Elsevier

Talanta

Volume 74, Issue 4, 15 January 2008, Pages 690-693
Talanta

Isotopic analysis of lead present in the cinnabar of Roman wall paintings from the Xth Regio “(Venetia et Histria)” by ICP-MS

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2007.06.048Get rights and content

Abstract

The analysis of Roman wall paintings coming from Verona, Vicenza, Padova, Pordenone and Trieste evidentiated the presence of cinnabar.

In this work, the isotopic composition 206Pb, 207Pb and 208Pb of trace of lead present in cinnabar is reported, via ICP-MS measurements. The isotopic ratio values are compared with the values obtained from samples coming from Roman wall paintings of Pompeii and from the mines of Almaden (Spain) Monte Amiata (Grosseto Italy) and Idria (Slovenia).

All the isotopic data can be represented by a “field” ranging from Huelva, to Almeria Spanish provinces. This trend could be due to the mixing of cinnabar products treated in Rome.

Introduction

From studies carried out on fragments of wall paintings taken from cities of the Xth Regio of the Roman Italy (Verona, Vicenza, Padova, Pordenone and Trieste) the presence of cinnabar (HgS) has been verified [1], [2], [3].

This pigment was the most expensive of all those used in the Roman epoch; Augusti [4] reports that a pound of cinnabar could cost up to 300 assi, while another relatively costly pigment such as Egyptian Blue could cost 100 assi. The presence of cinnabar, therefore, characterises “Domus” and public buildings of high quality and regard and characterise the proprietor as a person with great economic possibilities and an elevated social standing. The determination of the provenance of this pigment is of great interest and can yield information on trade routes that existed during the construction period of these buildings and on the taste of the person who commissioned the work and the principal artist.

The lead isotopic composition of the cinnabar samples from the Villas of Verona (S. Cosimo and Vicolo Agnello), Vicenza (S. Biagio), Montegrotto, Padova (Terme Neroniane), Pordenone (Torre) and Trieste (Crosada) was determined and compared with samples from Pompeii (Insula del Centenario and Casa del Bracciale d’Oro) and from samples coming from mines of Almaden (Spain) Mount Amiata (Grosseto, Italy) and Idria (Slovenia).

The choice of measuring the isotopes of lead, present as an impurity in the mercury minerals was made because of the relative precision of these measurements; measurements on the stable isotopes of sulphur have been also made [5].

In 1982, Frizot [6] reviewed the study of pigments from ancient pictures and in 1990 Barbet [7], Guineau [8] and Delamare [9] investigated the use of the pigments and colorants in France during the Roman period. Barbet [7] observed that this pigment was becoming less available over the centuries up to the Low Roman Empire, when it seemed that most of the pigment came from the Balkan Peninsula instead of Spain. Our work slots into this research line and would contribute to the general knowledge of Roman painting.

Section snippets

Instrumentation, reagents and standards

Sample analysis was carried out on an Agilent 7500i ICP-MS (Agilent Technologies, Yokogawa Analytical Systems, Tokyo, Japan), with a quartz double pass spray chamber, thermostatted to 2 °C, and fitted with a V-groove low flow (<500 μl min−1) nebulizer (Agilent Technologies). High purity de-ionised water (18  cm−1 resistivity) (Purelab Ultra, Elga, High Wycombe, UK) and high purity acids (Suprapur grade, Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) were used for sample digestion. A sample of SRM 981 Common Lead

Results and discussion

Table 1 report the lead isotopic ratios together with the standard deviation of the five different measurements performed on the samples coming from the cities of the North-East of Italy, Pompeii and from HgS samples coming from mines of Almaden (Spain), Monte Amiata (Italy) Idria (Slovenia) and China.

The reported isotopic ratios are: 206/207Pb, 208/207Pb208/206Pb and 207/206Pb.

Isotope ratios are used to make plots with two complementary variables where we put all the isotopic abundance

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Warren Cairns (IDPA-CNR, Venice, Italy) for the useful scientific discussions and laboratory assistance. ELGA LabWater is gratefully acknowledged for providing the PURELAB Option-R and Ultra Analytic, which produced the ultra pure water used in these experiments.

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