Abstract
The Getty’s Etruscan painted terracotta wall panel, Athletic Official, recently has been speculated to be associated with a Caeretan wall panel depicting a Discobolus based on a shared iconography. To better understand the materials and techniques used to create the Getty panel and investigate its relation to extant Etruscan painted terracotta panels, a multi-analytical study was conducted, using broadband visible, IR, and UV imaging, along with scanning MA-XRF, FORS, Raman, SEM-EDS, and XRD analytical techniques. The analytical results together with PCA analysis suggest the clay support of the Getty panel is most similar in composition to that of panels from Cerveteri. A manganese black was identified in the decorative scheme; not commonly employed, this appears to be an important marker for the workshop practice in Cerveteri. Most significantly, the use of MA-XRF scanning allowed for invisible ruling lines on the Athletic Official, presumably laid down at the earliest stages of the creation of the panel, to be visualized. Taken together, the results of this study provide new insights into Caeretan workshop practice as well as provide a framework for better understanding the design and execution of Etruscan polychromy.
Highlights
In the mid-6th century BCE, Etruscans began to produce a characteristic and highly original series of painted terracotta panels
The The overall integrity and relative flatness of the of the panel offered a valuable opportunity to apply scanning macro X-ray fluorescence (MA-XRF) spectroscopy, a non-invasive technique that can generate maps showing the distribution of individual chemical elements across the entire surface of the panel
From the element distribution maps generated by MA-XRF, combined with complementary analyses that provided more detailed information about the physical context and chemical environment of the elements mapped (using fiber optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), Raman spectroscopy, and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD)), it was possible to better characterize the materials used in the production of the Athletic Official panel, offering new material evidence that supports its attribution to a Caeretan workshop
Summary
Overall integrity and relative flatness of to to thethe slab. The The overall integrity and relative flatness of the of the panel offered a valuable opportunity to apply scanning macro X-ray fluorescence (MA-XRF) spectroscopy, a non-invasive technique that can generate maps showing the distribution of individual chemical elements across the entire surface of the panel. From the element distribution maps generated by MA-XRF, combined with complementary analyses that provided more detailed information about the physical context and chemical environment of the elements mapped (using fiber optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), Raman spectroscopy, and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD)), it was possible to better characterize the materials used in the production of the Athletic Official panel, offering new material evidence that supports its attribution to a Caeretan workshop
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