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

By Mano Sundaresan,
Christopher Intagliata
Published December 3, 2021 at 4:52 PM EST

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.

Mano Sundaresan
Mano Sundaresan is a producer at NPR.
See stories by Mano Sundaresan
Christopher Intagliata
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.