Congregation leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen by Vincent van Gogh: a combined multi-instrumental approach to analyse the painting’s stratigraphy in support of varnish removal

Abstract

Vincent van Gogh’s painting Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen from the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam was executed in 1884 and partially repainted by the artist in 1885. The painting was restored in 1961, however, the details of this treatment were not documented. After being stolen from the museum in 2002 and finally recovered in 2016, the Church was subjected to an extensive technical examination campaign which started in 2017. The aims were to: characterise the stratigraphy of both initial and later paint layers (including identification of the painting materials used by Van Gogh), evaluate the condition of the painting and assess the feasibility of the desired restoration treatment. Portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) was performed to non-invasively identify elements related to pigments in the paint layers of the two painting campaigns. To further identify constituent materials and comprehend the painting’s complex stratigraphy, a single paint sample was collected and embedded in resin for analysis by means of Optical Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS) and Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometry - Attenuated Total Reflectance (FTIR-ATR). Additional non-invasive measurements were performed in a MOLAB campaign in 2018 by two complementary and portable analytical techniques: Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and reflection FTIR spectroscopy were used to gain further insight into the painting’s stratigraphy and identify surface layers across various regions of the painting. The presence of an original varnish under the paint from 1885 (and therefore likely applied by Van Gogh himself) was revealed by OCT. It was characterised as being protein based by FTIR-ATR and reflection FTIR spectroscopy. Based on the knowledge on the artist’s varnishing practice, it could be concluded that this most likely concerns an egg white varnish for the first time found in an early work by Van Gogh. The upper varnish layer, however, was identified as an alkyd resin applied during the aforementioned 1961 treatment. The combined use of FTIR and OCT enabled non-invasive in situ assessment of solvent cleaning procedures aimed at the selective removal of the 1961 restoration varnish with the preservation of Van Gogh’s original varnish. Specifically, OCT and FTIR analyses were carried out before, during and after each cleaning test to carefully assess the condition of the painted surface and that of the original varnish. The results of the cleaning tests aided in fine-tuning the procedure of varnish removal during the restoration process.

Correlation of Visible Reflectance Spectrometry and Portable Raman Data for Red Pigment Identification

“…Over the recent years, much interest has been notably directed towards the development of methodologies and novel strategies aimed at the comprehensive characterization of historical inorganic/organic pigmenting agents, alongside the identification of possible degradation products originating from the interaction of such agents with the surrounding environment [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. These aspects play a fundamental role not only in estimating the choice and style of the artist but also in reproducing similar materials in accordance with ancient recipes which can be used for restoration interventions [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. As is well known, the preservation and conservation of pigmented artworks generally require the employment of techniques that provide valuable information while minimizing the potential risk of damage.…”

High‐performance enrichment of casein and ovalbumin in wall painting with immunomagnetic beads

“…Due to the low level and easy degradation of binding medium in wall paintings, detection of trace target becomes rather difficult and may lead to false negatives results. In addition, complexed analytes usually contain a variety of non‐target proteins, which could interfere with the identification of binding medium (Galluzzi et al, 2022; Iwanicka et al, 2022; Palmieri et al, 2013). To address this problem, it is necessary to enrich the low content binding medium to improve the detection sensitivity.…”