Abstract
Almost three hundred Spanish colonial missions—or their remains—are scattered over the vast state of Chihuahua in northern Mexico. A few of them still display painted decorations on the wood ceilings and walls. The decorated areas vary greatly, from the whole ceiling of the main aisle to just a few square meters in a lateral chapel, and so does the conservation state of the paintings. In this context, the information regarding the paintings’ composition plays a key role in the restoration and conservation processes. For the gathering of such information, we propose a combined methodology for a fast, non-destructive and non-invasive characterization of such paintings with a minimum of techniques. This methodology includes false color infrared imaging as a first approach to determine the composition of large areas of the paintings and the homogeneity of the materials used in the painted areas, followed by small area analysis by X-ray fluorescence and fiber-optics reflectance spectroscopy. This methodology was applied to characterize the elemental and molecular composition of the decorations for four missions in Chihuahua in a fast and specific manner, revealing the use of a mix of mineral and organic materials including indigo and cochineal, and detecting differences between the missions. The methodology presented here can be easily applied for the study of a wider number of missions in Chihuahua and other regions to provide outstanding information of materials, pictorial techniques and deterioration conditions.
Highlights
The colonization of the northern territories of Mexico began a few decades after the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521 and was driven by the discovery of silver and gold deposits in the areas that are part of the states of Chihuahua, Zacatecas, Durango and Coahuila in Mexico, and Texas, Arizona and New Mexico in present-day UnitedStates
The results from in situ analyses may be useful to establish an informed sampling strategy according to the objectives of the study and the deterioration conditions of the object. Because of this difficulty in analyzing polychrome decorations that can be as high as ten meters above the ground, we propose a combined methodology for the non-destructive and non-invasive in situ characterization of painting materials from large areas in a short time
False color infrared imaging As a preliminary technique, false color infrared imaging (FCIR) is useful for narrowing down possible pigments and selecting representative areas for further spectroscopic analysis
Summary
The colonization of the northern territories of Mexico began a few decades after the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521 and was driven by the discovery of silver and gold deposits in the areas that are part of the states of Chihuahua, Zacatecas, Durango and Coahuila in Mexico, and Texas, Arizona and New Mexico in present-day UnitedStates. The colonization of the northern territories of Mexico began a few decades after the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521 and was driven by the discovery of silver and gold deposits in the areas that are part of the states of Chihuahua, Zacatecas, Durango and Coahuila in Mexico, and Texas, Arizona and New Mexico in present-day United. The arrival of soldiers and settlers was accompanied by Catholic priests, mainly Jesuits, Franciscans and Dominicans, with the intention of preaching the Gospel to the indigenous population. In the following three centuries several hundred missions were built, located alongside small towns, military posts (presidios), mines and private estates [1, 2]. The Jesuit and Franciscan religious orders built around 280 missions in the state of Chihuahua, many of which have survived to the present day under different states of conservation. In a previous study [4], samples from the polychromy of five
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