Prof. Astrid HARTH

Astrid Harth (BA, MA, PhD) is an Assistant Professor of Technical Art History and Heritage Science at the Department of Chinese and History of the City University of Hong Kong. Previously Astrid was a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University (Belgium), a visiting scholar at Columbia University (USA), a Chester Dale Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (USA), and a PhD Candidate at Ghent University (Belgium). Both her PhD and her postdoctoral research were funded by competitive grants from the Research Foundation Flanders. As both an art historian and conservation scientist, Astrid Harth specializes in technical art history and heritage science in particular in relation to painting and related 2D objects thus bridging art, humanities and science.

Astrid Harth has published in several top-ranked peer-reviewed scientific journals, including Heritage Science and X-Ray Spectrometry. Moreover, her work has been published in award-winning exhibition catalogues such as "Van Eyck: An Optical Revolution" (Hannibal) and "Dürer's Journey's: Travels of a Renaissance Artist" (Yale University Press). She has an extensive network among museums and art galleries across the globe including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), the National Gallery (London), the Museum of Fine Arts (Ghent) and The Indra and Harry Banga Gallery (Hong Kong).

In the coming years, Astrid plans to further develop scientific research on works of art aimed at integrating art, humanities, and science using a wide range of scientific techniques and research methods. In 2024, she has been awarded an ECS grant to study intentional alterations of early Netherlandish paintings. Recently, she also has started to study the Qianlong bannerman portraits by means of imaging and analytical techniques. The aim of this research is to gain profounder insights into the materials and production processes of the portraits and to address (art)historical questions.

Technical Art History

Heritage Science

Conservation Science

Art, humanities and Science

Cultural Heritage

Traditional European and Chinese painting