Summary:
The project aims to develop a tool that enables the cross-reference of information, matching prints and tiles, so as to identify the original sources of any given panel, as well as matching the tile panels and the figures portrayed in them. Current art databases are organized based on ontologies produced by art experts, and the art images are then labelled with directly relevant keywords represented in such ontologies. Thus, this organization ignores two things: 1) relations between images in the database that are indirectly connected through the art ontology, and 2) quantitative representation of image features.

The second innovation is then the proposal of a novel probabilistic model that addresses the two issues above. The model works with a graph of image similarities based on art and text ontologies, and global, local and pose image features. We also have another graph that links database images to art ontology keywords. These two graphs can be used to discover new relations between images and keywords that are not explicitly represented in the art ontology, which means that the model shall propose a new internal organization of the art database. 

The successful implementation of this system shall enable a more efficient study and research of art databases by making the analysis process much faster and less dependent on expert users. Note that we do not propose a substitution of the expert; in fact, one scenario envisaged for our system is to help experts annotate and classify images. Another important consequence of the successful implementation of this proposal is the discovery of new knowledge present in art databases. We envisage that this project can establish an important link between the fields of Arts and Science that can be mutually beneficial in the future.

[official website]


OUTPUTS [AH]

Conference proceedings
CARVALHO, Rosário Salema de – How engravings were used by azulejo painters. The example of Gabriel del Barco. In Cultura e società in età barocca. Proceedings of International Conference ENBaCH - European Network for Baroque Cultural Heritage. Rome: ENBaCH project, 2014.

Conference presentations
AGUIAR, Inês – A catalogação da azulejaria de padrão como caso de estudo. Presentation [by invitation] at International workshop - Where Computer Vision meets Art, Museu Nacional do Azulejo (Lisboa), 14 November 2011.

CARVALHO, Rosário Salema de – Azulejos and Prints: Looking for Matching. Presentation [by invitation as keynote speaker] at 12th European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV 2012), workshop VISART: Where computer vision meets art WS9, Florence, 12 October 2012.

CARVALHO, Rosário Salema de – Azulejos and Prints. Presentation [with referee] at International Conference ENBaCH - European Networks of Baroque Cultural Heritage, Vienna, 29 September 2012.

CARVALHO, Rosario Salema de – How Engravings Were Used by Azulejo Painters. The Example of Gabriel Del Barco. Presentation [with referee] at International Conference ENBaCH European Network for Baroque Cultural Heritage, Sapienza - Università di Roma (Roma, Itália), 27 March 2014.

CARVALHO, Rosário Salema de – Why to look for prints corresponding to tile panels. Presentation [by invitation as keynote speaker] at International workshop - Where Computer Vision meets Art, Museu Nacional do Azulejo (Lisboa), 28 June 2010.