Rare public access to research on Thomas More painting at Nostell

A public heritage science project begins Thursday at Nostell in West Yorkshire, offering rare access to research on a painting of Thomas More and his family, considered the only faithful lifesize copy of a lost Holbein masterpiece. The eight-day project, a UK first, uses macro X-ray fluorescence scanning in public, a technique from the Rijksmuseum’s Rembrandt restoration. Researchers from the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Hamilton Kerr Institute aim to uncover hidden under-drawings and date later additions to the 2.5 by 3.4 metre work. The original Holbein, destroyed in a 1752 fire, was hailed as a groundbreaking domestic family portrait. The Nostell version’s painter remains unconfirmed, and the project, funded partly by Dallas university, seeks to answer such mysteries.