Maarten van Bommel is Professor of Conservation Science at the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Science. He is chair of the section Restoration and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (Department of Arts & Culture). In addition, he is a member of the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Science. Van Bommel's is a member of the Scientific Working Group of the Netherlands Institute for Conservation, Art and Science (NICAS), in which the Rijksmuseum, the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, Delft University of Technology and the UvA are clustering their strengths. Furthermore, he is a member of the board of the Foundation for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (In Dutch SBMK: Stichting Beheer Moderne Kunst)
Maarten van Bommel mainly focuses on the characterisation and behaviour of dyes and organic pigments, both of natural and synthetic origin, and their application in moveable cultural heritage. The research entails chemical analysis, the study of historical sources, the production of reconstructions and the study of degradation mechanisms. Degradation research aims to develop new technology such as in the TooCOLD project, Toolbox for Studying the Light-induced Degradation (TTW 15506). The ultimate aim is to obtain a better understanding of the original appearance of artistic and cultural objects so that they may be placed in their historical context and presented accordingly. In addition, van Bommel was involved in several projects related to archaeological textiles, varying from Bronze Age and Iron Age, found in the Hallstatt area, Austria, and 17th-century textiles found in a shipwreck near Texel, the Netherlands.
Van Bommel is also engaged in the scientific study of conservation and restoration practices, taking both a theoretical and applied approach. As the appointment is to both the Faculty of Humanities and the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS - Faculty of Science), it builds a bridge between art and culture studies on the one hand, and sciences on the other - two disciplines of equal and significant importance to restorers. Van Bommel has been employed as a senior scientist at the Cultural Heritage Agency since 2011. He worked previously as a programme leader and senior researcher for the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage, whose work includes managing the Dutch State’s art collection. Van Bommel has published numerous articles. The books he has co-authored include Inside Out Victory Boogie Woogie; a Material History of Mondrian’s Masterpiece (Amsterdam University Press, 2012) and Natural Colorants for Dyeing and Lake Pigments (Archetype books, 2014).
Anna Lagana: Back to transparency, back to life: Conservation and restoration of transparent plastics in works of art and design.
http://www.getty.edu/conservation/our_projects/science/plastics/index.html
Supervisors: Maarten van Bommel, Ella Hendriks & Dr. Rachel Rivenc (Getty Conservation Institute)
Jonas Veenhoven: PHySICAL: Profound study of Hydrous and Solvent Interactions in Cleaning Asian Lacquer
funded by BRAIN-be (BELGIAN RESEARCH ACTION THROUGH INTERDISCIPLINARY NETWORKS)
Supervisors: Maarten van Bommel, Steven Saverwyns & Prof. dr. Frederic Lynen (Ghent University)
Sanne Berbers: 20th and 21st century oil paints; towards a new understanding of the chemical correlation between lipids, synthetic organic pigments, and degradation phenomena
Supervisors: Maarten van Bommel & Klaas-Jan van den Berg
Suzanne Reus: Micro-mechanical behaviour of Vincent van Gogh's paints
Supervisors: Maarten van Bommel & Klaas-Jan van den Berg
Sandra Kuipers: Defining a new area in textiles knowledge to scale physical fabric measurement required for virtual garment creation.
Supervisors: Maarten van Bommel & Troy Nachtigall
Graduated PhDs
Ana Serrano (CHAM): The Red Road of the Iberian Expansion: cochineal and the global dye trade. (2016)
http://www.cham.fcsh.unl.pt/ttt/
Supervisors: Jessica Hallett & Maarten van Bommel
Guus Verhaar (UvA): Glass sickness - its detection, prevention and treatment
http://www.uva.nl/contact/medewerkers/item/g.verhaar.html?f=verhaar
Supervisors: Norman Tennent & Maarten van Bommel
Mimi den Uijl: TooCOLD: Toolbox for studying the Chemistry of Light-induced Degradation
Supervisors: Maarten van Bommel, Bob Pirok & Peter Schoenmakers
Kate van Lookeren Campagne: Developments in the technology of tin-glaze tile production in the Northern Netherlands between 1580 and 1850 and the influence on susceptibility for glaze deterioration.
http://www.uva.nl/contact/medewerkers/item/k.e.van-lookeren-campagne.html?f=lookeren
Supervisors: Maarten van Bommel & Luc Megens (Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands)
Iris Groeneveld: TooCOLD: Toolbox for studying the Chemistry of Light-induced Degradation
Supervisors: Govert Somsen, Freek Ariese & Maarten van Bommel
Co-Supervised
Daria Confortin: Aging of cultural heritage materials: a physico-chemical approach to conservation science. Studies on paper, parchment, pigments and dyes
AMOR: Archaeological Metal surface Research
TooCOLD: Toolbox for Studying the Chemistry of Light-induced degradation
PHySICAL: Profound study of hydrous and solvent interactions in cleaning Asian lacquer
Identification of Plastics, see also the plastic identification tool
IPERION-CH: Integrated Platform for the European Research Infrastructure ON Cultural Heritage