FRIABLE

About the project

Preserving works of art created with FRIABLE media, such as black chalk, chalk, charcoal and pastel, is a challenge for museums and curators. The KMSKB (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium) has a valuable collection of approximately 1800 FRIABLE works of art, of which 200 are considered full-fledged works of art. These works of art are fragile and require special care and attention to maintain their long-term integrity.

The FRIABLE project, initiated by the KMSKB, aims to improve the conservation of FRIABLE works of art through research and documentation. One of the important aspects of this project is preparing damage reports for each work of art, documenting its current condition and any damage. The current process However, completing damage reports on paper is time-consuming and makes it difficult to process the collected data analyze and use for future research.

IDLab role

The aim of this project is to develop a tool with which damage reports can be efficiently digitized. The tool offers a user-friendly interface for completing damage reports, where the data is displayed immediately are stored digitally. This makes the data easier to analyze, interpret and reuse.

In addition, the tool ensures that the data is available in various digital formats, such as an SQL database, PDFs, CSV files and an RDF endpoint. This facilitates the integration of the data into other applications and enables further analysis and visualization possible.

The development of this tool contributes to the KMSKB’s FRIABLE project by accelerating and simplifying it of the damage reporting process. It allows conservators to record accurate and detailed data about the condition of FRIABLE artworks, providing better insight into their vulnerability and conservation these work. Furthermore, the tool offers opportunities for future research and the development of conservation protocols. With this research and the development of the tool, this thesis hopes to make a valuable contribution to the efforts of the KMSKB to improve the preservation and accessibility of FRIABLE works of art. In addition, the tool serve as a model for other museums and institutions facing similar challenges the preservation of fragile works of art.