Development of a High Resolution Topography and Color Scanner to Capture Crack Patterns of Paintings

Abstract
The aging of paintings is inevitable and over the years degradation occurs due to exposure to a variety of environmental influences. One of these degradations is craquelure, fracture patterns in the paint. 3D imaging techniques offer opportunities to capture the surface of a painting and these patterns at high resolution. In this paper we present a 3D scanner that is able to capture surface topography and color of oil paintings at high resolution utilizing fringe-encoded stereo imaging scanning system. The scanner is capable of automated capture of an area of 1x1m2, capturing a painting at a spatial resolution of 7 micron and a depth accuracy of 34 microns. Scanning at this resolution creates potential research opportunities for documentation and monitoring oil paintings under its environmental influences. A scan was made of 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' (c.1665), painted by Johannes Vermeer, which exhibits fine craquelure patterns. The scanner is able to capture the painting of 39x44.5 cm within 2 hours with a tile overlap of 25%. The results showed that the craquelure has more often a ridge-shaped profile instead of the expected inward valleys. The documentation of these variations in crack profiles create interesting paths for future research.
Description

        
@inproceedings{
10.2312:gch.20181336
, booktitle = {
Eurographics Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Heritage
}, editor = {
Sablatnig, Robert and Wimmer, Michael
}, title = {{
Development of a High Resolution Topography and Color Scanner to Capture Crack Patterns of Paintings
}}, author = {
Hengstum, Mathijs J. W. van
and
Essers, Tessa T. W.
and
Elkhuizen, Willemijn S.
and
Dodou, Dimitra
and
Song, Yu
and
Geraedts, Jo M. P.
and
Dik, Joris
}, year = {
2018
}, publisher = {
The Eurographics Association
}, ISSN = {
2312-6124
}, ISBN = {
978-3-03868-057-4
}, DOI = {
10.2312/gch.20181336
} }
Citation