Title
Contribution of Visible and Fluorescence Light Microscopy to a non-invasive authenticity control of paper substrates of 19th century watercolour paintings
Authors
A. P. MOUTSATSOU A. V. TERLIXI A. ALEXOPOULOU and E. G. KOUKIOS

Received March 29, 2016
Published Volume 51 Issue 5-6 May-June
Keywords watercolour painting, artistic paper, Visible Light Microscopy, Fluorescence Light Microscopy, forgery

Abstract
The present study has aimed at investigating non-invasively the authenticity of watercolour paintings based on their paper substrates by Visible Light Microscopy (VLM) and Fluorescent Light Microscopy (FLM) techniques. A set of samples, which imitate substrates of fake watercolour paintings, has been constructed according to art forgery recipes. This set and 19th century original watercolour paper substrates have been observed in different microscopy images. Image analysis has been performed to objectively evaluate and quantify the information provided by the microscopy images. Thus, an automate classification of the samples has been achieved. The results attained clearly indicate that stand-alone digital microscopy, although it is considered as a low-tech tool, has to be an inseparable part of an integrated protocol for authenticity control of watercolour paintings in storage, based on paper analysis.