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No physical or chemical analysis can shed light on the reasons why a painting gives rise to an emotion in us. As the authors themselves declare, an understanding of how the choices made by the artist produce the emotional reaction in the human mind can be `as elusive as the resulting imagery'.
Nevertheless, knowledge of the materials and of the techniques adopted by the artists, together with a thorough understanding of how light interacts with a painted surface, can undoubtedly improve our comprehension of the art object itself, thus expanding our appreciation of it.
In this respect the book by W Stanley Taft and James W Mayer is quite successful. Besides constituting a good and comprehensive introduction to the science of materials involved in a painting and to the processes through which a painting is made, which is of interest to those concerned with conservation and restoration of art objects, it is also an intriguing reading for everyone interested in gaining insight into the making of paintings and curious about the mechanisms of their perception by the viewer.
The book starts with a systematic analysis of the materials used for making a painting: support materials, paints, binders and coatings. All the above materials are subsequently treated from the point of view of their interaction with light, and a short account of the physiology of the eye and colour perception is also given. The main part of the book ends with a detailed introduction to optical, infrared, x-ray and neutron techniques for the analysis of painted surfaces and with a pleasant and interesting chapter on the forgery of works of art, smartly describing how forgers operate and how fakes can be scientifically detected. A relevant number of appendices, ranging from physical and geometrical optics to nuclear reactions and dating techniques, close the book.
The book is well written. Apart from some of the appendices (where, however, mathematics has been conveniently limited) all the technical stuff is well balanced throughout the text, and its reading is never boring. All scientists involved in the conservation and restoration of paintings, especially those needing an introduction to the physics behind these topics, will enjoy reading this book.
Roberto Olmi
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