In connection with The Small Ice Age and Dutch Landscape Painting in the 17th Century . An exhibition by the Gemäldegalerie Berlin in the series “Bilder im Blickpunkt (Focus on Pictures) in cooperation with the GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ, Centre of Earth Research), Potsdam.

The methodology of the artist - The methodology of the scientist How they may come together - How they may never come together.

Their common properties are experimentation, abstraction and expression. Their divergences are in practice, process, belief and value system as well as in outcome. The scientific method requires the construction of a body of evidence so overwhelming in nature that a consensus builds around the theory or concept. The artistic method is experimental in its own terms; however, when the artist makes a work, he or she would hold that the work is true or effective or valid or worthy because it is what it is. That is to say that its existence is its evidence.

Most science and most art that we have encountered share the property of narration in the sense that the story of its becoming is embedded in every abstraction. Most scientists and most artists work towards their communities to believe in their work and support it. Therefore, the practitioners in both disciplines both create and are created by the communities they work in. Finally, there is always the contradiction, as practitioners in each domain seek constancy in a world in

Techniques of Irradiation
When examining objects of cultural history, irradiation techniques - which are available to us in diverse forms today - offer important information on a work of art’s technique of production and inner construction. When examining paintings, the x-ray is an important aid in the study of painting technique. Computer tomography permitted us to appreciate the genesis of Nefretete and Queen Teje, for example. The technique of casting thick-walled bronze sculptures was investigated by means of gamma radiography, whilst electron radiography has revealed new insights concerning the production of book illustration/painting and graphic works.

Material Analysis
One important aim when analysing the material of cultural historical objects is to use, on the one hand, as little testing material as possible, or to avoid the necessity of removing testing material at all – yet on the other hand to obtain comprehensive information concerning the object’s composition. This is achieved using techniques of nuclear physics; for example that of neutron activation analysis, of radiation with protons in the PIXE- technique or employing the synchrotron, which opens up new research possibilities in the examination of works of art.

Determining Age
Since the discovery of the radio-carbon dating method around sixty years ago, the number of procedures with which we can determine the absolute age of cultural historical objects has increased considerably. This came about with the introduction of methods of nuclear physics; methods based on the decay of isotopes or the effects of atomic radiation. Today, besides materials containing carbon, it is also possible to reliably date individual metals, paints, stones, glass and ceramics using various procedures.

Mass Spectrometry
An important aim of mass spectrometry is to analyse the isotopes of radioactive elements. These help to determine the absolute age of works of art, but are also useful in a search for the origins of the materials of cultural historical objects. As an example: marble from different sources can be clearly differentiated due to its carbon and oxygen isotopes; obsidian deposits can be established by means of rubidium and strontium isotopes. In the case of materials containing lead - such as metal alloys, lead paints, lead glass and lead glazes - the ratio of lead isotopes gives an indication as to the lead deposits.
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