Metal leaf (gold, silver or their alloys) glass tesserae began to be used in wall mosaics in the first century AD (the first examples are in Rome) and their use has been uninterrupted up to day. The metal leaf could be obtained from circulating coins, jewellery or refining. According to various techniques that have changed over the centuries, the leaf was hot fixed between two glass layers. From an archaeological point of view, it is interesting to know when and where these tesserae were made, if they were new made or if they were reused tesserae recovered from earlier dismantled mosaics. The determination of the glass composition of the tesserae is not of great help in this connection, for the same kind of glass was used over long periods. Available information is still scanter for glasses produced between the 1st to 8th centuries when the batch of raw materials (a natural soda called natron and a silica-lime sand) was melted in large tank furnaces and chunks of raw glass were transported all over the Mediterranean to be remelted and shaped into manufacts in small pot furnaces. The SEM-EDS analysis is proposed in this study as a useful tool to investigate the composition of both the glass and the gold alloy in leaf tesserae from mosaics of the 1st -9th centuries. The comparison of the composition of the gold leaf of the tesserae with that of circulating gold coins (for which an important analytical data base is available), adds further information to the glass analysis, allowing us to improve the dating of the tesserae and increase the knowledge that may result from scientific analyses. The results demonstrate that good quantitative analyses of the metal leaf can be performed and that metal leaves made of pure gold or goldsilver alloys were used.
Barium hydroxide was one of the most widely used inorganic materials to consolidate calcareous stones during the 19th and 20th. The consolidation process occurs through a carbonation reaction. Several researchers studied the consolidation mechanism; however, the results are sometimes in conflict. More experimental work using modern analytical techniques and a multi-analytical approach is necessary to shed light on the mechanisms involved. This research aims to validate the chemical composition of the developed secondary products and to evaluate the treatment’s effectiveness over time. Carrara marble and Vicenza white limestone were treated and subjected to natural, artificial, and biological weathering. Furthermore, only a few microsamples were collected from Venetian historical artifacts treated in the 1960s and 1970s. Microscopic observations, sponge tests, FTIR, SEM-EDX, and microbiological analyses investigated the stability of the treatment over time and ascertained the chemical composition of the acicular crystals developed from the carbonation reaction of barium hydroxide. The results prompted a number of considerations useful for future restorations and for developing innovative compounds for consolidation interventions.
Two very important red figured vases by the Painter of Louvre K 240 – the Acrobat krater preserved in the L. Bernabò-Brea Regional Archaeological Museum of Lipari (Sicily), and the Fleischman krater of the J. Paul Getty Villa (Malibu, Los Angeles) – were submitted to stylistic and archaeometric examination, the latter by powder-XRD, OM on thin sections, SEM + EDS on polished sections, and FTIR to characterise the component materials (ceramic body, black glosses, pigments and media) and the manufacturing technique. The results indicate an identical illitic, slightly calcareous clay used for the manufacture of both vases that were then painted with a very similar slip, then turned a gloss black by firing in a reducing atmosphere. The provenance of the clay could not be precisely determined so far. Both kraters were also painted with a very similar technique, so that it may be concluded that they were produced by the same artist in a unique atelier yet to be identified.
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