  
|
 |
Marco Leona
Marco Leona, Scientist in Charge of the Department of Scientific Research at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, graduated in 1991 with a “Laurea in Chimica” (M.Sc., Chemistry) from the Universita’ degli Studi di Pavia (Pavia, Italy), and obtained a Ph.D. in Crystallography and Mineralogy from the same university in 1995.
Dr. Leona started his career in art conservation research with an NEA–Mellon fellowship at the Conservation Research Laboratory of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). He has held research scientist positions at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and at the Los Angeles County Museum Art. He is currently the head of the Department of Scientific Research of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he supervises a team of 10 scientists conducting research on artists’ materials and techniques and on art conservation.
Dr. Leona’s contributions include the development of new techniques for the non-invasive analysis of works of art by reflectance spectroscopy; the study of Tibetan painting techniques and materials; Infrared and Raman Spectroscopy studies of the pigments indigo and Maya blue; Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy analysis of natural dyes, and various other topics.
"Art & Science: Ancient Technologies and Materials, Modern Diagnostic Techniques"
Valued for their esthetic qualities or their role as documents of past periods and civilizations, works of art are also complex technological objects. Materials and techniques employed in artistic production, past and present, often reflect the highest level of scientific achievement: the closer look at art afforded by scientific investigation is therefore a necessary and valuable complement to art historical analysis.
Plasmonic materials, nanosized opacifiers, metallorganic complexes, dye-clay adsorbates have all been known to artists for millennia. On a larger, but still micrometric scale, optical manipulations such as the layering of matte or glossy coatings on pigmented substrates or the admixtures of optical brighteners to dull paints were standards in the repertoire of painters in a geographic and historic arch that spans from ancient Greece to 15th century Tibet.
Our task, as scientists working in art museums, is to extract this hidden information from the objects in our care. At the same time, our scientific work is an indispensable part of conservation efforts. Nondestructive analysis and microsampling methods have been readily adopted, and in some case developed ad-hoc, in the conservation research and archaeometric field. Scientists at the Metropolitan Museum of Art employ Fiber Optic Reflectance and Fluorescence Spectroscopy, Raman and Infrared Microspectroscopy, Variable Pressure Electron Microscopy, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, and a variety of other methods to identify materials, study ancient techniques, and characterize degradation phenomena.
This talk will present a general overview of the research conducted at the Museum with particular focus on advances in Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy.
|
Contact Us
For additional information, please contact:
Cultural Events Hotline
p - 516.877.4555
Adelphi University
Ruth S. Harley University Center
1 South Avenue
P.O. BOX 701
Garden City, NY 11530-0701
|
