A non-invasive XRF study supported by multivariate statistical analysis and reflectance FTIR to assess the composition of modern painting materials.
The palette used in two paintings by Paul Cézanne, L'étang des soeurs dated c. 1875 and La route tournante, made in the last year of his life (1902), were analyzed using non-invasive spectroscopic methods. X-ray fluorescence combined with principal components analysis (PCA) and supported by reflectance near- and mid-FTIR was shown to be a powerful analytical tool to draw conclusions about the chemical identification of inorganic materials in paintings. Pigments and fillers such us Thénard's blue, Prussian blue, red ochre, kaolin, vermilion, lead white, zinc white and barium sulphate, were identified. Evidence for three different pigments, namely a copper arsenite pigment, chrome green (a mixture of chrome yellow and Prussian blue) and viridian has been obtained by the PCA analysis of elemental compositions of green hues.
Rosi
Francesca
F
Centro di Eccellenza SMAArt (Scientific Methodologies applied to Archaeology and Art), c/o Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
Burnstock
Aviva
A
Van den Berg
Klaas Jan
KJ
Miliani
Costanza
C
Brunetti
Brunetto Giovanni
BG
Sgamellotti
Antonio
A
D003116:Color; D049672:History, 19th Century; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010150:Paint / Q000032:analysis*; D010151:Paintings / Q000266:history; D010860:Pigments, Biological / Q000737:chemistry; D013052:Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission / Q000379:methods; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / Q000379:methods
D010860:Pigments, Biological