Canvas Painting Analysis Using Spectroscopic Analysis and Microcharacterisation Techniques

Abstract

Raman spectroscopy is a well-recognised tool for the analysis of materials in canvas paintings. However, it can be difficult to interpret the peaks of the spectra without the additional context of the artwork such as the age, provenance, or colour. Reflectance spectrophotometry can be used to capture the colour of pigments, dyes, and lacquers, but is seldom used to complement Raman data. Additionally, reflectance spectrophotometry results can be influenced by the surface profile of the painting. To overcome these limitations, this work brings together three different analysis modalities to provide a singular, analytical map of the artwork. Raman spectroscopy was used to conduct the chemical identification of pigments, binding media, and varnish present in a synthetic painting sample. Reflectance spectrophotometry was applied to obtain colour information of the surface paint of the sample. Three-dimensional optical profilometry data was used to characterise the micro topology of the paint surface. These three data sets were spatially matched allowing the recorded spectroscopic data to be displayed with the corresponding colour and surface topography across the paint surface.

Surface Metrology Based on Scanning Conoscopic Holography for In Situ and In-Process Monitoring of Microtexture in Paintings

“…The joint use of imaging and profilometry is being applied in painting diagnostics, showing that superimposition of 2D and 3D data can assist conservators [18]. A recent paper by Borg et al [40] explored the joint use of pointwise spectroscopy and profilometry on a canvas mockup. The results obtained in our work show that profilometry supported by quantitave analysis within a surface metrology workflow (ISO standard) is consistent and effective in monitoring the laser and chemical treatment on ancient canvas in situ.…”

Interpol review of paint, tape, and glass evidence 2019–2022

“…Various analytical tools were presented in the literature for the analysis of artwork and cultural heritage paints, including FTIR [ [65] , [66] , [67] , [68] , [69] , [70] ], portable microscopy, and XRF [ [70] , [79] ], SEM-EDS [ 67 , 68 , [70] , [71] ], Raman spectroscopy [ 67 , 72 , 73 ], far-infrared spectroscopy in ATR mode [ 66 ], hyperspectral reflectance imaging in the visible [ 74 , 75 ] and near-infrared, XRF [ 71 , 76 ], portable macro X-ray fluorescence [ 75 , [77] , [78] , [79] ], pyrolysis GC-MS [ 68 , 80 , 81 ], micro reflectance imaging spectroscopy (micro –RIS) [ 82 ] and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry imaging (TOF-SIMS) [ 83 ]. Botteon et al evaluated the use of portable micro-spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (micro- SORS) to analyze pieces of artwork from the 16th century [ 84 ].…”

A Method for Spatially Registered Microprofilometry Combining Intensity-Height Datasets from Interferometric Sensors

“…Reflectance transformation imaging is a more recent full-field technique, based on computational photography, that was shown to sample morphological damage in artworks at sub-millimeter scale (∼0.3 mm) [9]. The joint use of microprofilometry and pointwise spectroscopy is explored in a recent paper by Borg et al [10]. The massive literature on microprofilometry is based on the use of commercial off-the-shelf instrumentation characterized by high performance at the cost of a non-versatile setup.…”