Engineering goes Beauty - A computational multi-physics modelling approach towards the preservation of historical oil paintings.

An enormous percentage of oil paints in museum collections, ranging from the sixteenth century to the present time, suffers from degradation phenomena, due to metal soaps and craquelure development. Metal soaps result from the chemical reaction between pigments and the oil binder. They appear as large protrusions, which disfigure the surface texture and trigger mechanical damage and flaking of the painting. Craquelure is a network of fine cracks, mostly induced by environmental conditions, such as moisture and temperature fluctuations. The goal of this project is to predict how craquelure and metal soaps develop and evolve under the influence of environmental factors and interventions on the paint, and how these phenomena interact, enhancing overall painting degradation.