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Projeto de investigação
MaddArt - Towards the preservation of Madder reds in painted Artworks: History, Science & Art
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Publicações
Between past and future
Publication . Melo, Maria João; Nabais, Paula; Vieira, Márcia; Araújo, Rita; Otero, Vanessa; Lopes, João; Martín, Lourdes; LAQV@REQUIMTE; DCR - Departamento de Conservação e Restauro; Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM); VICARTE - Vidro e Cerâmica para as Artes; Elsevier
Heritage materials are highly complex systems of unknown and intrinsically heterogeneous compositions and unmonitored long-term modifications. In this microreview, we describe our interdisciplinary approach, its importance to new treatments tailored to prevent changes to historical colours, and innovative strategies for their identification in artworks. We illustrate our methodology through the study of medieval Islamic manuscripts from the Fondo Ka'ti. These advanced studies have shown the remarkable properties of ancient dyes, their resilience and durability, properties designed by our ancestors through sustainable materials processing. This lost knowledge can be shared with the community empowering them to create new sustainable applications, from unique art pieces to regional value-added products.
Production of Hand-painted Magic Lantern Glass Slides
Publication . Santos, Ângela; Otero, Vanessa; Vilarigues, Márcia; DCR - Departamento de Conservação e Restauro; VICARTE - Vidro e Cerâmica para as Artes; LAQV@REQUIMTE; Earthscan
Hand-painted magic lantern glass slides frequently present significant conservation problems, mainly due to the painting's deterioration and detachment from the glass support surface. However, the study of these objects is a very recent field. This work reviews the materials and techniques applied to hand-painted slides until the nineteenth century in Europe and North America to follow their evolution throughout time and place, aiming to further our understanding of the slides’ historical, cultural, and artistic impact. This review identifies 22 historical sources from five countries, written between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, containing information on the production of hand-painted slides, from the glass support to the painting materials and techniques. The production processes changed from the mid-seventeenth to the eighteenth century with the apparent transition from fired paints (enamels) to cold paints (watercolours, oil colours, and varnish colours). Different stages of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century production processes are explored. Concerning the glass support, crown and plate or ground-polished glass (later patent plate) were commonly advised. Although the paintings’ palette was mainly restricted to transparent colours, around 70 colourants and 25 binding medium components are listed. Their chronological distribution unveiled a possible correlation between their evolution and the advent of the Industrial Revolution. The knowledge of the original materials and techniques will not only contribute to understanding the differences between locations, periods, and slides’ producers, helping in future attributions, but will also support further investigations on the key factors and mechanisms that lead to the degradation of historical hand-painted slides, enabling the improvement of current conservation practices.
A First Approach to the Study of Winsor & Newton’s 19th-Century Manufacture of Madder Red Lake Pigments
Publication . Veiga, Tiago; Moro, Artur J.; Nabais, Paula; Vilarigues, Márcia; Otero, Vanessa; DCR - Departamento de Conservação e Restauro; LAQV@REQUIMTE; VICARTE - Vidro e Cerâmica para as Artes; DQ - Departamento de Química; MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
This paper focuses on the first investigation of the 19th-century manufacture of red lake pigments obtained from madder by Winsor & Newton (W&N), prominent artists’ colourman at that time. The first approach to their manufacture was carried out by studying the madder entries of the company’s book P1, found in the W&N 19th Century Archive Database. Eleven production records were discovered under names such as Rose Madder, Madder Carmine, Madder Lake and Madder Rose. Three main methods of synthesis were identified and reproduced, revealing three main steps: washing of the madder roots (Rubia tinctorum L.); extraction in acid media and complexation with Al3+ using alum; and precipitation by the addition of salts such as ammonium carbonate and sodium borate. The syntheses were followed by UV-VIS spectroscopy, and the pigments were further characterised by colourimetry, Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Diode Array Detector (HPLC-DAD). They all exhibited a rose hue in a highly insoluble aluminate matrix. Although the dye extraction was incomplete, alizarin, purpurin and pseudopurpurin were identified. An analytical comparison with a Rose Madder 19th-century oil paint tube was also performed by micro-FTIR and microspectrofluorimetry. This work intends to be foundational to a systematic study of the W&N’s 19th-century madder colours aiming to contribute new knowledge towards their identification and preservation in heritage objects.
The making of black inks in an Arabic treatise by al-Qalalūsī dated from the 13th c.
Publication . Díaz Hidalgo, Rafael Javier; Córdoba, Ricardo; Grigoryan, Hermine; Vieira, Márcia; Melo, Maria J.; Nabais, Paula; Otero, Vanessa; Teixeira, Natércia; Fani, Sara; Al-Abbady, Hossam; DCR - Departamento de Conservação e Restauro; LAQV@REQUIMTE; VICARTE - Vidro e Cerâmica para as Artes; SpringerOpen
For the first time, this paper systematises the medieval preparation of black writing inks found in the important thirteenth century Andalusian technical treatise written by Muhammad ibn Idrīs ibn al-Qalalūsī (1210–1308). We present the Arabic version of this extraordinary text (‘The gifts of the wise men on the curiosities of the substances’), and its first English translation, as well as discuss key aspects of the processes that remain missing or are unclear indications. In this work, we studied the iron gall inks based on galls, where no other phenolic source is present. In this pedagogical treatise, the recipes for these black iron-gall inks are organised and classified by the gallnuts extraction method used: boiling (decoction), squeezing and infusion, with water being the only solvent used. The inks selected were reproduced and characterised through a multi-analytical approach. Quantification was performed by HPLC–DAD (high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detectors in the UV–VIS), showing that gallic acid is a minor compound in the gall extracts prepared following al-Qalalūsī instructions. In all the recipes, the higher concentration compounds in the gall extracts are the gallotannins pentagalloylglucose and hexagalloylglucose, ranging from 79 to 50% of the phenolic compounds. This supports the results of Raman and infrared spectroscopies. A comparison with medieval Iberian recipes was also done, which served to reinforce our previous results that show water as the sole solvent extracts with much lower yields than mixed solvents (water plus white wine or vinegar).
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Entidade financiadora
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Programa de financiamento
CEEC IND 3ed
Número da atribuição
2020.00647.CEECIND/CP1586/CT0026