Identifying Original and Restoration Materials through Spectroscopic Analyses on Saturnino Gatti Mural Paintings: How Far a Noninvasive Approach Can Go

Abstract

This paper presents the results obtained for the mural paintings (XV century CE) in the church of San Panfilo in Villagrande di Tornimparte (AQ, Italy) by means of noninvasive spectroscopic techniques; this research is a part of the project on the Saturnino Gatti pictorial cycle, promoted and coordinated by the AIAr (the Italian Archaeometry Association). Digital optical microscopy (OM), X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), fiber optics reflectance spectroscopy in the UV–Vis–NIR range (FORS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in the external reflection mode (ER-FTIR), and Raman spectroscopy were performed on the points selected based on the image analysis results and the few available records on previous intervention, with the aim of characterizing both the original and restoration organic and inorganic materials. The synergic application of complementary techniques allowed us to obtain a complete picture of the palette and the main alteration products and organic substances (of rather ubiquitous lipid materials and less widespread resin and proteinaceous materials in specific points). The identification of modern compounds permitted the individuation of restoration areas; this was confirmed by the comparison with multiband imaging results, as in the case of specific green and blue pigments, strictly related to the presence of high signals of zinc. This analytical protocol left only very few ambiguities and allowed to minimizing the number of samples taken to clarifying, by sample laboratory analyses, the few doubts still open.