{"id":20,"date":"2020-02-11T15:43:22","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T15:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/?page_id=20"},"modified":"2026-01-21T15:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:36:15","slug":"cpl-researchers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/cpl-researchers\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our lab uses chemistry to help understand and protect works of art. We study the materials artists used\u2014such as pigments and dyes\u2014to learn how artworks were made and how they change over time. Using SUNY Cortland\u2019s state-of-the-art instrumentation, including FTIR, NMR, UV-Vis spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry, we analyze artworks primarily through noninvasive or minimally invasive methods. This work helps conservators make informed decisions about preservation and care while giving student researchers hands-on experience applying chemistry to real cultural heritage questions.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_49\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-49\" src=\"http:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/01\/yvrac-300x196.png\" alt=\"20th Century oil painting in need of conservation and artist signature identification.\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/01\/yvrac-300x196.png 300w, https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/01\/yvrac.png 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-49\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Current project: dating and establishing artistry for a French Impressionist painting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_50\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-50\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-50\" src=\"http:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/01\/SCHMITT_RESEARCH_LAB-PHOTO-STUDENT_4973270808102582772-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Meg Lawrence, SUNY Cortland student takes a photo of the Yvrac painting under UV-light exposure.\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/01\/SCHMITT_RESEARCH_LAB-PHOTO-STUDENT_4973270808102582772-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/01\/SCHMITT_RESEARCH_LAB-PHOTO-STUDENT_4973270808102582772-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/01\/SCHMITT_RESEARCH_LAB-PHOTO-STUDENT_4973270808102582772-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/01\/SCHMITT_RESEARCH_LAB-PHOTO-STUDENT_4973270808102582772-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/01\/SCHMITT_RESEARCH_LAB-PHOTO-STUDENT_4973270808102582772-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-50\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Meg Lawrence, SUNY Cortland student takes a photo of the Yvrac painting under UV-light exposure.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our lab uses chemistry to help understand and protect works of art. We study the materials artists used\u2014such as pigments and dyes\u2014to learn how artworks were made and how they change over time. Using SUNY Cortland\u2019s state-of-the-art instrumentation, including FTIR, NMR, UV-Vis spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry, we analyze artworks primarily through noninvasive or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-20","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.cortland.edu\/schmitt-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}