The sixteenth and seventeenth-century Venetian manuscripts on glassmaking contain a number of recipes on yellow pigment production, later named 'anime', based on Pb-Sn and/or Pb-Sb oxides. Since antiquity, these oxides have been employed intermittently as opacifying and colouring agents to obtain coloured glasses, enamels and pigments.In 1998, different laboratories provided evidence of the existence of a 'non-standardized' yellow pigment (Pb-Sn-Sb triple oxide) very close in composition and structure to both the Pb-Sn type II (silicoestannate) and Pb-Sb (antimonate) oxides. This Pb-Sn-Sb yellow pigment was identified by SEM-EDX in seventeenth-century Italian paintings.In previous studies, the authors of the present work have investigated with Raman spectroscopy the presence of Pb-Sn-Sb oxide (pyrochlore structure) in some Italian paintings of the seventeenth century, using as standard a synthesized pyrochloric triple oxide (Pb 2 SnSbO 6.5 ).In this paper, we provide evidence for the first molecular identification with Raman spectroscopy of said pigment in Italian pottery from the sixteenth century. We have identified this pigment in two pieces of decorated pottery: a 'plate' manufactured in Casteldurante and attributed to Andrea Negroponte style (c 1550), and a Venetian 'albarello' (pharmacy jar) attributed to Domenego (c 1570-1580). We have synthesized the reference compound in accordance with the theoretical formula of the pyrochloric triple oxide (Pb 2 SnSbO 6.5 ). The Raman spectra obtained with this material provided molecular information identical to the yellow pigment measured in the two Italian ceramics. To conclude, the experimental results presented here indicate one simple fact: Pb-Sn-Sb triple oxide yellow pigment has been used during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries without distinction both in Italian ceramics and paintings.

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This investigation is focused on the identification in ceramic artworks of certain nonstandard yellow/orange pigments whose composition is based, fundamentally, on lead, tin, and antimony oxides with or without silica. In this work, a comparative study (temporal and geographical) of the employment of these yellow pigments in different production centers, from Italy (Pesaro and Montelupo) and Spain (Talavera de la Reina), during the Renaissance and Baroque epochs has been proposed. For this purpose, special very ancient yellow pigments were acquired from the Stazione Sperimentale del Vetro, Murano-Venezia (Italy). These reference pigments have been produced following strict and rigorous manufacturing recipes corresponding to Venezian fabrication processes for the 16th and 17th centuries. On the other hand, the portable characteristic of a new optical fiber Raman system has allowed us the access into the Museo de Cerámica de Barcelona in order to investigate the composition of the yellow and orange colors of an important ceramic collection belonging to this museum. The results are in good agreement with the ones obtained by other authors who have investigated the same topic. It is notable, first, the excellent performances that this portable Raman system offers in the direct and non-invasive analysis of ceramic artworks and, second, the coincidences of the molecular results among these yellow pigments. This fact confirms that these pigments were commonly used either in Italian and Spanish ceramic objects during both Renaissance and Baroque epochsPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

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