Publication
Title
Non-invasive and non-destructive examination of artistic pigments, paints, and paintings by means of X-Ray methods
Author
Abstract
Recent studies are concisely reviewed, in which X-ray beams of (sub)micrometre to millimetre dimensions have been used for non-destructive analysis and characterization of pigments, minute paint samples, and/or entire paintings from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century painters. The overview presented encompasses the use of laboratory and synchrotron radiation-based instrumentation and deals with the use of several variants of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) as a method of elemental analysis and imaging, as well as with the combined use of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). Microscopic XRF is a variant of the method that is well suited to visualize the elemental distribution of key elements, mostly metals, present in paint multi-layers, on the length scale from 1 to 100 μm inside micro-samples taken from paintings. In the context of the characterization of artists pigments subjected to natural degradation, the use of methods limited to elemental analysis or imaging usually is not sufficient to elucidate the chemical transformations that have taken place. However, at synchrotron facilities, combinations of μ-XRF with related methods such as μ-XAS and μ-XRD have proven themselves to be very suitable for such studies. Their use is often combined with microscopic Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy and/or Raman microscopy since these methods deliver complementary information of high molecular specificity at more or less the same length scale as the X-ray microprobe techniques. Since microscopic investigation of a relatively limited number of minute paint samples, taken from a given work of art, may not yield representative information about the entire artefact, several methods for macroscopic, non-invasive imaging have recently been developed. Those based on XRF scanning and full-field hyperspectral imaging appear very promising; some recent published results are discussed.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Topics in Current Chemistry
Publication
Cham : Springer international publishing ag , 2016
ISSN
2364-8961
DOI
10.1007/S41061-016-0079-2
Volume/pages
374 :6 (2016) , 52 p.
Article Reference
81
ISI
000391178900006
Pubmed ID
27873287
Medium
E-only publicatie
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Optimisation of X-ray laminography for non-destructive imaging of the internal structure of historical paintings
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 06.02.2017
Last edited 04.03.2024
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