Locally Adaptive Chromatic Restoration Of Digitally Acquired Paintings

This article presents a semi-automatic procedure to restore the visual appearance of aged paintings converted to a digital form. The innovative implementation of an image-processing algorithm based on the Retinex theory of human vision alleviates layers of yellowed varnish and dust, restores chromatic balance and contrast, and recovers some of the original painted details. This virtual cleaning of artwork is totally non-intrusive and can be applied automatically to color images of paintings or ancient illustrations. Cleaned virtual reproductions help art historians and restorers in their research and classification work, and also show the artwork in good condition to a wide audience while avoiding an always costly and dangerous manual restoration.