The original appearance and beauty of ancient paintings virtually reconstructed

International audienceAs part of questions about methods of cultural heritage conservation, transdisciplinary research was performed in order to develop a set of analytical processes allowing us to reconstruct the appearances of historical paintings at different moments in their history. This reconstruction is based on a detailed knowledge of the materiality of the works, their preservation state and the conditions of conservation and storage. These analyses, necessarily non-or microinvasive for precious artworks, are accompanied by actual and virtual modelling of the evolution of the materials composition of the works. The example of a restored French 16 th c. painting illustrates our approach