EXPANDED COMMUNICATION OF PAINTINGS - CONSIDERATION AND
CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE WORKS OF ART IN THE INFRA-RED AREA, OF
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS
JANA ŽILJAK VUJIĆ , 2DIJANA NAZOR, 1LIDIJA TEPEŠ GOLUBIĆ
Polytechnic of Zagreb, 2Croatian Conservation Institute
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Abstract
New communication findings that look at the works of art through two spectrums. Each
painting has its infrared state. A detailed reading of the work of art is being conducted in a
visual and near infrared spectrum. The use of an IR camera is important for the studying and
analysis of the layers of the painting. During the analysis, the painting is being observed with
a camera for a near IR area and, in that way, the layers under the visual response of sunlight
are being discovered because we are recording the painting through the sun NIR component
(near infrared). The results in the article point to the importance of the infrared method by
which the layers that have been painted over have been noticed and thanks to which the
authenticity of the work of art has been confirmed, together with the full and partial parts that
have been painted over.
Key words: infrared painting (IRA), information from the layers that have been painted over,
protection from the forgery, information from the scanning in the barriers
1. INTRODUCTION
Through a research of the visible and the invisible in the sphere of painting, we are getting
new information about the artwork, about the painting method and the used colors. Many
philosophers, theoreticians and artists have been dealing with this problem from various
points of view. Modern technologies gave great contribution to the discovery of lower layers
in the painting, as well as establishing new findings in this area. Thanks to them, it is
possible to see below what is invisible to the eye and what used to be impossible before the
discovery of photography and development of new techniques of taking photographs. The
“Infrared Art” indicates the possibility of applying the new knowledge in the area of product
protection, but also the painting, as well as in the conservatory field.
The fact is that the human eye registers only a narrow area of pictorial light values, that is,
from the frequency of some picture, respectively areal scenes of radiation that originate from
there. There are multiple possible explanations of what has been seen through the change
of lighting (which is fruitfully used by the scene engineering) or artificially induced change of
the visible spectrum (infrared light, devices for night vision, etc.). Infrared photographs give
an information about a bigger painting area, precise information about a very small area of
the painting are being received, colors, texture, thickness of painted layers, as well as the
look and the size of pigment particles. Spectral color analysis has given a better insight into
the classification of colors on the affiliation to the visual and infrared spectrum in the sense
of creating a new infrared painting.
A painter has a natural and impending need to express him- or herself in a way different
from the conventional method of depositing paint on the canvas. Artists do not just draw onto
a clean surface, but also onto some other picture that they have not erased. This first picture
is invisible to the person who looks at it. The artist knows they cannot be mixed. Each of
those paintings possesses their own (homogenous) artistic space and was created from the
artist’s need to draw over their original work on the canvas.
2. PAINTS IN THE VISUAL AND INFRARED SPECTRUM
Paint can be created in hundreds of ways by using the same package of paints bought in a
store. Picture 1 represents a picture of seven acrylic blue paints in a few shades but with
very different properties in the infrared spectrum. This fact about the difference of their IR
appearance gives a possibility of planning a duo painting for the Infrared observation, as
opposed to the visual observation of the painting canvas. Paints with a low absorption power
of IR light will be used only for a painting which will be observed with the naked eye and an
RGB camera.
Picture 1. Blue paints in the visual and infrared spectrum
The colors are being described through their brightness as well. That is absorption of visual
spectrum in a monochromatic description of the color and the colorant. Similar to that, the
color substance absorbs the infrared light. Considering that our eyes do not see that light, it
should not be said any differently but to picture only the grey scale of absorption of the IR
light. In the picture made by IR cameras we can talk about the “instrumental brightness” /
infrared brightness. For realistic colors, there is no correlation between the visual and
infrared brightness for each color and colorant. We can mix the black color that does not
have any visual brightness but it has a strong infrared brightness, and vice versa.
Let us introduce some new terms: “V” picture that gives visual information, shows a visual
picture. “Z” picture that gives information on 1000 nanometers /1/ in the near infrared
spectrum, also called a “hidden picture”. “Z camera” shows the condition of the painting on
1000 nm. The colors that strongly absorb IR light will be primarily used for the picture that
will be observed through an IR (Z) camera. A Dual ZRGB camera /2/ will be showing two
pictures. Parallel observation and recording of the “duo picture” gives a line of new
information, backgrounds for reading a visual work of art which was purposefully created in
this V/Z way. Considering that the infrared spectrum does not give the experience of colors,
all parts of the Z painting are monochromatic, more or less “grey” depending on the Z size of
the color that is used in the creation of the painting.
3. INFRARED PAINTING BY CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS
Until Nada Žiljak and Dijana Nazor have appeared, the painters have never asked
themselves this question: how to create paintings that have over-paintings or pentimenti as a
complete duo painting on purpose. Picture in picture. A hidden picture with the content and
purposeful reason for being. Nada Žiljak showed her first collection of V/Z IRA paintings in
an independent exhibition in the “Gallery of Saint Chrisogonus” in Šibenik in 2010.
Picture 2. Nada Žiljak, Duo painting “Masks” in the visual and infrared condition (1000 nm)
The paintings by Nada Žiljak and Dijana Nazor are being analyzed today with many light
blockages in order to show information about the multilayered condition of the painting,
colors and the painting method. Detailed information about the transition from visual to
infrared situation we observe in the video: http://www.jana.ziljak.hr\AnimacijeNada5.swf
Picture 3. Nada Žiljak, painting “Masks” scanned with blockages on 530, 650 nm
Picture 4. Nada Žiljak, painting “Masks” scanned with blockages on 715, 850 nm
The authentication of the work of art is being made by using cameras that have a dozen of
different filters with the given blockages for ultraviolet, visual and infrared light in the range
from 200 to 1000 nm. The painting “Masks” in the blockage of 530 nm “extracted” the most
part of the yellow color. On 650 nm the red component is being lost as well, and on 715 nm
only blue color remains. At the same time, a hidden Z picture that was the only one left on
850 nm appears on the positions of scanning.
Picture 5. Dijana Nazor, Duo painting “Invisible guards II” in visual condition
Picture 6. Dijana Nazor, Duo painting “Invisible guards II” in infrared condition on 1000 nm
Studying the old masters and modern and contemporary artists with a NIR method
represents one possibility, while the second one is a deliberate creation of a painting by
using the IR method. The painting “Invisible Guards II” by Dijana Nazor shows two different
motives in the same painting. An abstract picture in the visual spectrum and a motif of an
angel in the near infrared area were painted on purpose.
In this way the expanded view (by a camera or a recording camera) becomes an essential
part of the painting analysis which enables the hiding of a painting invisible to the naked eye
and its observation with the IR technology. This way of painting opened the possibilities of a
chromatic and achromatic double display on the same painting. Therefore, this new way of
infrared painting creates a new painting challenge.
4. DISCOVERY OF PENTIMENTI ON THE WORKS OF MODERN ARTISTS
In order to establish authenticity and originality, hundreds of thousands of pictures have
been taken worldwide in different galleries and museums in different spectrums outside the
reach of the human eye. With the help of physicists and photographers, the conditions of the
artwork in the roentgen, ultraviolet and infrared spectrum have been instrumentally
discovered. Dijana Nazor recorded the infrared condition of 1435 works of art in various
museums of Zagreb. She has established only 28 layers that have been painted over and 5
pentimenti. Various critics and art historians have studied the overpainting and modifications
of paintings with the old masters /4/, which has ended only as a statement /5/. Those
findings will greatly help with the establishment of originality of the painting, sometime in
future in case some forgeries appear. Each painting has its own condition that absorbs and
reflects wave lengths outside our view. Those conditions of the painting are senseless,
without a story, without the contents that might be described as a separate painting.
Conservators of paintings should have the knowledge about managing the colors in order for
this component to be also built in the work of conservation retouch.
The painting “Odaljska on the pillows” by Milivoj Uzelac (from 1934) has been photographed
in the visual and infrared area while being a part of the permanent exhibition of the Modern
Gallery in Zagreb. Considering that the painting was not painted with the impasto technique,
it was being expected that the overpainting will be seen in the near IR. A pentimento is
visible in the infrared picture on the figure in the half-lying position, a head movement that
emerges from the background to the right in half-profile.
Picture 7. Milivoj Uzelac, “Odaljska on the pillows”, 1934, oil on canvas, in the visual and
infrared condition (1000 nm)
Picture 8. The detail where pentimento is visible (change of the head position), in the visual
and infrared condition (1000 nm)
Overpainted lips under the left cheek that are looming as a smudge or as an intentional dark
accent by the painter are also visible. The right eye and the nose were at first drawn a few
centimeters more to the left. In the visual light, the over-painting of the lips and the eye looks
like an intentional visual accent by the author. It is not until the NIR picture that it becomes
clear it is about a pentimento. It most probably occurred because the model has moved their
head during posing or the painter has changed his mind about the position of the face during
the process of painting. Many artists have been overpainting their own works throughout
history out of various reasons: economical, because they have changed their visual
expression, experimenting, because of not being happy with the painted work, etc. These
paintovers are, depending on the thickness of layers of paint and the type of pigments on a
certain painting, visible or are looming in the IR. They were created unintentionally but the
information stayed present in the genesis of the painting. Detailed reading and explaining of
the work of art is impossible only with the naked eye. By photographing in the near infrared
light we are introducing a possibility of an objective method of establishing the authenticity of
the painting and protection against forgery.
5. CONCLUSION
The artist drew the first picture and then, after some time, overpainted it with another picture.
It was more like his belief in the marking of the final painting. This first picture cannot be
extracted in the whole, and only those parts that correspond to the absorption of the passing
light through the other, upper picture. Both paintings have been created with the same colors
so the absorption of some other light that penetrates to the first picture is in the same
relation of resolution of colors in the first and second picture. The IRA took care of the colors
and it has two material compositions for the same color tone. The first picture is being
painted with the colors that will be extracted in the Z spectrum, and the second, upper
picture cannot use colors that absorb the Z spectrum.
Infrared pictures can see through the layers of color in some paintings. Valuable information
about the process of creating the painting, the artist’s sketch before applying paint and
various phases of the work of art under the paint surface can be seen in those pictures. This
helps in understanding the composition development of the painting until its final version. We
are discovering and getting new findings about the lower parts of the painting by observing it
in the visual and IR light. Therefore we are confirming the importance of photographing with
the IR method by which the overpainted layers are being discovered and the layers and
phases of work on the picture can be seen and explained better. The IR research enables
the proof of authenticity and originality of the work in certain cases. With this we are primarily
expanding the research about the work of art in the field of painting in order to discover the
deeper layers of the painting that were created during the process of making the work. By
discovering overpaintings by the artists themselves, it is possible to discover the
overpaintings of other artists who have been overpainting the works of others as well.
Considering that every painting has the IR condition, this way of photographing represents a
method of protection of the painting and possible forgeries are being discovered. Infrared
method will enable an easier protection from forgery.
The artists can nowadays paint double paintings on purpose, thanks to the own properties of
the pigments. The infrared painting appears as a new way of painting that will contain
intentionally created overpaintings.
6. REFERENCES
/1/ V. Žiljak, K. Pap, I. Žiljak-Stanimirović, J. Žiljak-Vujić, “Managing dual color properties
with the Z-parameter in the visual and NIR spectrum”, Infrared physics & technology,
Elsevier B.V., Volume 55, Issue 4, (2012), p. 326-336, ISSN: 1350-4495. (CC, SCI, SCIExpanded)
/2/ V. Žiljak, K. Pap, I. Žiljak Stanimirović, “Development of a Prototype for ZRGB
Infraredesign Device”, Technical Gazette, Vol.18, No.2, (2011), p. 153-159, ISSN: 13303651 (SCI-Expanded, IF 0.083)
/3/ Dora Kinert Bučan, Branka Hlevnjak, Monografija, “INFRAREDART”,Nada Žiljak, 2013.
ISBN 978-953-7064-17-4; www.gallery-hr.com/NADASIBENIKWeb/INDEX.html
/4/ Dijana Nazor; Pronalaženje skrivene informacije u infracrvenom spektru na slikamau
Samostanu kamelićana u Remetama i u privatnoj zbirci u Zagrebu, POLYTECHNIC &
DESIGNVol. 2, No. 2, TVZ, 2014.; p:153 - 163, ed. Vilko Žiljak, ISSN 1849-1995
/5/ Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice, SYMPOSIUM;
www.hki.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/about/services/photographicservices/infraredreflectography
ed: Corinne Lightweaver; Erma Hermens, Art History Institute of the University of Leiden,
Marja Peek, Central Research Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science; Amsterdam ©
1995 by The J. Paul Getty Trust ISBN 0-89236-322-3