Synchrotron X-rays can illuminate life-stories hidden inside historic artworks. The EBS, combined with new access modes, is making the research more powerful than ever.

That research is the use of X-rays to study the makeup of historic artworks and other cultural artefacts. At the ESRF it has been driven for the best part of 20 years by several scientists and users, in particular Marine Cotte, the chemist and leader of the X-ray nanoprobe group, and scientist in charge of the X-ray microscopy beamline ID21. Thanks to their ambitious goals, the synchrotron has provided unprecedented insights into artworks of all sorts of periods and provenances: from Afghan cave paintings to Greek ceramics, and from Renaissance portraits to Expressionist masterpieces. It is a field that is entering an exciting new era of productivity thanks to both the EBS upgrade, and new community guided modes of user access.

Synchrotron techniques can reveal a lot about an artwork. They can divulge how it was made, and whether its method of creation was original or derived from methods used elsewhere. The techniques can show what materials were used, whether they were local to the artist, and how they should best be conserved for the enjoyment of future generations.

Check the March issue of the ESRFnews magazine to discover all the insights!