Artwork Separation

Abstract

Under a grant from California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) used image enhancement techniques to separate x-ray images of paintings when one had been painted on top of another. The technique is derived from computer processing of spacecraft-acquired imagery, and will allow earlier paintings, some of which have been covered for centuries, to be evaluated. JPL developed the program for "subtracting" the top painting and enhancing the bottom one, and believes an even more advanced system is possible.