| Sumario: | Highlights • Stratigraphy and composition of panel paintings from highest Gothic altar in the World were deciphered using combination of spectroscopic methods (XRF, SEM-EDS, FT-IR, Raman) and optical identification in polarisation microscope. • A total of 24 compounds were identified in painting pigments, bindings and glazes. • All samples consist of groundlayer containing organic binding material (egg albumen, linseed oil) mixed with chalk. • Cinnabar, lead tin yellow, lead white, hydrated Cu-sulphates, and Cu-hydroxicarbonates (malachite, azurite) are dominant inorganic phases in superimposed layers. • Use of fluorite and copper-based pigments was related to mining of polymetallic ores coincidental with German colonisation at the turn of the 15th and 16th century, after the period of Turkish invasions. Abstract A total of 25 inorganic (painting pigment and substrate) and organic components (binding and glaze) have been identified in the Main Altar of the St. James Church – the highest Gothic altar of the World. Micro-sampling of the first wood panel depicting Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, the third one depicting Christ Crowned with Thorns and the fourth one named Ecce Homo was performed to reveal the stratigraphy of the color paintings. Chalk, cinnabar, lead-tin yellow, cerussite (lead white), malachite, azurite, an iron oxide, and fluorite have been identified using optical microscopy, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy combined with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), Raman spectroscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Green pigment consists of hydrous copper sulfates (probably posnjakite mixed with woodwardite) and carbonates represented by fragmental and spherulitic malachite. Infrared spectroscopy confirmed the linseed oil mixed with egg albumen as the main binding constituent of color paintings, whereas animal glue was used in ground layers. The red glazing consisted of krapplak dissolved in oil, whereas the green glaze was composed by Verdigris (copper acetate) dissolved in the Venetian turpentine. Some samples contained remnants of shellac. The composition of inorganic pigments, including the exotic deep-purple fluorite unknown in the central European realm, points to combined local and remote pigment sources, thus indicating flourishing trade connections within medieval Europe after cessation of Turkish invasions in the early 16th Century.
|
|---|