Studying wall paintings in Berati Castle (Albania): Comparative examination of materials and techniques in XIVth and XVIth century churches

Byzantine wall paintings from Kastoria, northern Greece: Spectroscopic study of pigments and efflorescing salts

“…7c, sample GEVO14-OCHRE). The differentiation in the concentrations of Fe, Si, Ca and other elements in brown and yellow (ochre) pigments is also shown in Table 2 (samples GEVO14-BROWN and NIKY8-OCHRE) and similar observations have been previously published [4,6,7,15,18,20]. The precise identification of the mineral composition of the ochres is a difficult task.…”

“…The peaks at 243 (very strong), 279, 339 cm −1 of sample GEVO16-RED are clearly assigned to mercury sulphide. Red-coloured vermilion pigment has been used in Byzantine and medieval eras, as certified by several authors [5,[13][14][15][16]. However, in our study, most of the red coloured samples are due to iron oxides and hydroxides.…”

“…The main red pigment identified was hematite (Fe 2 O 3 ), with its characteristic Raman peaks at 218, 287 (very strong), 403 and 605 cm −1 (Fig. 7a) [5,15,17,18].…”

“…However, in our study, most of the red coloured samples are due to iron oxides and hydroxides. The most widely-used inorganic pigments of Byzantine and post-Byzantine hagiography are earth pigments called ochres such as red and yellow ochres, limonite, goethite and hematite [15]. The particle on the cross-section of the red pigmented GEVO10 sample (Fig.…”

Analytical study of polychromy on exterior sculpted stone

“…Carbon black was identified by Raman spectroscopy, and it was probably added in order to darken the mixture. [51] Other minerals present in the green pictorial layer were calcite, quartz, K-feldspars (with the most intense bands at 476 and 512 cm −1 ) [52] and other aluminosilicates. These grains were of 20-40 µm and abundant in the lower zone.…”