An Experimental X-Ray Digital Detector for Investigation of Paintings

摘要

Radiological investigations constitute a fundamental tool for the knowledge of the inner structure of works of art. In the study of paintings the X-ray inspection allows to get significant information about the technique or the presence of underneath drawings as well as to assess the status of the artifact and of its frame. Moreover, the restorer can individuate early degradation damages and adopt the appropriate procedures for maintenance and restoration. On the other hand, the radiographic analysis of large paintings can demand large efforts and can be time expensive due to long exposition time, to the arrangement and development of the films and to the visual analysis of the details remarked in the radiograph. Digital imaging techniques are under study in order to perform these operations quickly providing numerical images which can be processed in real time, recorded on different media or sent on computer networks. This work reports preliminary results obtained with an experimental X-ray digital detector developed at the Physics Department of the University of Bologna for the radiographic inspection of paintings. Images of a test-painting have been grabbed and processed in order to estimate the detector performance with regard to the ordinary film-based technique.