OCT on Artwork
‘Landscape with an Obelisk’ is an etching by Rembrandt van Rijn produced in the 1650s. The artwork is of interest due to the extensive restoration work conducted by art restorer Carl Schweidler in the 1920s. He was renowned for his restoration technique, where he carefully shaved the edges of both artwork and repair piece before fitting them together perfectly.
Image analysis on Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) images was conducted to detect the restoration outlines automatically. The artwork was imaged using an 840 nm portable OCT system from Lumedica, and various scripts were developed in Python to automatically detect restoration outlines on the images that are invisible to the naked eye. After developing the data processing pipeline on the aforementioned artwork, its robustness was successfully tested on other paper-based artworks that have undergone restoration.
Hendrik Nieuwboer
BSc (Honours) Medical Physics and
Imaging Technology.
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Associate Professor Frederique Vanholsbeeck
In addition to developing state-of-the-art imaging capabilities, Frederique has successfully worked towards improving the OCT technique. In particular the development of original signal processing methods using OCT to identify tissues of different natures, adding a layer of functional information to the structural image. Visit the link to contact Frederique.
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