The Princeton Raphael Symposium : science in the service of art history

At an international conference in 1983 commemorating the 500th anniversary of Raphael's birth, art conservators and historians benefited from a rare opportunity to discuss with each other new data obtained from the scientific examination and treatment of an artist's works as they were being readied for exhibitions. Each paper, presented by a conservator to an audience composed mainly of art historians, focuses on one painting or group of paintings by Raphael and discusses how such approaches as infrared reflectography and studies of color technique yield useful historical insights--for example, the range and variation of technique one can expect from the painter and the play of artistic influences on his work. As a whole, these papers constitute a step toward a history of Raphael's technique, but more importantly they suggest possibilities of collaboration between art conservators and historians.


In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Rafael Alonso, J. Bauch, J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer, Sylvie Bguin, Marco Chiarini, Carol Christensen, Burton B. Frederiksen, Peter Klein, Raffaella Rossi Manaresi, Fabrizio Mancinelli, Priscilla Grazioli Medici, Joyce Plesters, Wolfgang Prohaska, and Hubert von Sonnenburg.