Since 2009, the University of Delaware has been awarded a series of grants from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to support the design and creation of digital and physical historically accurate reconstructions of selected paintings from the Kress Collection. Use of these didactics and associated lesson plans, as well as sample sets of historic pigments and their raw materials available upon request from the Kress Foundation, will inform and inspire scholars, students, and the general public about the making of art and the value of technical art history. The intent of the website is to make principles and terminology of technical art history clear and accessible to the nonspecialist and to strengthen the appreciation, interpretation, and preservation of Old Master paintings.
Brian Baade, project coordinator and UD assistant professor of art conservation, and UD doctoral candidate and paintings conservator Kristin deGhetaldi have led this project with impressive expertise and commitment. We are grateful to the many UD undergraduate and graduate students who assisted with website development and design and to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for their sustained support of this initiative.
– Debra Hess Norris
Chair and Professor of Art Conservation and Photographic Conservator/Henry Francis DuPont Chair in Fine Arts