Elsevier

Journal of Cultural Heritage

Volume 15, Issue 5, September–October 2014, Pages 557-563
Journal of Cultural Heritage

Case study
20th century artists’ oil paints: The case of the Olii by Lucio Fontana

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2013.11.003Get rights and content

Abstract

During the 20th century, many innovative binders have been rapidly introduced to the art world and soon became popular as artists’ paints and pictorial media. However, despite the advantages that new synthetic materials presented, oil paints have never been entirely substituted. Indeed, this paper focuses on the results provided by the scientific analysis of a group works from the oeuvre of Lucio Fontana (1899–1968), all of which created between 1960 and 1964 using oil-based media, and aims to illustrate how oils contained in the pictorial media have influenced these works’ respective ageing and degradation processes. Despite the apparent coherence in the behaviour of many of Fontana's creations, some artworks revealed discrepancies in terms of the physical and mechanical behaviour of the pictorial films and in alterations resulting from degradation processes. Samples taken from case studies belonging to the Olii and Fine di Dio series were analysed using optical microscopy, X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy in attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) in order to study and identify the materials employed by the artist and the products of their degradation processes. These analyses gave unexpected but useful results (such as the presence of non-drying or slow-drying oils in the paint formulations) which not only provided us with new insight into the nature of the constituent materials, but also facilitated the elaboration of correct conservation measures and suitable restoration interventions.

Section snippets

Introduction and aims of the research

During the first decades of the 20th century, many innovative binders were introduced to the art world and soon became popular as artists’ paints and painting media [1], [2], [3]. As a direct consequence, the composition and nature of many artistic and pictorial binders were thus subjected to radical changes. However, despite the advantages that these new synthetic materials presented, oils continued to dominate as the most versatile binding medium, and have never been entirely substituted [4],

Samples

The opportunity of investigating the aforementioned artworks by Fontana was presented when these paintings required restoration, and samples were provided thanks to the generosity of the works’ owners and the Fondazione Lucio Fontana in Milan, Italy. Micro-fragments of the respective pictorial layers were taken from the back sections or lateral margins of the paintings, some of which also contained the ground layer of the canvas. These samples were found to be composed of different layers of

Results and discussion

Table 2 fully reports the typology of the examined samples and the analytical results obtained by XRF, FTIR-ATR and GC-MS on the six Fontana's paintings.

The Concetto spaziale. Notte d’amore a Venezia (60 O 81) (detail shown in Fig. 1a) was analysed as both ground and pictorial layers. The white ground layer is composed of a mixture of linseed oil and lead white (2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2), with zinc oxide (ZnO), calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and barium sulphate (BaSO4) as whiteners and/or fillers. The

Conclusions

The results obtained by this study have provided us with important information regarding the works of the Olii series created by Lucio Fontana between 1960 and 1964. During the same period, the artist experimented with several different and innovative pictorial binders, but still tended towards more traditional binding materials. Fontana himself was known to be an experimental artist and he used to mix house paints with manufactured oil paints [7], [8], [9]. Nevertheless, as we have proven,

Acknowledgements

This research project was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Fondazione Lucio Fontana in Milan and is the result of a collaboration between the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency/RCE (Rijksdienst voor Cultureel Erfgoed, formerly ICN-Instituut Collectie Nederland) and is part of the wider 20th Century oil paints Project carried out by RCE in cooperation with the Courtauld Institute of Art (CIA), the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) and

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