Abstract
Few and fragmentary is the information regarding the “oro di metà” (halfway gold) gilding due to the low probability of finding it in paintings as well as its short durability because of tarnishing. However, the very rare, excellent state of conservation of the gilding found in the fifteenth-century wood panel painting of the Master of St. Ivo studied in this work along with a multi-analytical approach allowed shedding light on the structure, the composition and the conservation state of this type of gilding. An Ultra-High Resolution Scanning Electron Microscope (UHR-SEM) along with Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) analysis and polarised light Optical Microscopy (OM) were employed in order to image and analyse a cross-section of a sample taken from the wood panel painting. Results highlighted a divided structure of the gilding which is constituted by two separated layers of gold and silver with different thickness. This is the first time that scientific evidence on this issue is provided. Moreover, considerations on the tarnishing process of the gilding were made. Finally, complementary vibrational spectroscopic techniques such as micro-Raman and micro-ATR-FTIR were employed in order to identify the molecular composition of the “bole” (gilding preparation layer) and the ground layers.
Highlights
Gilding is an ornamental decoration in paintings which consists of applying a very thin layer of gold using different techniques
Mary Magdalene, the “oro di metà” gilding represents a rare example of its excellent state of preservation, which makes it one of the few cases that has come to us so intact
In the water gilding, the gold foil is laid onto an adhesive layer consisting mainly of earth pigments mixed with a protein binder and with some water commonly known as “bole”, over gypsum ground
Summary
Gilding is an ornamental decoration in paintings which consists of applying a very thin layer of gold (the gold leaf) using different techniques. In the gilding with mordant, the gold foil is laid on an oil-based mordant usually made of linseed oil mixed with pigments as driers This technique is suitable for decorations and small details [1]. The observation carried out by means of both a polarized light optical microscope (OM) and an Ultra-High Resolution Scanning Electron Microscope (UHR-SEM) have confirmed, as far as we know for the first time, the presence of two distinct very thin metal foils with different thicknesses in the “oro di metà” gilding. The sp4ecotfra were collected using an accumulation time of 20 s
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