WYPR 88.1 FM Baltimore WYPF 88.1 FM Frederick WYPO 106.9 FM Ocean City

New technique uncovers the history of a painting through the paint used

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio

By analyzing white lead paint in Dutch paintings from the 1600s, including works by Rembrandt and Rubens, scientists were able to devise a new line of evidence for dating and authenticating paintings.

P. D'Imporzano et al, Time-dependent variation of lead isotopes of lead white in 17th century Dutch paintings

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Mano Sundaresan is a producer at NPR.
Christopher Intagliata is an editor at All Things Considered, where he writes news and edits interviews with politicians, musicians, restaurant owners, scientists and many of the other voices heard on the air.