15th century Florentine mural investigated in situ with VNIR Hyperspectral Imaging and NIR Photography supports interpretation as a bloodletting scene

Abstract

This study provides new data which suggests a novel interpretative hypothesis not only on the specific painting, but on the use of bloodletting as medical practice in the Florentine Quattrocento. In addition, the technical solutions adopted to implement the measurements campaign are illustrated as an experimental model for remote sensing investigations of paintings studied in situ. The position of the painting high up on a wall of an historical venue led to opting for standalone optical imaging techniques which could operate in remote sensing mode. By combining the use of portable Hyperspectral Imaging with Near Infrared photography a set of detailed images could be obtained that highlighted details not otherwise detectable. Focused on the objects held by the persons present, the analysis of the mural of Visit of the Buonomini in her Lying in Bed, the gift of swaddling cloth could be a tourniquet, shadows of folds of a blanket a thumb lancet, and an object held a blood collection bowl, supported the hypothesis that it could be a medieval bloodletting scene.