KINGSTON, R.I. – October 17, 2016 — The University of Rhode Island Department of Art and Art History will host Kristin deGhetaldi and Brian Baade, paintings conservators from the University of Delaware, to present “The CSI of Paintings: Where Science Meets Art” at 4:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 20, in the Fine Arts Center A202 at 105 Upper College Road on the Kingston Campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Baade is an assistant professor of Western art and technical art history at the University of Delaware, and he heads numerous technical studies. He graduated in 2006 from the Winterthur-University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, majoring in painting conservation with a focus on the identification and analysis of historic painting materials and techniques. Baade has spearheaded three projects funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the University of Delaware to create historically accurate reconstructions of Kress paintings from the distributed Kress collection.

DeGhetaldi earned her doctorate in preservation studies from the University of Delaware earlier this year. Her extensive experience includes work in the painting conservation departments in The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. deGhetaldi is the project leader for the Materials Information and Technical Resources for Artists, an online forum where artists are able to consult with conservators, scientists, photographers, and other experts on art materials and techniques.

Baade and deGhetaldi received a two year Kress Fellowship to establish a technical art history website that illustrates the use of science and art history to re-create old master paintings. An impressive project, the website includes painting reconstructions, historical materials and techniques, and an examination of scientific methods and terms.