0000000000115724
AUTHOR
Sonia Murcia
Materials, Techniques, and Conservation of Historic Stained Glass “Grisailles”
A grisaille is a brown-blackish paint applied onto the inner surface of stained glass to draw the contours and details of the figures and to produce the effect of shades and volumes. Grisailles were traditionally made of finely ground oxides of iron but also of copper, zinc, lead, or manganese mixed with a flux such as lead ground glass and a binder and fixed onto the flat glass by firing. The grisailles have typical layer thickness varying between 10 and 100 µm and are formed by a complex mixture of pigment particles, crystalline, and amorphous reaction compounds, aging, and weathering compounds. The high brilliance, collimation, energy selection, and monochromacity of the SR beam are idea…
Identification of local and allochthonous flint artefacts from the Middle Palaeolithical site ‘Abrigo de la Quebrada’ (Chelva, Valencia, Spain) by macroscopic and physicochemical methods
This work summarizes the characterization of flint artefacts from the Middle Palaeolithic site ‘Abrigo de la Quebrada’ (Chelva, Valencia, Spain) and flint geological samples collected in the Chelva area. Additionally, some flint artefacts located outside this geographical zone were also analysed and compared with the samples from the Abrigo de la Quebrada site. Flint samples have been studied using methods of macroscopic description and physicochemical analysis [energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDXRF) and X-ray diffraction (XRD)]. Multivariate statistical analysis of the EDXRF data and the determination of the crystalline index of quartz, obtained from the XRD patterns, ar…
Preliminary analysis of Palaeolithic black pigments in plaquettes from the Parpalló cave (Gandía, Spain) carried out by means of non-destructive techniques
Abstract Parpallo cave (Gandia, Spain) is one of the most important Palaeolithic sites in the Spanish Mediterranean region. It is characterized by a mobiliary art whose archaeological sequence covers a dilated period (26,000–11,000 BP) and includes plaquettes decorated with black and different shades of red and yellow pigments. The aim of this paper is to present the results of analyses of the nature of black pigments used in the decoration of Parpallo plaquettes. The analyses were carried out by a non-destructive technique, by means of EDXRF. Furthermore, a colorimetric data bank has been created for conservation purposes. EDXRF measurements directly identify the use of manganese black pig…
Archaeometric study of ceramic figurines from the Maya settlement of La Blanca (Petén, Guatemala)
Abstract In this article, analytical results will be presented and discussed regarding a selected set of figurines from the ancient Maya settlement of La Blanca in Peten, Guatemala. The objective is to characterize the ceramic material by two analytical complementary techniques: X-ray diffraction (XRD) and total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF). The data obtained by means of both XRD and TXRF were compared and analyzed by multivariate statistical techniques in order to obtain sample groups according to their chemical composition. The results of this archaeometric study have been compared to those that have been obtained through macroscopic characterization by means of the traditional cl…
Joaquin Sorolla's pigment characterisation of the paintings ‘Vision of Spain’ by means of EDXRF portable system
In this work, portable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometry was employed to the characterisation of the palette used by the Spanish artist Joaquin Sorolla (1863–1923) in the paintings ‘Vision of Spain’, a set of 14 oils on canvas painted by Sorolla between 1911 and 1919 by order of Mr Archer Huntington to decorate the library of the Hispanic Society of America (HSA) in New York. The analyses, sponsored by BANCAJA and provided by the HSA, were carried out in situ, prior to the cleaning and restoration process, while the paintings hanging on the walls of the library of the HSA. The results revealed that the paintings were made over different priming layers containing, res…
An approximation to the study of black pigments in Cova Remigia (Castell on, Spain). Technical and cultural assessments of the use of carbon-based black pigments in Spanish Levantine Rock Art
International audience; Spanish Levantine Rock Art is a unique pictorial expression within the prehistoric European context. Located in shelters in the inland regions of the Iberian Mediterranean basin, this art form, which must be necessarily studied in the frame of the process of neolithization of this territory, still lacks direct dating, and therefore its authorship is still open to debate. In this paper we present the first characterization of black pigments used in the Cova Remigia shelters in the Valltorta-Gassulla area (Castell on, Spain) by means of EDXRF spectrometry combined with SEM-EDS and Raman spectroscopy. Our aim is both to identify the raw material used for the preparation…