Abstract
The theory of fresco as the standard painting technique in Roman wall paintings, formulated in the mid-1960s by Paolo Mora and Laura Mora and Paul Philippot, has enjoyed general acceptance among specialists to the present day. However, the fresco theory is based on a series of postulates—such as the feasibility of fresco on pontate, the presence of giornate, or the use of alkali-sensitive pigments—which appear to be unsupported by physical or experimental evidence and which would require further assessment in order to validate the theory. Additionally, chemical analyses of Roman murals have identified the presence of various types of organic binders. A comparative study of these analyses reveals a remarkable difference between results obtained by the different researchers. The clustering of results by research group appears highly unlikely, suggesting the possible presence of confounding factors which could lead to distorted results. These factors might be related both to the difficulty in extracting ancient paint media and the influence of biological contamination. If the extraction method used is not adequate for an ancient binding medium, then part of the binder may not be extracted, producing an incomplete characterization of its composition. The lack of data on both the efficiency of the methods used and the possible influence of microbial contamination in the organic material may cause uncertainty in the degree of reliability of the different results obtained, fomenting uncertainty around the techniques used in ancient paintings as well as the treatments suitable for their conservation. Therefore, in the analysis of ancient paint media, the implementation of a protocol of assessment of both the efficiency of the extraction methods and the influence of biological contamination seems advisable.
Highlights
During recent decades, the theory that fresco was the most common painting technique in Roman murals has enjoyed general acceptance among specialists [1,2,3]
Differences between pre‐Renaissance fresco and Roman fresco technique Mora and Philippot state that the fresco painting technique developed in the Italian Trecento was an improvement in relation to the fresco technique used in Roman, Byzantine and Romanic times, as it allowed the execution of complex compositions by dividing the wall into giornate and provided better qualities of surface and texture [108]
Analyses of Roman mural painting suggest the difficulty in efficiently extracting ancient organic binders
Summary
The theory that fresco was the most common painting technique in Roman murals has enjoyed general acceptance among specialists [1,2,3]. Recent studies of the paint media used in these paintings seem to question the validity of the fresco theory, as most current analyses detect the presence of organic binders These binders are as varied as wheatpaste, egg and emulsified. This study of paint samples randomly selected from different archaeological areas seems to point to extensive use in Roman murals of a binder made from emulsified wax This extensive use seems to be confirmed by similar results obtained in a study carried out by the same group on unrestored Roman wall paintings from Mérida, Complutum and Marsala which will be discussed later. Considering the different paint media identified in Roman wall painting, the similarity in the binders detected by each team in samples of various wall paintings is worth mentioning This similarity may suggest the existence of a common painting technique, characterized differently by each research group. No of samples Extractor yield (%) (dried Painting technique extract/ scraped paint)
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