Differential and scanning-mode external PIXE for the analysis of the painting “Ritratto Trivulzio” by Antonello da Messina

The new external ion beam analysis setup at the Demokritos Tandem accelerator and first applications in cultural heritage

“…PIXE provides multielemental, simultaneous analysis of elements with atomic number ranging from Z = 11 (Sodium) to Z = 92 (Uranium), with lower limits of detection down to the few lg/g range. However, novel methodologies reported for the PIXE analysis (3D Micro-PIXE [17], differential PIXE [18][19][20][21][22]) can also contribute towards elemental profiling studies up to a depth of several tens of lm. RBS can provide quantitative information of most elements in a near-surface region that it is either structured as a sequence of layers with different composition and thickness or presenting elemental concentration gradients due to the selective depletion or enrichment of particular elements including those with low atomic number (such as oxygen and carbon).…”

The External Ion Microbeam of the LABEC Laboratory in Florence: Some Applications to Cultural Heritage

“…In this article, three applications of the external scanning microbeam of the LABEC laboratory to artworks are presented as an example of the analytical capabilities of the facility: an investigation of the pictorial technique of Antonello da Messina in the masterpiece "Ritratto Trivulzio" Grassi, 2009! ; the mineralogical characterization and provenance study of some lapis lazuli artworks from the "Collezione Medicea delle Pietre Dure"~Calusi et al, 2008;Lo Giudice et al, 2009!…”

“…In this article, three applications of the external scanning microbeam of the LABEC laboratory to artworks are presented as an example of the analytical capabilities of the facility: an investigation of the pictorial technique of Antonello da Messina in the masterpiece “Ritratto Trivulzio” (Grassi, 2009); the mineralogical characterization and provenance study of some lapis lazuli artworks from the “Collezione Medicea delle Pietre Dure” (Calusi et al, 2008; Lo Giudice et al, 2009) and the study of some small ingots, the so-called “Aes Rude,” dating back to the 6th century B.C. and probably used as currency, in order to get some information on their production technology and origin (Benvenuti et al, 2007).…”

New approaches for investigating paintings by ion beam techniques

“…Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) has been used for the last decade for painting analysis [1][2][3][4][5][6]. This technique, well adapted to the detection of the elements heavier than sodium, has given successful results for the characterization of pigments based on mineral compounds [7,8].…”

“…Differential PIXE, based either on the variation of the particle energy [5,6,13] or on the variation of the target angle [14] and more recently of the detection angle [15], is one of the possibilities to access at different analyzed depths. The other choice is based on the X-ray spectrum itself by using the intensity ratios of K/L or L/M X-rays for measuring the position of an element in layers [16].…”