Gold Paint Research Articles

Translating Aphrodite: The Sandal-Binder in Two Roman Contexts

The Sandal-Binder Aphrodite, a witty variation on Praxiteles’ Aphrodite of Knidos, is one of the most frequently reproduced sculptural types in Greco-Roman art. Created in a variety of materials throughout the Mediterranean, extant versions of this iconography show the goddess in the act of tying (or possibly untying) her sandal. Although a large number of these works of art date between the first and fourth century CE, most studies on the Sandal-Binder have approached it primarily as an expression of Hellenistic Greek artistic trends. The present study shifts our attention away from the cultural milieu of the Sandal-Binder’s creation to that of its reception. Two well-preserved examples—one from a house in Pompeii and the other from London—attest to the process of translating or adapting this sensual image of Aphrodite to a Roman ideological framework. In both cases, it is through the language of body adornment that this transformation is achieved: while the example from Pompeii (a marble statuette adorned with gold paint) shows the goddess wearing contemporary jewelry and clothing, the diminutive silver figurine from London is part of a fashionable hairpin that points to the dissemination of imperial hairstyles in Rome’s remotest province. By calling attention to their design and function, this essay highlights the complex polysemy of Roman Sandal-Binders and the powerful messages they communicated to a diverse audience of viewers both at the heart of the empire and in the provinces.

Materialized Identities in Early Modern Culture, 1450–1750. Objects, Affects, Effects

A few years ago, the Bavarian National Museum held an exhibition about purses in modern Europe. Familiar images, such as Renaissance portraits, were made new again by focusing on the overlooked detail of purses. I will never think of purses in paintings the same way again! This object-centred exhibition enabled me to delve into the theoretical and practical meaning of a seemingly mundane thing. This is the kind of delight in discovery that I experienced many times while reading the eight essays in this richly illustrated volume. Materialized Identities is the product of four years of collaborative research on the topic of early modern European materiality by historians, art historians and museum professionals. The chapters are organized by the four material themes of glass, feathers, gold paint and veils, which correspond to fundamental sensory qualities that attracted early modern Europeans: lustre, translucency, transparency and shimmer. During the period under study, artists and artisans reached new heights of skill and developed technologies while adapting and incorporating materials from the Americas. Both producers’ capacity and consumers’ new material sensibilities shaped theoretical discourses as well as consumption behaviours.

Design of prada paint dulang craft drying machine to improve product quality and work productivity of dulang fiber crafters in Bangli regency

Dulang (Balinese Language) is a tool used by Hindus as a means in ceremonies to bring holy offerings of gebogan (like holy offerings) during a ceremony. Dulang is generally made of wood which is formed in such a way and given a color to beautify its appearance. The drying process is carried out outdoors during the day at around 12.00 - 1.00 pm for around 60 minutes with an ambient temperature of 30 - 34 ° C until the gold paint is dry. The process of drying gold paint requires a good heat temperature and drying evenly to get the results of good quality Prada paint. When the weather is cloudy or the rainy season the craftsman drying process can take place for one full day, other than that the quality of Prada (like gold color paint) is also not good that is less brilliant. Efforts to overcome this designed a gold paint drying machine. This drying machine is designed with a capacity of 4 pieces of fiber with 2 shelves.

Kontribusi Aktivis Mesjid Lautze 2 Bandung dalam Merangkul Mualaf Tionghoa Tahun 2016-2021

Lautze 2 Mosque in Bandung was established in January 1997. The location of Lautze 2 Mosque is on Jl. Tamblong number 27 Bandung City. Lautze 2 Mosque is a branch of Lautze 1 Mosque in Jakarta. Lautze 2 Mosque in Bandung has its uniqueness, especially in the architecture of the building. Lautze 2 Mosque, conceptualized in the shape of a temple. The red, yellow, and gold paint colors that adorn the walls of the Lautze 2 Mosque reflect Chinese culture. In addition to the paint color, the ornaments that adorn the mosque also have a Chinese nuance. From 2016 to 2021, there were 151 who took the oath of faith at the Lautze 2 Mosque. In addition to religious activities, the Lautze 2 Mosque always held social programs. One of them is the iftar program and on the road a thousand dates. This activity was supported by various parties, one of which was the Salman Charity House. Not only Muslims who support this, but even many interfaith also donate to keep this activity. In writing this article, the theory used is the racial theory proposed by Murtadha Muttahari. According to him, the leading cause of historical progress is certain races.

Illuminating Methods, Picturing Instruments: Tycho Brahe's Instrumental Images

AbstractThis article considers the function of twenty-two hand-colored prints of mathematical instruments in Tycho Brahe's Astronomiae instauratae mechanica (Instruments of the renewed astronomy; 1598), a hand-painted presentation treatise dedicated to Emperor Rudolf II and conferred on a network of individuals connected to the imperial court in Prague. Although the accompanying text communicates the instruments’ use and composition, the images demand close inspection because they articulate Brahe's observationally driven astronomy. They do so through structured, repeated, and consecutive representations; through expanded viewer access, achieved by adhering to multiple perspectives; through the juxtaposition of colors, which focuses attention on the heads of the instruments (the part that does the measuring); and through the use of gold paint, which emphasizes the head and brings to mind the very metallic nature of the instruments. Much like an astronomer taking multiple measurements of cosmological phenomena, these images allow viewers and readers, as they leaf through the pages of the treatise, to become virtual participants in Brahe's instauration of astronomy.

A first approach to reconstruct the production technology of Zsolnay ceramic panel paintings with oil painting effect

Colourful and artistic ceramic panel paintings that realistically imitate oil paintings were one of the innovations of the Hungarian Zsolnay ceramic factory. Ten large ceramic panel paintings and two overdoor compositions (each containing three panels) decorated the Saint Stephen Hall in the palace of the Buda Castle (Budapest) established around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. However, the ceramic paintings were destroyed during World War II. In this study, three experimental Zsolnay panel paintings, as preparatory pieces for the original series, were examined to reconstruct the material usage and the production technology. Microanalytical investigation of the samples detached from one of the experimental panel paintings (portrait of King Béla IV) demonstrated that the panel, made of porous ceramic known as pyrogranite, was first covered by a white clay slip layer, and then by a primary white tin glaze layer, which served as a “ground” for the painting. The portrait of King Béla IV and the surrounding golden decorative motifs were created with different technologies. Coloured clay pastes (slips) were used to paint the portrait, which was then covered by a secondary transparent lead glaze, whereas a blue glaze covered by a thin layer of gold paint was applied over the primary glaze of the golden motifs. Non-destructive handheld XRF analysis revealed slight differences between the three experimental panel paintings, particularly in the tin content of the primary glaze layer and the colourants used, which were possibly related to the experimentation performed at the Zsolnay factory before the creation of the final paintings.

A Bibliographical Study of the Bumjadaranitapdo Written with Gold Paint in Goryeo Dynasty

A Bibliographical Study of the Bumjadaranitapdo Written with Gold Paint in Goryeo Dynasty

Some Recipes for Gilding

ABSTRACT Recipes for edge gilding and gold tooling on bookbindings can be found in medieval alchemical, chemical, technical and medical manuscript tracts from the late fifteenth century onwards. Sixteenth-century printed books dealing with medicinal and “curious” subjects, with secrets and mysteries, as well as seventeenth and eighteenth century bookbinding manuals, include recipes for making gold leaf or gold paint and pigments and explain how to apply these to leather and parchment bindings. This article concentrates on descriptions of edge gilding and gold tooling in West European sources, dating from the late fifteenth to the late seventeenth centuries.

Temperature and emissivity retrieval from low-emissivity materials using hyperspectral thermal infrared data

ABSTRACTLand surface temperature and emissivity separation (TES) is a key problem in thermal infrared remote sensing. Many TES algorithms have been proposed and validated on natural surface materials such as water or vegetation. However, when those algorithms are applied to low-emissivity materials such as some metals, the retrieval accuracy needs significant improvement. Here, we propose a new temperature and emissivity retrieval algorithm for hyperspectral thermal infrared data based on bias characteristic of atmospheric downward radiance. This approach is aimed at weakening the large influence of errors in atmospheric downward radiance on the TES of low-emissivity materials due to stronger coupling between the surface and atmosphere. Compared with traditional approaches such as the iterative spectrally smooth temperature and emissivity separation (ISSTES) method, the proposed method improves retrieval accuracy for low-emissivity materials by about 0.3, 0.4, and 1 K for three low-emissivity test materials (galvanized steel metal, metallic silver paint, and gold paint sandpaper). Thus, the proposed algorithm can weaken the influence of atmospheric downward radiance error. In addition, the computation efficiency is higher than ISSTES because fewer groups of channels are involved in the calculation.

The Idea of a Colony: Eliot and Stevens in Australia

The Idea of a Colony:Eliot and Stevens in Australia Benjamin Madden THAT MODERNIST LITERATURE encountered a frequently hostile reaction from its earliest audiences, whom we tend now to reproach in retrospect for their "shortsightedness" and "provincialism," is true just about everywhere. But in the antipodes, those reproaches have tended to be both more severe and more literal: "provincialism" isn't just a metaphor in the provinces, let alone the colonies, and therefore we—good, tasteful cosmopolitans—tend to round on our ancestors who expressed those "provincial" tastes with extra force. So much force, in fact, that we rarely pause to complicate reproach with explanation. Why would we, when the cultural prestige of what we now call literary modernism is at an all-time high? And yet, there is some circularity here: Australian readers rejected modernism because they were provincial, and the evidence of their provincialism is their rejection of modernism. In this essay, I will show that Australian anti-modernism has a livelier and more complex intellectual genealogy than the cliché of provincialism would suggest, and that this background helps to account for the very different receptions accorded to the poetry of two of the twentieth century's major modernists, T. S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens. I will begin by describing the Nietzscheaninflected anti-modernism of the Vision group in the 1920s, and suggest that their ambition should be read as an attempt to articulate a specific cultural project for Australia in the postwar world. Modernism, they concluded, was inimical to that project. Shortly thereafter, however, the site of modernism's reception shifted from the public sphere of practicing poets and critics to the academy, where the increasing influence of the Leavisites—whose own cultural mission dovetailed in some interesting, if accidental, ways with the Vision group—made a version of the modernist canon a fait accompli. But that canon was circumscribed in certain ways, notably by the availability of texts: in the first half of the twentieth century, Australian readers relied on London publishing houses for their imported reading matter. For an American writer's work to be disseminated widely in Australia, their work would have to be anthologized, or released by a British publisher. This is how Stevens's work came to be known in Australia during the 1950s. That Stevens's poetry was disseminated at a [End Page 77] moment when Australia was shifting its cultural and political allegiances from Britain to the United States was its good fortune: against the intellectual backdrop of anti-modernist vitalism, it could be received and read as a potential escape from the Eliotic impasse. One of the first expressions of modernism in the antipodes was, fittingly enough, a kind of anti-modernism: I am referring to Vision: A Literary Quarterly, edited by Frank C. Johnson, Jack Lindsay, and Kenneth Slessor, and published in four issues beginning in May 1923 and concluding in February 1924. Vision shares many of the essential characteristics of the modernist little magazine, not least the brevity of its lifespan and the pugnacity of its tone. Reflecting on his own experiences with little magazines, Ezra Pound famously recommended "a program—any program. A review that can't announce a program probably doesn't know what it thinks or where it is going" (703). On a rhetorical level, at least, Vision would not have disappointed: The object of this Quarterly is primarily to provide an outlet for good poetry, or for any prose that liberates the imagination by gaiety or fantasy. Unless gaiety is added to realism, the pestilence of Zola or the locomotor ataxia of Flaubert must finally attack the mind. We would vindicate the youthfulness of Australia, not by being modern, but by being alive. Physical tiredness, jaded nerves and a complex superficiality are the stigmata of Modernism. We prefer to find Youth by responding to the image of beauty, to vitality of emotion. ("Foreword" I: 2) Its contemptuous vision of "Modernism" sees the malign influence of Zola and Flaubert extending into the 1920s, alongside a host of contemporary offenders: When Picasso hung a geometrical pattern in gold paint in the last Autumn Salon, or Satie put typewriters in the orchestra of "Parade," they were...

Modification of the rheological properties of screen printing ceramic paints containing gold

This work presents the results of modification of rheological properties of screen printing paints containing gold. 15 wt% glossy gold paste and 15 wt% glossy liquid gold were used as modifiers containing gold. The study showed that the gold paint for screen printing can be obtained by evaporation of the 15 wt% liquid gold and the golden luster. The compaction process of liquid gold by evaporation is slow and easy to perform in industrial conditions.The second way to adapt the 15 wt% gold ceramic paint for screen printing application depended on adding the aniseed oil and the pine oil. The course of the flow curve of the gold paste without modification indicates that it is shear thinning and shows the desired effect of thixotropy, and even anti-thixotropy, at low shear rates (<50-1 s-1). The introduction of the essential oils eliminates this phenomenon and the paste converts itself from the non-rheostable to the rheostable liquid.

Cardiac Tamponade: A Rare Presentation of Childhood Hypothyroidism.

Dear Editor, Myxedema heart disease is a well-known entity. Pericardial effusions have been reported in 50-73% of pediatric patients with hypothyroidism in various series (1, 2), but none of these describes the symptomatic pericardial effusions or cardiac tamponade. A 5- year-old female child presented with complaints of periorbital puffiness and mild abdominal distension intermittently for last 6 months. She was symptomatically treated with diuretics off and on without much benefit. This time she reported to pediatric emergency with progressively increasing respiratory distress for last 5 days. There was no history of any fever, decreased urine output, orthopnea, or Koch’s contact. She was third live issue of non-consanguineous marriage born by normal vaginal delivery following uncomplicated pregnancy. She was immunized for age with no significant family history. She had history of global development delay; development age corresponded to 3 years. On examination she was afebrile with HR of 70/min, RR of 44/min and BP of 80/60 mmHg with pulsus paradoxus. She had coarse facies with dilated neck veins. Her skin was dry and coarse. She had short stature with height less than 3rd centile and normal weight. Her cardiovascular examination revealed silent precordium. Her cardiac border was extending 1.5 cm beyond right sternal margin and 2 cm beyond apex beat on left side on percussion. Her heart sounds were muffled with no murmur. Her abdominal examination revealed free fluid in abdomen. Rest of systemic examination was normal. Chest X ray revealed massive cardiomegaly with CT ratio of 678%. Immediate ECHO done on urgent basis, revealed large pericardial effusion with collapse of right atrium during diastole with ejection fraction of 65% and intrinsically normal heart. ECHO guided pericardiocentesis drained 150 ml of fluid. The fluid was clear with 3.3 mg/dl of proteins, 110 mg/dl cholesterol, 20 RBC/µL, 14 lymphocytes/µL, 7 neutrophils/µL and rest of pericardial examination were normal. Rest of hematological and urinary examination was normal. Searching for tuberculosis was also negative. In view of features suggested of hypothyroidism on clinical examination and non infectious nature of pericardial fluid, her thyroid profile was done which was suggested of hypothyroidism with T3 = 0.92 nmol/L (1.39-3.7nmol/L), T4 = 3.2 µg/dl (5.5-12.8µg/dl), TSH= 40 mIU/L(0.7-6.4 mIU/L). Her anti TPO antibodies were negative and USG neck revealed mild enlargement of thyroid gland. She was started on L-thyroxine with dosage of 4 µg/kg/d. She responded to treatment with thyroid replacement and her pericardial effusion disappeared after 2 months on repeat ECHO. She is on regular follow up and showing improvement in each regards. Although mild to moderate pericardial effusions of no clinical significance are frequently reported in pediatric myxedema heart disease, but cardiac tamponade is rare. Literature reports only 2 adolescent girls with cardiac tamponade in association with hypothyroidism, but none has been reported in young children. Author reports a rare case of cardiac tamponade in a young child with previously unrecognized hypothyroidism. Besides bradycardia, minimal pericardial effusions are most common cardiac manifestations of clinical hypothyroidism in adults. Most of pediatric age group patients presenting with this belonged to neonatal period or to Down’s syndrome (1, 2). Myxedema heart disease was first described by Zondek in 1918 and was completely defined by Fahr in 1925 (3). The pathophysiological derangements responsible for pericardial effusions are increased egress of proteins from blood, decreased lymphatic clearance of proteins and abnormal electrolyte metabolism (4). At molecular level, commonly observed signs or symptoms in hypothyroidism are attributed to changes in expression of various gene products, which includes alpha myosin heavy chain, beta-1 adrenergic receptors, voltage gated potassium channels and sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase (5). The rarity of cardiac tamponade in hypothyroidism is attributed to slow accumulation of fluid and marked distensibility of pericardium (6). Alexander first described ‘Gold paint effusion’ to describe the golden brown appearance of pericardial fluid due shimmering satin cholesterol crystals (7). High cholesterol content of pericardial fluid have been attributed to disturbance of lipid metabolism; probably churning action of heart causing precipitation of cholesterol from pericardial fluid. Treatment of cardiac tamponade due to hypothyroidism involves urgent pericardiocentesis followed by thyroxine replacement. Treatment of pericardial effusion with thyroxine replacement leads to resolution of effusion in 2-12 months (5). In conclusion myxedema heart disease should be suspected in any child with symptoms suggestive of hypothyroidism, presenting with even hemodynamic-ally significant pericardial effusion or cardiac tamponade. Patients with hypothyroidism-associated pericardial effusion should be monitored for development of cardiac tamponade.

Cholesterol pericarditis associated with rheumatoid arthritis: A rare cause of pericardial effusion

Cholesterol pericarditis is an uncommon form of pericardial disease, of unknown pathophysiology, that is characterized by chronic relapsing, usually large, pericardial effusions that are distinctive due to high levels of cholesterol in the pericardial fluid, with or without the formation of crystals [ 1 Alexander S.J. A pericardial effusion of “gold paint” appearance due to presence of cholesterin. Br Med J. 1919; 2: 463 Crossref PubMed Scopus (27) Google Scholar , 2 Brawley R.K. Vasko J.S. Monrow A.G. Cholesterol pericarditis: consideration of its pathogenesis and treatment. Am J Cardiol. 1966; 41: 235-248 Scopus (33) Google Scholar ]. It is usually idiopathic, but can be associated with various systemic diseases such as hypothyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis and tuberculosis. In the case of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), release of cholesterol from pericardial cell membranes or from necrotic rheumatoid nodules, lysis of red blood cells, lymphatic obstruction and reduced pericardial absorption capacity have all been suggested as possible mechanisms [ 3 Knobel B. Rosman P. Cholesterol pericarditis associated with rheumatoid arthritis. Harefuah. 2001 Jan; 140 (87): 10-12 PubMed Google Scholar , 4 Fernandes F. Vieira G.S. Arteaga E. Ianni B.M. Pego-Fernandes P. Mady C. Cholesterol pericarditis. A specific but rare cause of pericardial disease. Arq Bras Cardiol. May 2001; 76: 391-394 Crossref PubMed Scopus (15) Google Scholar , 5 Stanley R.J. Subramanian R. Lie J.T. Cholesterol pericarditis terminating as constrictive calcific pericarditis. Am J Cardiol. 1980; 46: 511-514 Abstract Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (14) Google Scholar , 6 Ford E.J. Bear P.A. Adams R.W. Cholesterol pericarditis causing cardiac tamponade. Am Heart J. 1991; 122: 877-879 Abstract Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (8) Google Scholar ]. Although its clinical course is usually indolent and complications such as cardiac tamponade and chronic constrictive pericarditis are relatively rare, the need for surgery for complete treatment has been reported in at least 10% of cases [ [7] Raposo Luís et al. Cholesterol pericarditis — relapsing pericardial effusion in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis. Rev Port Cardiol. 2005; 24: 737-745 PubMed Google Scholar ].

A Royal Collection of Bronze Model Boats and Soldiers from Eighteenth-Century Burma

A Royal Collection of Bronze Model Boats and Soldiers from Eighteenth-Century Burma Bob Hudson (bio) The Defence Services Museum in Yangon (Rangoon), in Myanmar (Burma), is not well patronized by overseas visitors. Some may have been put off after viewing the dusty cabinets of the poorly resourced National Museum. Others might assume that a military museum will just feature old guns and trucks, of interest only to militaria enthusiasts. However, it’s a pity to miss this museum. Although a civilian parliament was elected in 2010, the military remains predominant in Myanmar politics and government. The Defence Services Museum provides a detailed portrayal of the world view and aspirations of the regime. It has not stinted on resources to do so. And amid the visualization of national history, below the portraits of military chiefs looking proudly over dioramas of factories and dam sites, past the guns, tanks, and aircraft that will indeed appeal to militaria buffs, is a fine collection of model soldiers, cannon, and boats (Figure 1, 4–12). These elegant bronzes belonged originally to King Alaungpaya. They have some tales to tell about the culture and society of his time. When the British colonized Burma in the nineteenth century, many people in the outside world became familiar with the then-capital, Mandalay, not the least because of Kipling’s popular image of the “road to Mandalay,” the Irrawaddy River that linked the inland city with the sea. The British deposed the last king of the Konbaung dynasty at Mandalay in 1885. This dynasty had been founded more than [End Page 153] a century earlier by Alaungpaya, a regional governor who overthrew the previous regime. He had been provided with guns, ammunition, and light cannon by the British East India Company, which expected regional stability and a payoff in trade once he controlled the kingdom (Harvey 1925, 227). Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Alaungpaya’s cannoneer at the ready. The bronze models have been over-enthusiastically coated with gold paint, but their detail remains clear. In 1753, Alaungpaya built a new capital in his home area, at Moksobo, which he renamed Yatanatheinga, 80 kilometers northwest of Mandalay. This was not a classic brick-walled city, but a huge version of a military stockade, three kilometers square. On the mounds of earth formed by excavating a moat was a wall of palm trunks (Figure 2). But his successors soon moved back to the former capital, Ava, and eventually to the newly constructed Mandalay. By the early nineteenth century, the great stockade had been renamed Shwebo (“golden chief”) by one of Alaungpaya’s [End Page 154] descendants (Enriquez 1915). It was by then a minor provincial town, as it remains today. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. Warrior, stockade and cannon: a modern pagoda painting from Shwebo tells the city’s origin story. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 3. The Shwe-baw-kyun. The central pagoda and the pagodas on each corner were filled with treasure. The small white stone posts contain niches for oil lamps. The timber of Alaungpaya’s stockade is no longer there, although much of the earth base of the wall remains. The moat is used for fish farming. The town’s twenty or so Buddhist pagodas, works of merit constructed mostly [End Page 155] during the early years of the Konbaung dynasty, remain in reasonable repair. A reproduction of what is meant to be Alaungpaya’s palace has been built in the original palace compound, which served as a jail during the British colonial period. Alaungpaya died in 1760. In 1763, his son and successor King Naungdawgyi built a pagoda (Figure 3) a couple of kilometers northeast of the Shwebo stockade. Naungdawgyi, his mother and his queens filled chambers in the main pagoda, and in smaller structures on each corner, with more than 11,000 reliquary objects. These included gold or silver statues representing Buddha, or incidents and characters from Buddha’s life story, as well as jewelry such as “a pair of gold ear ornaments studded with rubies,” an amber bowl, gold caskets studded with gems, and even a silver ear cleaner (ASI 1904...

Crossover from Metal to Insulator and Charge Order Transition of (TMTTF)2SbF6 under Constant Pressure

Crossover from Metal to Insulator and Charge Order Transition of (TMTTF)₂SbF₆ under Constant Pressure

Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy and hyper-spectral imaging analysis of pigments on an illuminated manuscript

Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was used for the first time in the in-situ identification of pigments in an illuminated manuscript dated from the 12th-13th century ad. Spectral data are presented from the analysis performed on the illumination of an initial letter ‘T’ and on the gold paint used in several parts of the writing. Identification of most pigments, in a nearly non-destructive way, was achieved. In parallel to LIBS, hyper-spectral imaging analysis was performed, which enabled the mapping of the pigments’ spatial distribution on the basis of their characteristic, visible and near infrared absorption spectral features. The identification of the red pigment based on hyper-spectral imaging analysis is demonstrated. Identification of pigments and inks is of great importance for the dating and systematic characterization of illuminated manuscripts and, as shown in this work, a combined analytical approach can provide important and useful information.

Electrical resistivity measurements on fragile organic single crystals in the diamond anvil cell

A method of sample assembly for four-probe resistivity measurements on fragile organic single crystals using a diamond anvil cell is presented. A procedure to keep insulation between the metal gasket and four leads of thin gold wires bonded to the sample crystal by gold paint is described in detail. The resistivity measurements performed on a single crystal of an organic semiconductor and that of neutral molecules up to 15 GPa and down to 4.2 K showed that this new procedure of four-probe diamond anvil resistivity measurements enables us to obtain sufficiently accurate resistivity data of organic crystals.

EVALUATION AND INSECT CONTROL

The Museum of the Banco Central del Ecuador in Quito has various collections, ranging from archaeological objects to modern art. The collections are generally sound because the environmental conditions in storage and exhibition areas are stable, maintaining suitable levels of temperature and relative humidity with small variations. An evaluation has been carried out on sculptures, wooden objects and graphic art, analyzing insect infestation and microorganism activity and identifying three levels of deterioration. The level of damage in sculptures and wooden artifacts was high for 8.1% of the objects in the collection, moderate for 12.5% and low for 38.2%. The presence of fungi in graphic art was moderate for 7.1 % of the collection and low for 11.0%, showing an opposite tendency. Objects made of cedarwood or those completely covered with polychromy, by artists like Caspicara, Velez or Sangurima, did not show any damage by insects. This may be due to the mixture of oil and proteinaceous medium that these artists applied on their sculptures to obtain very hard layers, thus avoiding insect attack. The city of Quito is located on an ecological plateau 2,880 meters above sea level, modified by its closeness to the Equator. Weather conditions are not extreme. There are two seasons: winter, with temperatures not lower than 7°C and precipitation between 79 and 175mm, and summer, with average temperatures of 22°C and precipitation between 20 and 112mm. The flora and fauna are not as exotic as in a tropical climate. In the museum artifacts we found Xestobium sp. (Coleoptera, Anobidae), identified by Dr Giovanni Onore, entomologist at the Pontificia Universidad Cat6lica del Ecuador. The same species has been found in other places in Quito, such as the Convent of San Francisco and the Jesuit Church. The insect measures 4.98 x 2.21mm and produces cavities up to 3.09mm in diameter. The use of chemical fumigants has been widespread in Ecuador and the application of phosphine was very common. This caused damage to artifacts which included metallic elements, besides being harmful to humans and causing environmental contamination. Gold, silver and metallic paint, materials susceptible to change, can be found in 66.2% of the sculptures and wooden objects in the museum; therefore another method with less risk had to be chosen. First we tested gamma radiation at the Escuela Politecnica Nacional, which has a radiation source and the infrastructure required. On a few occasions this process had to be used because gilded objects needed emergency treatment. However, a literature survey (1-6], and technical assistance from Spain through a course on this topic in Quito, helped us to apply inert gases to the eradication of insect pests. This procedure is now being applied using argon or nitrogen, barrier-film bags and Ageless oxygen scavenger, controlling the relative humidity by bubbling the gas through water and with solutions of magnesium chloride inside the bags; the equipment includes a relative humidity sensor and a remote sensor to monitor oxygen. Author's address: Restoration Department, Museo del Banco Central del Ecuador, Av. 10 de Agosto y Briceno, Quito, Ecuador.

EXAMINATION AND TREATMENT OF A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY SPANISH POLYCHROME SCULPTURE BY JOSE CARO

The sculpture of St Gines de la Jara in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, dated 1692, is an outstanding example ofthe estofado technique of imitating brocade in gold leaf and paint. The life-size figure retains most of its original polychromy. In previous restoration treatments, there had been an unsuccessful attempt to simulate the estofado. The present treatment included a comprehensive technical examination, using X-radiography to identify construction techniques and cross-sectional analysis for the layer structure and materials. The decoration of the sculpture was carefully studied with the goal of understanding more clearly the technique of the estofador. A cleaning strategy was then devised. Where there were losses in the estofado, it was decided to aim for a chromatic compensation using watercolours, rather than attempting to duplicate the original process.

An evaluation of ultrathin ring and band microelectrodes as amperometric sensors in electrochemical flow cells

AbstractGold and platinum ultrathin ring microelectrodes (0.1–0.5 mm thick, 1.5–4 mm diameter) were made by sputtering, from fired metalloorganic paint, and from foil for use as sensors in a thick‐layer wall‐jet flow cell. An end‐on array of three 0.1 μm × 0.5 mm gold band electrodes were mounted parallel to the flow direction in a thin‐layer channel cell. These ultrathin sensors, along with a jet‐centered carbon microdisk, were evaluated in the amperometric flow‐injection mode for temporal stability, calibration sensitivity, detectivity, background signal, and flow rate dependence of the analytical signal using ferrocene samples in acetonitrile containing 10−4–10−2 M TEAP. The detectivity of gold paint ring electrodes made on borosilicate glass was 3–6 nM, an order of magnitude lower than any of the other electrodes tested. Analytical signals from gold paint and foil rings and the carbon microdisk had the best temporal stability. The current for the ultrathin band array in a channel cell was flow rate‐independent, and the exponential dependence of cell current on flow rate was 0.11–0.14 for ultrathin rings in the thick‐layer wall‐jet mode.