Enlarge
/
Two Russian Ships of the Line Saluting
by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1827), a leading artist of the Danish Golden Age. (credit: Public domain)
Learning more about the materials used on historical paintings—paints, pigments, varnishes, and primers used to prepare canvases—is critical to ongoing conservation efforts. Apparently, many artists of the so-called
Danish Golden Age
used beer byproducts from local breweries to prime their canvases, according to the results of a proteomics analysis described in a
recent paper
published in the journal Science Advances.
A number of analytical techniques have emerged over the last few decades to create "historical molecular records" (as the authors phrase it) of the culture in which various artworks were created. For instance, studying the microbial species that congregate on works of art may lead to new ways to slow down the deterioration of priceless aging art.
Case in point: scientists
analyzed the microbes
found on seven of
Leonardo da Vinci
's drawings in 2020 using a third-generation sequencing method known as Nanopore, which uses protein nanopores embedded in a polymer membrane for sequencing. They combined the Nanopore sequencing with a whole-genome-amplification protocol and
found that
each drawing had its own unique microbiome.
chevron_right
