Identification strategies for textiles based on non-invasive analyses for the application on historical museum artworks

Abstract

Textile production has been a constant activity in the history and developing of Venice. Despite the various changes of fame and prospect that the city, and consequently its economy, has undergone, textiles have always remained a symbol of the creativity and elegance of the Venetian capital. Degradation processes on textiles are, unfortunately, unavoidable mainly because of the repeated use of the artefacts, both for wearable and décor items, but also because of natural factors such as light exposure and, generally, inappropriate conservation environments. But before proceeding with a practical conservation intervention, it is fundamental to deeply understand the physialls and chemical composition of the textile materials under study. From this, researchers gather important information not only about the best restoration procedure and treatments to apply, when needed, but also about the manufacturing process behind each fabric. When planning an analytical campaign, the first objective should be the preservation of the integrity of the samples involved by choosing non-invasive analyses; but which one works best on fabrics? This research proposes the evaluation of different non-invasive analytical techniques, namely FORS, Raman, ATR-FTIR, and ER-FTIR, tested on a set of various textile samples supplied by Rubelli (Venice). To compare the capabilities and limitations of each spectroscopic technique, the results have been tested with statistical methods such as PCA and Cluster analysis. The aim of the project is to uncover the most suitable non-invasive technique for a complete characterization of the chemical composition and preliminary identification of textile samples.