Analytische Chemie V
Strategische Übung: Kunst
Analytische Strategien
Übung vom 11 November 2014
WS 2014/2015
Kunst
The Battle of Anghiari.
Can this be a surviving study of da Vinci‘s Lost Wallpainting?
Ester S B Ferreira
Swiss Institute for Art Research
You are a conservation scientist at the laboratory of the Swiss Institute for Art Research (SIK-ISEA).
A painting depicting the famous wall painting by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) of the Battle of
Anghiari has arrived at the department for study. The original wall painting has been lost and its
search has been heavily publicised in the last few years.
Could the painting in front of you be a study by Leonardo’s own hand in preparation for the famous
wall painting? You are asked to participate with material analysis to assist with the study of the
painting.
You need to bear in mind that often the paintings we see displayed in museums often have been
restored and not all the material you see at the painting surface is original but might have been
added later. The work at the SIK-ISEA is an interdisciplinary one and the team includes painting
conservators and art historians. It is important to use their knowledge to assist you on your
analytical task.
Zürich, 18. September 2014
In addition to the evaluation of the painting style by art historians, material identification can help
establishing if the materials found were available during the life of the artist. Through the centuries,
new pigments and binding media were introduced and simultaneously certain materials stopped
being used for quality, cost or health hazard reasons. One important issue in the establishing an
analytical strategy is that sampling must be avoided or kept to an absolute minimum (100 µg
constitutes a large sample).
Question:
1) At the time of Leonardo da Vinci pigments are in the mostly inorganic and natural minerals.
a) Identification of the synthetic organic or inorganic pigments can be used as a tool to
establish the earliest possible date of a painting. Green pigments were rare at the time of
Leonardo da Vinci. Green paint was often obtained by blue/yellow pigment mixture. Under
the stereomicroscope study of the painting surface you confirm that the green paint in the
leafs of the tree in the background landscape is composed by a blue and yellow mixture.
th
Make a list of the main blue pigments available to European artists from the 15 century
until today, their discovery date and their elemental composition. Which ones would have
been available to da Vinci?
b) You are not allowed to take a sample Suggest a non-invasive and non-destructive
technique (Define non-invasive and non-destructive techniques) which would allow the
distinction of those blue pigments based on elemental composition. Can you distinguish the
signal originating from the uppermost layer and the lower ground layer? (see diagram in
appendix).
b) What are the limitations of this technique for pigment identification? Which elements can
you detect/not detect? What precautions should you take in selecting sample location.
c) You have found copper in the green paint. From your research into the literature you
know that there are several copper containing blue pigments and that exact identification is
crucial to obtain information towards painting date. Which non-invasive techniques can you
use to do so? Introduce the principles behind the technique(s) you have selected. Discuss
advantages and limitations.
Prepare and present your answers in a 20 minute presentation
Suggested Reading.
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Non-destructive microanalysis of cultural heritage materials. K. Janssens and R. Van Grieken (Eds),
Amsterdam: Elsevier. 2004.
Defeyt, C.; Vandenabeele, P.; Gilbert, B.; et al. Contribution to the identification of alpha-, beta- and
epsilon-copper phthalocyanine blue pigments in modern artists' paints by X-ray powder diffraction,
attenuated total reflectance micro-fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and micro-Raman
spectroscopy : JOURNAL OF RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY Volume: 43 Issue: 11 Special Issue:
SI Pages: 1772-1780 Published: NOV 2012
G. Chiari P. Sarrazin M. Gailhanou PORTABLE XRD/XRF INSTRUMENTATION FOR THE STUDY
OF WORKS OF ART Powder Diffraction - POWDER DIFFR 01/2008; 23(2).
DOI: 10.1154/1.2951684
Helmut Schweppe “Indigo and Woad” Artists’ Pigments. A Handbook of their history and
Characteristics.Volume 3 Elisabeth West Fitzhugh(Ed) 1997.
Barbarra H Berrie “Prussian Blue” Artists’ Pigments. A Handbook of their history and
Characteristics.Volume 3 Elisabeth West Fitzhugh(Ed) 1997.
Ashok Roy “Cobalt Blue” in Artists’ Pigments. A Handbook of their history and Characteristics.
Volume 4 Barbara H Berrie (Ed) 2007.
Rutherford J. Gettens, Elisabeth West Fitzhugh “Azurite and Blue Verditer” in Artists’ Pigments. A
Handbook of their history and Characteristics. Volume 2, Ashok Roy (Ed) 1993.
Joyce Plesters “Ultramarine Blue” in Artists’ Pigments. A Handbook of their history and
Characteristics. Volume 2, Ashok Roy (Ed) 1993.
Bruno Mühlethaler and Jean Thissen “Smalt” in Artists’ Pigments. A Handbook of their history and
Characteristics. Volume 2, Ashok Roy (Ed) 1993.
Defeyt, C.; Vandenabeele, P.; Gilbert, B.; et al. Contribution to the identification of alpha-, beta- and
epsilon-copper phthalocyanine blue pigments in modern artists' paints by X-ray powder diffraction,
attenuated total reflectance micro-fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and micro-Raman
spectroscopy : JOURNAL OF RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY Volume: 43 Issue: 11 Special Issue:
SI Pages: 1772-1780 Published: NOV 2012
A painting is a multilayered object.
Cross-section of a painting:
The ground is applied over the support (canvas,
Varnish
wooden panel or cardboard), in order to obtain a
Paint layer
suitable surface for the paint.
One (or more) paint layers can be applied over
Ground
the ground. All paint layers, including the ground,
are composed of a mixture of a binding medium
Support
(canvas)
and pigments.
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