EVALUATION OF NON-INVASIVE TECHNIQUES FOR PICTORIAL FILM IDENTIFICATION

Abstract

This study proposes the analysis, using non-invasive techniques, of four panels produced by the Centre for Conservation and Restoration of Venaria Reale, consisting of a set of approximately 1200 paint layers. A large number of painting materials were used to create these panels, including 173 pigments and dyes, 4 different painting materials for the preparatory drawings, 4 binders and 2 varnishes, chosen to reproduce the main artistic techniques used from antiquity to contemporary art. The thesis' goal is to analyse these panels, using non-invasive techniques such as Fibre-Optic Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS), External Reflection FTIR (ER-FTIR), Raman Spectroscopy and HyperSpectral Imaging (HSI). The first part of the thesis is therefore dedicated to the evaluation, using these techniques, of the possible diagnostic limitations linked to the techniques themselves and to the pictorial material used to create the panels, also using statistical tools to create a database. Finally, the collected dataset will be applied for the analysis of contemporary paintings.