Application of a Portable XRF Spectrometer for <i>In-Situ</i> and Nondestructive Investigation of Pigments in Two 15th Century Icons

Abstract

A simple portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer was successfully used for in-situ and nondestructive identification of the painting materials in two 15 th century icons from the Onufri Museum in Beart, Albania. The spectrometer is based on a low power X-ray tube, a thermoelectrically cooled Si PIN detector and the spectrum acquisition system. It was assembled and adjusted at our laboratory for the investigation of the icons. A small number of pigments were clearly identified by X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) measurements in both icons. This includes Lead white for the white color, gold and yellow ochre for the yellow color, red lead, cinnabar and red ochre for the red color, as well as cooper based pigments for the green color. At the same time, the investigation raised some new questions that need further investigations by the use of additional analytical techniques. The results show that in both icons are used similar pigments, which are in accordance with the Byzantine icon painting tradition.

The Application of Portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) for Elemental Analysis of Sediment Samples in the Laboratory and Its Influencing Factors

“…pXRF has been used in mineral resource exploration [13,14] and environmental evaluation [15,16], and many other fields. It can analyze sample types including rock [17,18], soil [19][20][21], plants [22,23], bone [24], alloys [25], artworks [26,27], etc. Stream sediment is the most commonly used sample medium in mineral resource exploration.…”