Technical Art History: Integrating Art History with Scientific Inquiry

Scientific and technical inquiry has transformed the way we see artworks and has helped challenge established narratives of authorship, dating, and studio practice. Yet these studies too often unfold in disciplinary silos: scientists generate data without sufficient (art)-historical framing, while art historians may be unaware of scientific techniques that can enrich and support their lines of research. This session asks how we might dismantle that divide and build genuinely co-created, bidirectional investigations in which scientific evidence and art historical interpretation are developed and debated on equal terms.

This session invites research projects in which technical analysis has fundamentally helped (re)interpret matters of authorship, dating, workshop practice, or object biography; projects that demonstrate how art-historical questions informed scientific work; and reflections on the practical, epistemic, or institutional obstacles that arise when specialists from different academic domains work side by side. How are hypotheses negotiated? How is a shared vocabulary established? Which interpretative frameworks prove most productive, or problematic, when data and context must be integrated? And how can interdisciplinary teams communicate their findings coherently both within academia and to a broader public?

The panel will open with a 25-minute keynote that frames technical art historical research and establishes a common foundation among all participants. Four 20-minute papers will follow, each exemplifying collaborative methodologies involving e.g. conservators, scientists, and art historians. A round-table discussion will conclude the session, giving presenters and the audience an opportunity to explore methodological and institutional complexities and opportunities of true interdisciplinary enquiry of artworks.

Submit your Paper via this form. Please download, complete and send it directly to the Session Convenor(s) below by Sunday 2 November 2025:

Professor Erma Hermens, Fitzwilliam Museum & Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge, eh707@cam.ac.uk  

Paul J.C. van Laar, Fitzwilliam Museum & Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge, pv359@cam.ac.uk