The Chemical-technological Laboratory is a major specialized department of the National Gallery Prague, part of its Department of Records, Administration and Preservation of the Collections. Its highly qualified researchers and equipment make it one of the premier workplaces in Czech museums and galleries able to carry out a wide range of material analyses of artworks. One of the Laboratory’s foremost activities is identifying art materials, such as pigments, colouring and binding agents, wood, textiles, metals and plastics. Its research programs specialize in material analysis. Their results become an integral part of the overall knowledge of an artwork’s nature and a starting point to evaluate the artistic techniques. Within its research activities, the laboratory evolves and introduces into practice new instrumental techniques to carry out non-invasive or non-destructive artwork analysis. The Laboratory also houses a vast archive of examined samples and laboratory reports dating back to 1966.
The laboratory’s researchers cooperate with National Gallery Prague collections (curators) and expert departments (e.g. Conservation Department, depositories, Library). They also collaborate with other museums and galleries (the National Museum, the National Heritage Institute, the National Library) and specialized departments at the Czech Academy of Sciences and universities, especially the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague, the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, the Institute of Art History and the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, as well as the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. As part of the expert assessment of an artwork’s authenticity, they also cooperate with government authorities and the Institute of Criminalistics.
The Chemical Laboratory’s researchers solve grant projects under programs of the Czech Culture and Interior Ministries and participate in other research programs carried out by the collections of the National Gallery Prague (GAČR, NAKI MK ČR).
They regularly present the outcomes of their research work in publications at home and abroad, in monographs, at international conferences and the Conference of Conservators-restorers, the largest annual meeting in the Czech Republic, which is organized by the Association of Museums and Galleries.
The Chemical Laboratory uses the following microscopic and instrumental analytical techniques to examine artworks.
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