Kinetics of oil saponification by lead salts in ancient preparations of pharmaceutical lead plasters and painting lead mediums

Cotte, Marine; Checroun, Emilie; Susini, J.; Dumas, Paul; Tchoreloff, Pierre; Besnard, Madeleine; Walter, Philippe

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2006.03.007

Cited by 83 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The presence of kaolin is also known to lower the local pH and promote some of the reactions involved during the saponification (Ferreira et al 2011). Environmental conditions can play a role as well (Cotte et al 2006). The high humidity of the previous collector's uncontrolled environment might also have contributed to the speckled appearance of the surface of The Secret Player, 1927 (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium) although no white deposits on the surface are evident on this painting.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Metal Soaps and Visual Changes in a Painting by René Magritte – The Menaced Assassin, 1927

Duffy

Martins

Boon

2014

Issues in Contemporary Oil Paint

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The Menaced Assassin by René Magritte is a major surrealist painting from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). A recent conservation treatment coupled with scientific analysis has characterised some puzzling and visually disturbing surface phenomena once attributed to mold growth.A detailed examination of the painting under the microscope has evidenced that the formation of radiating dark micro cracks is responsible for the overall speckled appearance of the painting. These web-like cracks often surround a small white crystalline particle and are generally accompanied by aggregates of very small white particles sitting on the top of the surface. The examination also revealed the presence of larger flat pustules of a translucent and softer material with no apparent visual impact. An overall whitish haze is visible as well over the areas painted in red and brown earth tones.Samples of both white and translucent material were analysed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and confirmed the presence of metal soaps. Past exhibition conditions of the painting and composition of the ground layer may have played a role in the formation of the soaps, in particular the coarse calcium carbonate rich priming layer and presence of kaolin as identified by FTIR and scanning electron microscopy combined with electron dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDX).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Metal Soaps and Visual Changes in a Painting by René Magritte – The Menaced Assassin, 1927

Duffy

Martins

Boon

2014

Issues in Contemporary Oil Paint

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“…10 microsamples have been taken from two paintings, one dating from the second part of the seventeenth century and the other dating from the nineteenth century in order to study the blanching of varnish layers (Table 1). In parallel, a series of mock-ups were made according to historical treatises [13][14][15][16][17] and our first results obtained from the analysis of ancient paintings. The effects of three parameters were tested: the binder preparation, the nature of the pigments, and the presence of an extender (i.e.…”

Section: Samplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first one is inspired from the Formula for the second lead medium, probable technique of Leonardo da Vinci, given by Maroger [13] and from a recipe described in 1633 in Folio 28 of Turquet de Mayerne's treatise [14]. This recipe has already been reproduced by Cotte et al [15,16]. The second one is based on the recipe of black oil given by Yvel [17] for the oil/ litharge ratio and on Maroger [13], who recommends the addition of water to get a lighter medium with a better consistency.…”

Section: Samplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blanching of paint and varnish layers in easel paintings: contribution to the understanding of the alteration

et al. 2015

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The blanching of easel paintings can affect the varnish layer and also the paint layer with a blurring effect. The understanding of the physicochemical and optical phenomena involved in the whitening process remains an important challenge for the painting conservation. A set of ca. 50 microsamples from French, Flemish, and Italian blanched oil paintings, from sixteenth to nineteenth century, have been collected for in deep investigations. In parallel, the reproduction of the alteration was achieved by preparing some paint layers according to historical treatises and altering them in a climatic chamber in a humid environment or directly by immersing in ultrapure water. The observation of raw samples with a field-emission gun scanning electron microscope revealed for the first time that the altered layers have an unexpected highly porous structure with a pore size ranging from ca. 40 nm to 2 lm. The formation mechanism of these pores should mostly be physical as the supplementary analyses (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) do not reveal any noticeable molecular modification. Considering the tiny size of the pores, the alteration can be explained by the Rayleigh or Mie light scattering.

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“…Alternatively, synchrotron-based micro-analytical techniques were used for the direct observation of transdermal lead diffusion into transversal cuts in the skin. Model lead plasters were synthesised according to ancient recipes (Cotte et al, 2006) and applied to pig skin, for 24 h, in Frantz-cell transdermal diffusion system. After dismounting, skin transversal sections were obtained and chemical and atomic distributions of drug penetration were imaged by synchrotron-based infrared micro-spectroscopy and micro-XRF.…”

Section: Metals In Ancient Medical Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomedical applications of the ESRF synchrotron-based microspectroscopy platform

Bohic

Cotte

Salomé

et al. 2012

Journal of Structural Biology

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Kinetics of oil saponification by lead salts in ancient preparations of pharmaceutical lead plasters and painting lead mediums

Cited by 83 publications

References 9 publications

Metal Soaps and Visual Changes in a Painting by René Magritte – The Menaced Assassin, 1927

Metal Soaps and Visual Changes in a Painting by René Magritte – The Menaced Assassin, 1927

Blanching of paint and varnish layers in easel paintings: contribution to the understanding of the alteration

Biomedical applications of the ESRF synchrotron-based microspectroscopy platform

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