination methods such as radiography, infrared photography and reflectography, conventional art history has undergone major changes. Technical examinations can provide additional arguments for attributing works of art to individual artists or their workshops. However, technical studies often also reveal complex working methods, while new scientific imagery sometimes challenges accepted attributions and instigates reconsiderations of traditional attributions. This symposium focuses on the various ways in which technical studies can provide answers to the often complex issue of attribution and will discuss the challenges that art historians face in proposing conclusive theories.
See symposium website: http://symposiumXIX.wix.com/underdrawing