Multidisciplinary approach to the study of artworks: environmental conditions, color palette, microbial colonization and nannofossils inLas Musaspainting

Abstract

Over time, cultural heritage has become a key for comprehending and developing our society at an individual and group level, as it provides fundamental information about our origins, specific temporary space, materials' availability using current technology, artist's intention, and site weather conditions. Here, we investigated the physical characteristics of an Italian large-format artwork diptych, located on the ceiling of the National Theater of Costa Rica, to evaluate its pictorial palette as well as the tropical climatological conditions and the fungal aerial spore concentration. We characterized the role of two innovative software tools, as they have direct connection with an effective microbiological sampling and description of secrets encompassed in each pictorial layer during the process of creation and intention. We further found that eight genera of calcareous nannofossils could be associated with the optical properties of the artwork and the effects that the artist wanted to portray through his creative process.

Xerophilic fungi contaminating historically valuable easel paintings from Slovenia

“…muriae as active fungal contaminants on damaged paintings. Aspergillus tardicrescens and A. magnivesiculatus, here newly detected on paintings, contributed to mixed infections together with xerotolerant A. proliferans (Kavkler et al, 2015;Borrego and Molina, 2019), A. jensenii (Kavkler et al, 2015), and A. versicolor (Sterflinger, 2010), and species of Cladosporium (Calderón-Mesén et al, 2023).…”

“…Several aspects can be tackled: (i) how to recognize fungal infestation, (ii) how to distinguish them from dust-and air-deposited structures, and (iii) how to find active contaminants and distinguish them from past inactive contaminants. Although advanced software analysis tools allow human-independent recognition of areas of paintings decayed by microorganisms, e.g., MicroorganismPattern software (Calderón-Mesén et al, 2023), decayed areas were identified following "naked-eye" inspections or with the help of an USB microscope. To confirm the infection, we used optical microscopy of tape prints as a non-destructive method of sampling in most of the cases in our study.…”

“…When applying samples to culture media, researchers have so far followed the methods of medical mycology and treated paintings as "patients, " most often using culture media such as Sabouraud Glucose Agar (SGA; Sabatini et al, 2018;Calderón-Mesén et al, 2023) or fungal Trypticase Soy Agar (TSA; López-Miras et al, 2013a) for bacterial inventories. Recently, more advanced approaches have used CMC cellulose as a carbon enrichment in isolation media.…”

“…In comparison with wall paintings (Ciferri, 1999), canvas paintings are less studied. The literature is mainly limited to case studies (Santos et al, 2009;López-Miras et al 2013a,b;Okpalanozie et al, 2016;Caselli et al, 2018;Calderón-Mesén et al, 2023), a few studies deal with collections (Paner, 2009;Vukojević and Grbić, 2010;Sabatini et al, 2018), and some reviews are available (Ciferri, 1999;Sterflinger, 2010;Petersen and Klocke, 2013;Poyatos et al, 2018;Poyatos-Jiménez et al, 2021;Savković et al, 2021).…”