Identification of Natural Dyes on 18th Century Liturgical Textiles from Dubrovnik

Abstract

In this paper researches were carried out on fragments of textiles from the 18[sup]th[/sup] century from Dubrovnik, for which, based on the design and art-historical analysis, it was determined that it was a part of an object (pluvial, cope) from liturgical vestments (ecclesiastical textiles) of the Dubrovnik diocese. Using modern non-destructive and micro-destructive methods we conducted the identification of green, blue and red as the dominant tones on the artefacts of historical textiles from Dubrovnik. The identification was based on the application of modern complementary techniques: UV / VIS, HPLC, SEM-EDX and FTIR-ATR. We analysed samples of coloured fiber, as well as ones obtained by the extraction of dyes from the dyed fibers. Archival data on natural dyes used in the Dubrovnik region in the period 14-19th century was taken into account in the identification of the historical textile dyes.