Through a paint sample analysis in Saint Anselm’s Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center, a faculty-student research team is using their science skills to support the preservation of artistic integrity. Together they are proving that, though seemingly different, art and chemistry are complementary in more ways than you’d imagine.
With its colorful stained glass, vaulted ceilings, and near century-old hand-painted allegorical murals, the Chapel Art Center truly is a peek into the College’s past. After Director Fr. Iain MacLellan, O.S.B., expressed a desire to clean the Center’s storied murals without damaging them, Chemistry and Forensic Science Professor Mary Kate Donais knew she could help. With her background in instrumental characterization, pigment analysis, and a robust fascination with humanities-centered research, Donais was determined to find a safe cleaning solution while diving into the aesthetic story of the paintings and their importance to the College.
“Gathering chemical information is imperative to melding science in support of the arts,” says Donais. “You can’t be an expert in everything. You need a scientist, conservationist, and curator.”
Due to the research’s intricate nature, a trustworthy collaboration was essential. Donais engaged Chemistry major Melody Oakes ’26 and Biology major Melis Kocak ’27 to participate. While Donais is present to offer guidance and Kocak aids with data collection, Oakes owns the project.
Using a portable X-ray fluorescence analyzer (XRF) and documentation software, the team coordinates and communicates to ensure that data from the XRF is accurately transcribed and transferred and all safety precautions are taken. Oakes mans the instrument while Donais and Kocak monitor live results on a laptop. The XRF gun determines which elements make up the paint, helping them formulate definite cleaning methods to steer clear of. The team plans to conduct further analyses on the paint’s molecular composition.
"The ceiling murals at the Chapel Art Center are perhaps the singular most important artistic expression of the College’s foundational history, stemming from its original aesthetic and members of Saint Anselm,” says Fr. Iain. “Student participation can only be beneficial to the Center, as it contributes to current scholarly research on the murals and their physical makeup."
One of the team’s most significant findings has been gold leaf gilding. Not only does this provide elemental evidence but it unveils the College’s economic position when it was crafted at the beginning of the 20th century. Looking comparatively at present-day prices, the team can theorize whether it would’ve been a commodity to have accessed this material. Though there is no record of how the pigments were selected, the symbology of where more expensive paints were used in the murals better illustrates what the College wanted to highlight and bring intentional focus to 100 years prior.
“When you observe Mary’s robes in Roman frescos and murals, they are often composed of lapis lazuli, a very rare and expensive blue mineral,” says Donais. The use of expensive pigments as such exemplifies a church’s monetary and benefactor status, often raising the art’s level of importance. Through their research, Donais, Oakes, and Kocak are determining whether this was also the case in the Chapel Art Center.
Donais believes that the students have more appreciation for projects they can physically see the purpose and motivation behind. This opportunity provides Oakes and Kocak with an on-campus experience in a museum-like setting where they are interacting with the Center’s curators and gallery attendants. Their findings will be compiled in a report for staff to reference when speaking with scientists regarding future conversation efforts.
"The ceiling needs both restoration and conservation,” says Fr. Iain. "Having real clinical input from our own student body is mutually beneficial both for student learning and for the ceiling’s future needs!" He is beyond thrilled with what Donais and the students have accomplished.
As both a scientist and an artist, Oakes was surprised to learn she could combine her chemistry skills with her love of art. This research is serving as her senior thesis, and she will be presenting her findings alongside Kocak at a conference in January.
“Knowing that my personal interests could overlap with chemistry in meaningful ways made me more confident when thinking about potential careers,” says Oakes. After graduating, Oakes hopes to pursue graduate studies in art conservation or analytical chemistry that focuses on cultural heritage research.
There is no shortage of opportunity for students seeking a profession in art-centric science. Many major museums have characterization labs that assess the compositional history of artifacts. Understanding health sciences can determine whether returning objects to their cultural origins could raise potential health risks for an indigenous community. Forensic science uses chemical information at crime scenes to retell a course of events and must be handled delicately, much like in-depth art analyses. Roles in archaeology involve extracting chemical data from sites to reconstruct history’s unsolved mysteries.
“Research provides the opportunity for building independence, which as a scientist, you’ll eventually experience without a professor giving you instructions,” says Donais.