This talk gives an overview of wavelets: what they are, how they work, why they are useful for image analysis and image compression. Then it will go on to discuss how they have been used recently for the study of paintings by e.g. Van Gogh, Goossen van der Weyden, Gauguin and Giotto.
Notice: This particular talk can be given without a single mathematical formula, or at various levels of mathematical complexity: for undergrads, for graduate students, or very technical. It is also possible to give the wide-audience talk first, and then revisit it, pausing at various places to digress and explain what is going on mathematically.