A Case Study of Frescoes Diagnostics by Scanning Laser Doppler Vibrometry (SLDV): The Brumidi Corridors and The President’s Room at The United States Capitol

Abstract

The United States Capitol contains large expanses of important fine art and decorative paintings, including buon frescos, executed directly on the original lime plaster. Of particular concern is assessing the presence of deteriorated plaster, a condition known to exist in various parts of the building, but that has not been comprehensively surveyed. The authors report here on tests to assess the effectiveness of SLDV for detecting and characterizing deficiencies in the plaster support behind fine arts and decorative paintings in the United States Capitol. In particular our analysis will be focused in two of the Capitol’s important artworks: the Brumidi Corridors and the President’s Room. The Brumidi Corridors are the richly painted hall-ways on the first floor of the Senate Wing. As in the President’s Room, the wall paintings were designed by the famous Italian artist Costantino Brumidi. The conservator’s aim is to find a proper technique to carefully diagnose and monitor structural defects like that they discovered in the above mentioned places: loss of cohesion within a layer, delamination from the brick substrate, and interlayer delamination between layers. This project has just started and in this work we will present some preliminary results obtained from sample panels in the Corridors and in a small room of the Capitol.