Organic Materials in Wall Paintings
 

Lorinda Wong (GCI associate project specialist) using multispectral imaging to study the seventeenth century wall paintings cycle by Andrea Pozzo at the Mission of Mondoví. Photo: F. Piqué.

Conservation Scientist Giancarlo Lanterna (Opificio delle Pietre Dure - OPD) and Conservator Mark Gittins (Head of Lippi conservation team, Conservazione Beni Culturali) examining and evaluating results of invasive investigations on site. The OPD, one of the OMWP partners, has been responsible for the diagnostic investigation for this project, which included the characterization of the synthetic resins used during previous conservation interventions. Photo: F. Piqué.

Members of the OMWP project sampling Tintori wall painting replicas for the evaluation of invasive techniques. From left to right: Austin Nevin (Courtauld Institute of Art, London), Fabio Morresi (Scientific Laboratories of the Vatican Museums, Rome), Cristina Grandin (Laboratorio per l'Affresco di Vainella, Prato); Elisa Campani (UniPr, Parma); Gwänelle Gautier (UniPI, Pisa); Monica Favaro (ICIS, Padova); Giancarlo Lanterna (OPD, Florence). Photo: F. Piqué.

At the Laboratorio per l'Affresco di Vainella, examples of wall paintings replicas made by Leonetto Tintori. These are similar to replicas used in the OMWP project to evaluate investigation techniques. Photo: F. Piqué.

Camilla Ricci (CNR—ISTM, Center of excellence SMArt Scientific Methodologies applied to Archeology and Art) is studying one of the Tintori wall painting replicas containing egg and oil with noninvasive reflectance FTIR with fiber optics to evaluate the capacity of this technique to detect organic materials without any sampling. Photo: F. Piqué.

Example of a wall painting replica used in the first phase of the OMWP project. This replica has twelve sectors. Yellow ochre was used as a pigment in all sectors applied in buon fresco, with glue, casein, or egg as binder. Photo: F. Piqué.

Catia Clementi and Ilaria Motta (Physical—chemistry Department of the University of Perugia) measuring in situ the UV–visible fluorescence emission (FOFS) of organic materials in the wall paintings by Filippo Lippi. Photo: F. Piqué.

Giacomo Chiari, OMWP project leader and Ulderico Santamaria, Director of the Scientific Laboratories of the Vatican Museums, in the Borgia Appartments at the Vatican in front of the wall paintings by Perugino. Photo: F. Piqué.

Dr. Costanza Miliani (Researcher of CNR—ISTM Perugia, Center of excellence SMArt Scientific Methodologies applied to Archeology and Art) measuring in situ the infrared reflectance spectrum of the wall paintings by Filippo Lippi with FTIR with fiber optics to classify organic materials present on the surface, such as proteins and lipids, without sampling. Photo: F. Piqué.

Calibration with Macbeth color charter for noninvasive technical photography of the fifteenth century wall painting cycle by Filippo Lippi in the Cathedral of Prato by Alfredo Aldrovandi and Annette Keller (Opificio delle Pietre Dure). The photography of the UV fluorescence indicates areas containing organic materials. However not fluorescing areas may also contain organic materials mixed with pigments able to quench the visible fluorescence. Photo: F. Piqué.

Technical Photography of One Replica
 

Visible light. Photo: Alfredo Aldrovandi.

Raking light. Photo: Alfredo Aldrovandi.

UV fluorescence (normal UV lights). Photo: Alfredo Aldrovandi.

Special UV lights. Photo: Alfredo Aldrovandi.