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Ms. Luz Rodriguez

Name:
Ms. Luz Rodriguez
Position:
Independent Researcher
TIMA Role:
Individual Member
Address:
Tel:
07703937858
Fax:
Email:
luz@luzrodriguez.co.uk; luzrodriguezart@icloud.com
Website:
Expertise:
I was awarded a scholarship to complete a BA(Hons) in Fine and Decorative Art, MA in Art Business and MA in Fine and Decorative Art at Sotheby's Institute of Art in London. Since my aim was to specialise in Persian and Indian paintings, I decided to enlarge my knowledge by doing a postgraduate diploma in Asian Art at the British Museum, taking the courses on India, China and Islam. I then obtained an MA in Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London. I have been awarded grants to study Codicology of Arab Script manuscripts at Cambridge University Library; to participate in the workshop in conservation and restoration of Mediterranean manuscripts at the Sakip Sabancı Museum in Istanbul; and to complete both a course on narrative paintings and illuminated manuscripts from Asian and the Middle East, and a course on the art and culture of Central Asia: the early empires of the Silk Road at SOAS. I attended a course on the Persian language at St. Andrews University and continue studying Persian at SOAS, University of London. I have catalogued antique oriental carpets and 19th - 20th century Japanese wood-prints. I have worked as keyword editor for the Index Islamicus Journal. I have edited two books in Spanish and worked in translation from English into Spanish of the book 'Islamic Art' by Dr. Barbara Brend. I wrote an article about 'The Zafarnameh' (The life of Timur) written by the Persian historian Sharaf al-Din 'Ali Yazdi. The article has been published by the University of Salamanca (Spain). As an art researcher specialising in Persian and Indian miniature paintings, I am currently working with Persian manuscripts from the 16th and 17th centuries that found their way into India and were altered in Indian workshops before being brought to England. Close scrutiny of these manuscripts, with both the application of new technologies and the customary methods of art-historical research have resulted in new findings that have important implications for our understanding of the subject under review. The work in which I am engaged comprises several sub- projects. I am currently developing the following: 1- Codicological analyses These analyses include research into the construction of a selected Persian manuscript from a British collection, its paper organisation, pigments, binding, alterations and repairs based on the object itself. This includes the use of microscopy, ultraviolet and infrared equipment. For the identification of the pigments, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is used, to identify elements present in the pigments particularly those that are mineral/inorganic component. The other technique chosen is multispectral imaging (MSI), that permits similar coloured materials to be easily distinguished and therefore help to determine aspects vital to the research such as the order in which colours were applied and the presence of under-drawings. The equipment used is Bruker ‘Tracer III-SD’ for the X-ray fluorescence and Fort Photonics ‘MuSIS HS’ for the multispectral imaging. Although forensic techniques have been used extensively in the analysis of European art for its understanding, they have not been applied to Persian manuscripts to the same extent. Until now cataloguing has been based most of the time on visual and written evidence. 2- Study of treatises Findings from the above analyses may be compared with original treatises, especially 16th, 17th and 18th centuries which allow me to join the scientific reports, the stylistic knowledge and the contemporary accounts in order to correlate pigments used in Persia and India, differentiate the original Persian paintings from the Indian alterations and to decide on the coherence of the manuscript. Memberships TIMA (The Islamic Manuscript Association) BIPS (The British Institute of Persian Studies) THE IRAN SOCIETY
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