Mark Clarke specialises in the technical art history, especially the materials of mediaeval manuscripts and paintings. His special focus is ‘Art Technological Source Research’ and the interpretation of artists’ technical craft recipe books, particularly those from the Middle Ages, but also from the Nineteenth century. Based on these, he advises on historically informed reconstructions.
He trained as a paper conservator and conservation scientist, with a PhD in archaeology from Cambridge on ‘Anglo-Saxon manuscript pigments’.
His academic affiliations have included University of Cambridge, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Instituut Collectie Nederland, Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg, FOM-AMOLF, De Montfort University, and the University of the Arts (London). He has been a fellow of the Royal Flemish Academy Institute for Advanced Study, and of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. He is an advisor to the National Libraries of Austria, Sweden, and Egypt
Clarke, M. (2011) Mediaeval Painters’ Materials and Techniques: The Montpellier ‘Liber diversarum arcium’. London: Archetype Publications.
Clarke, M. (2016) The crafte of lymmyng and The maner of steynyng: Middle English recipes for painters, stainers, scribes, and illuminators. Oxford University Press (Early English Text Society O.S. 347)
Clarke, M. (2010) The context of the O livro de como se fazem as cores: late mediaeval artists’ recipes books (14th–15th centuries) in L. U. Afonso (ed.) The Materials of The Image: As Matérias da Imagem, Série Monográfica «Alberto Benveniste» 3.º Volume. Lisboa: Cátedra de Estudos Sefarditas «Alberto Benveniste» da Universidade de Lisboa: pp. 45-73.
