Making illegible inscriptions legible

Scientists at Carnegie Mellon university are making high resolution 3D scans of tombstones to reveal the carved patterns in the stone.

A computer matches the patterns to a database of signature carvings which reveals the words. . .

Scientists often find it difficult to distinguish between natural phenomena and man-made art works carved into stone, due to the build-up of algae and surface dirt.

From the BBC.

Modern carnivores hold their own

The sabretooth tiger may have looked a fearsome sight with its massive canines but its reputation takes something of a knock with a new piece of research.

Scientists who have studied the extinct creature's skull in detail say it had a relatively weak bite - compared with, say, a modern lion.

From the BBC. How the saber-tooth did use its teeth is quite interesting:

"The sabretooth was bear-like; it was massively strong - huge forequarters, powerful limbs. It was not an animal that was built for running; it was built for wrestling other animals to the ground," explained Mr McHenry.

"I think it was using its huge limbs and thumb-claws to wrestle large animals to the ground, and then when it's got them there under control, that's when the teeth come into play, and there's one instantly fatal bite to the neck, severing the airway and carotid arteries to the brain. Death is more or less instantaneous."

The computer work suggests this "coup de grace" was delivered largely from the neck muscles, the extra leverage driving a deep puncture wound.

Another college art museum cashes out

In 1920, students at what was then Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Va., raised $2,500 to buy George Bellows's "Men of the Docks," a stark 1912 painting of men waiting by the water's edge. It was the first purchase for what later became the college's Maier Museum of Art.

Yesterday, the board of Randolph College voted to sell the prized Bellows canvas and three other paintings from its art collection this fall at Christie's in New York. The auction house estimates that the Bellows alone, which goes on the block on Nov. 29, could bring in $25 million to $35 million -- at least 10,000 times what the students paid in 1920. . .

Essentially, the strapped Randolph board is seeking to capitalize on its biggest asset: a $100 million art collection that includes 3,500 paintings, prints, drawings and photographs mostly by American artists like Bellows and Edward Hopper. The plan has drawn heated objections from alumnae, teachers and the Lynchburg community.

Full article here.

Panofsky obit

I confess that I didn't know anything about Erwin Panofsky's sons, eminent though they were:

Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky, a particle physicist and an adviser on arms control in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations who promoted stronger scientific ties to Russia and China as a deterrent to nuclear war, died Monday in Mountain View, Calif. He was 88. . .

Wolfgang Kurt Hermann Panofsky was born in Berlin. He was the son of Erwin Panofsky, a polymath and authority on Dutch painting who was a professor of art history at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.

Dr. Panofsky's brother, Hans, who died in 1988, also was a prominent scientist and studied air turbulence, climatic change and atmospheric circulation.

From the New York Times. Odd characterization of Erwin Panofsky, however: his fame rests on his work on iconography. Wikipedia entry here.

First Goudstikker, now Katz

A Dutch commission is studying a claim by the children of a wartime art dealer for the return of 227 paintings acquired for Adolf Hitler's collection and

now in the largest museums in the Netherlands, officials said Wednesday.

The decision on whether to relinquish the artwork to the family of Nathan Katz will hinge on the Restitution Committee's determination whether the Jewish art dealer was forced to sell the works or whether he voluntarily sold them to the Germans, which was illegal during World War II.
In terms of numbers, it is the largest claim ever put forward for a single collection, said Evert Rodrigo, head of the collections department of the Dutch Art Collections Institute, which manages state-owned artwork. No value has been put on the collection.

Full article here.