Contributions to spectral imaging of oil paintings using standard medical X-ray equipment

The field of art conservation and art history has applied spectral imaging since the early 1990s. The spectral range explored has been from the microwave, through the infrared (IR), visible and ultraviolet (UV), to X-ray, using both reflectance and fluorescence techniques, and in the case of X-rays also transmission spectroscopy. This work investigates the potential for uncovering inner structures of painted works of art on a macroscopic level by using standard medical X-ray equipment, more particularly multi-energy digital X-ray (transmission) radiographic imaging. Such X-ray images might also generate additional spectral channels to their IR-Vis-UV range counterparts. Although medical equipment X-ray sources generate a broad photonic spectrum, it turns out that there might still be valuable information in the X-ray spectrum.