Illuminators’ Pigments in Lancastrian England

Beeby, Andrew; Gameson, Richard; Nicholson, Catherine

doi:10.1484/j.mss.5.111916

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Overall, the palette employed to paint the Fitzwilliam Missal is fairly standard for a 15th‐century English manuscript 16 and includes lead white, red lead, lead‐tin yellow type I, massicot, azurite and copper‐based greens.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Overall, the palette employed to paint the Fitzwilliam Missal is fairly standard for a 15th-century English F I G U R E 3 Reference Raman spectra of mercury (I) chloride (black line) and mercury (II) chloride (red line) collected in house using commercially available compounds (Carlo Erba Reagents); Raman spectra obtained with excitation laser at 633 nm manuscript 16 and includes lead white, red lead, lead-tin yellow type I, massicot, azurite and copper-based greens.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The system has been described elsewhere 16 ; briefly, it is composed by a HeNe laser (632.8 nm, spectral resolution 4 cm −1 ), which is focused into a fibre‐optic cable for delivery to the sampling accessory (Horiba ‘SuperHead’). This is equipped with an ultralong working distance ×40 microscope lens, providing a working distance of approximately 10 mm from the surface under analysis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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New evidence for the intentional use of calomel as a white pigment

Crippa

Legnaioli

Kimbriel

et al. 2020

J Raman Spectroscopy

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In this work, we report the results of the in situ application of micro‐Raman spectroscopy to the analysis of two historic painted objects: a 15th‐century illuminated manuscript and a late 16th‐century portrait miniature. Both objects were unexpectedly found to contain calomel (Hg2Cl2), intentionally used as a white pigment. Calomel was a widespread and popular medicine until it fell out of use at the end of the 19th century due to its toxicity, and a material called ‘mercury white’ is referred to in 16th‐century technical literature on painting. However, although calomel has been recognised in the past as a degradation product of cinnabar in both wall and easel paintings, its deliberate use as a pigment on cultural heritage objects has only been documented recently in white areas painted on 17th‐century South American objects. The present study describes the first ever verified use of calomel as a white pigment on European works of art, both of which predate its documented use in South America.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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New evidence for the intentional use of calomel as a white pigment

Crippa

Legnaioli

Kimbriel

et al. 2020

J Raman Spectroscopy

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“…The Raman spectroscopy equipment used in this study has been developed specifically for the identification of pigments in objects of cultural heritage, and is unique [84]. It differs from commercial equipment primarily in that large manuscripts can fit under the detector in situ and it is extremely portable.…”

Section: Raman Spectroscopymentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing the effectiveness of hyperspectral imaging and Raman spectroscopy: a case study on Armenian manuscripts

et al. 2018

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There is great practical and scholarly interest in the identification of pigments in works of art. This paper compares the effectiveness of the widely used Raman Spectroscopy (RS), with hyperspectral imaging (HSI), a reflectance imaging technique, to evaluate the reliability of HSI for the identification of pigments in historic works of art and to ascertain if there are any benefits from using HSI or a combination of both. We undertook a case study based on six Armenian illuminated manuscripts (eleventh-eighteenth centuries CE) in the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. RS, and HSI (380-1000 nm) were both used to analyse the same 10 folios, with the data then used to test the accuracy and efficiency of HSI against the known results from RS using reflectance spectra reference databases compiled by us for the project. HSI over the wavelength range 380-1000 nm agreed with RS at best 93% of the time, and performance was enhanced using the SFF algorithm and by using a database with many similarities to the articles under analysis. HSI is significantly quicker at scanning large areas, and can be used alongside RS to identify and map large areas of pigment more efficiently than RS alone. HSI therefore has potential for improving the speed of pigment identification across manuscript folios and artwork but must be used in conjunction with a technique such as RS.

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New light on old illuminations

Beeby

Gameson

Nicholson

2017

Archives and Records

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Illuminators’ Pigments in Lancastrian England

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

New evidence for the intentional use of calomel as a white pigment

New evidence for the intentional use of calomel as a white pigment

Comparing the effectiveness of hyperspectral imaging and Raman spectroscopy: a case study on Armenian manuscripts

New light on old illuminations

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