An Interdisciplinary Research Project on the Graphic Works of Pieter Breugel the Elder (FINGERPRINT)

FINGERPRINT - An interdisciplanary Research Project on the Graphic Works of Pieter Breugel the Elder - BRAIN - Belspo (2016-2020)

Coordinator: VAN GRIEKEN Joris, KBR

Promotors KU Leuven: WATTEEUW Lieve, KU Leuven - Illuminare; VANDERMEULEN Bruno, KU Leuven - CS Digital; PROESMANS Marc, KU Leuven - ESAT

FINGERPRINT is an interdisciplinary collection- and data management project, involving art history, art technical research, digital imaging, image processing, conservation science. The aim is to monitor and evaluate with advanced digital imaging, statistical processing and laboratory analyses the phases of the genesis of a print, from the unique preparatory drawings over proof impressions to later states and editions. The four year project (2016-2020) is a collaboration of the Print Room of the Royal Library of Belgium and three KU Leuven teams: the Imaging Lab, ESAT and Illuminare, Centre for the Study of Medieval Art. The research project is funded by Belspo BRAIN-be

Until today art historical research on prints and drawings depends for the largest part on traditional art historical methods based on observation with the naked eye and on the subjective memory and knowledge of connoisseurs. The aim of this project is to develop tools to automatically perform an objective artifact analysis, and software to visualize, compare and order large numbers of complex visual and material data.

The graphic works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1520-1569) in the collection of the Royal Library of Belgium forms a test corpus for the FINGERPRINT project. The tools and methods developed to gather and threat the data will be designed to answer specific questions regarding the prints and drawings from this corpus. The questions regard collection management, technical art history and conservation science and but also production, distribution and consumption history of the corpus of artifacts of Bruegel.

The created datasets on the multiple research platforms of FINGERPRINT, and the new  interpretations will be accessible for the scientific community and the general public linked to the descriptions of the artifacts in the online public access of the collection of the Royal Library of Belgium. Special processing algorithms will be developed to analyse visual data.