Study and characterization of mural paintings from XIX Century in a noble Venetian (Italy) palace
Section snippets
Research aims
This paper presents a summary of the physical and chemical characterizations performed on the roof of a private palace located in the historical center of Venice (Italy). The study focused on a series of decorative panels painted with organic binders on marmorino plaster. During the whole study period a detailed characterization of original materials, in order to study the artist's painting technique and verify the attribution of ceiling made during the last restoration was performed. Another
Standards
In order to find out specific binders used by the painter for the realization of the pictures, 18 commercially available blinders have been preliminary investigated and characterized by different techniques. Standard of binders samples used come from Bresciani (Milan, Italy). The standard solutions were prepared by dissolving approx. 20 mg in 20 ml of an appropriate solvent. Table 1 contains information relating to the analyzed standards and solvents used in this study.
Sampling and sample preparation
In an analytic study,
Pigments
Sample 6 was taken from the skirt on figure A (Fig. 1a) with the aim of determining the composition of yellow pigment and investigate the stratigraphic sequence. The first layer is thick, uniform and gray-white painted. It has smooth flow but with some discontinuities, probably due a layer's piece lost during procurement. Large white particles of CaCO3 (marble or more generally calcite) and MgCa(CO3)2 (dolomite) are present. This first layer was identified as the finish of marmorino layer. The
Conclusions
On the basis of the conducted characterization, the artist realized the ceiling in a period between late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth century. He was supposed to have used a mixed technique with a binder mixture made of linseed oil, egg yolk, animal glue and fig latex. The use of mixtures, sometimes with unusual composition, was characteristic of that artistic period [8], [14], [15]. The presence of beeswax only in the pictorial layer, let suppose of a surface treatment made mainly with this
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Manuela Sgobbi (University of Venice) for her technical assistance with SEM analysis. The authors would also like to thank P. Del Turco (DTO servizi srl, Italian Agilent dealer) for his technical support.
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