Late production of Egyptian blue: synthesis from brass and its characteristics
This work follows the recent discovery of a zinc-bearing Egyptian blue (EB) pigment widely used for the production of the early medieval mural paintings cycle in Santa Maria foris portas Church at Castelseprio (Lombardy Region, Italy). The inclusion of zinc in the synthesis of EB has been studied fo...
| Κύριοι συγγραφείς: | , , , , , |
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| Άλλοι συγγραφείς: | |
| Μορφή: | Άρθρο |
| Γλώσσα: | English |
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Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2020
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| Διαθέσιμο Online: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128380 |
| _version_ | 1826206766685224960 |
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| author | Nicola, Marco Seymour, Linda Marie Aceto, Maurizio Priola, Emanuele Gobetto, Roberto Masic, Admir |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Nicola, Marco Seymour, Linda Marie Aceto, Maurizio Priola, Emanuele Gobetto, Roberto Masic, Admir |
| author_sort | Nicola, Marco |
| collection | MIT |
| description | This work follows the recent discovery of a zinc-bearing Egyptian blue (EB) pigment widely used for the production of the early medieval mural paintings cycle in Santa Maria foris portas Church at Castelseprio (Lombardy Region, Italy). The inclusion of zinc in the synthesis of EB has been studied for the first time trying to evaluate whether its addition could be casual or deliberate. Historical reconstructions of the pigment have been carried out with a special focus on the use of zinc besides copper, using the different production methods. The influence of zinc on the pigment’s NIR photoluminescence and VIS-NIR reflectance has been characterized using FORS spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. A comparison of the production methods including salt-flux, solid-state, and Zn-rich syntheses showed that the solid-state synthesis results in particularly efficient NIR photoluminescence and VIS-NIR reflectance. Modern replicas were compared with an ancient sample in order to understand the zinc environment inside the structure of the Zn-enriched EB. Zn was found to be concentrated in a glass-based matrix surrounding cuprorivaite crystals, the main mineral associated with the EB pigment, and not included in a hypothetical Zn-doped cuprorivaite with formula CaCu1−xZnxSi4O10. The Zn-rich synthesis opens up the possibility of producing EB from brass and demonstrates that EB used in Castelseprio’s mural paintings could have been produced in this way. The relationship between the microstructure and the NIR photoluminescence of cuprorivaite-like pigments is of interest also for applications in modern and future technologies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:38:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/128380 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:38:12Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1283802022-10-01T16:12:17Z Late production of Egyptian blue: synthesis from brass and its characteristics Nicola, Marco Seymour, Linda Marie Aceto, Maurizio Priola, Emanuele Gobetto, Roberto Masic, Admir Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering This work follows the recent discovery of a zinc-bearing Egyptian blue (EB) pigment widely used for the production of the early medieval mural paintings cycle in Santa Maria foris portas Church at Castelseprio (Lombardy Region, Italy). The inclusion of zinc in the synthesis of EB has been studied for the first time trying to evaluate whether its addition could be casual or deliberate. Historical reconstructions of the pigment have been carried out with a special focus on the use of zinc besides copper, using the different production methods. The influence of zinc on the pigment’s NIR photoluminescence and VIS-NIR reflectance has been characterized using FORS spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. A comparison of the production methods including salt-flux, solid-state, and Zn-rich syntheses showed that the solid-state synthesis results in particularly efficient NIR photoluminescence and VIS-NIR reflectance. Modern replicas were compared with an ancient sample in order to understand the zinc environment inside the structure of the Zn-enriched EB. Zn was found to be concentrated in a glass-based matrix surrounding cuprorivaite crystals, the main mineral associated with the EB pigment, and not included in a hypothetical Zn-doped cuprorivaite with formula CaCu1−xZnxSi4O10. The Zn-rich synthesis opens up the possibility of producing EB from brass and demonstrates that EB used in Castelseprio’s mural paintings could have been produced in this way. The relationship between the microstructure and the NIR photoluminescence of cuprorivaite-like pigments is of interest also for applications in modern and future technologies. 2020-11-05T23:27:03Z 2020-11-05T23:27:03Z 2019-06 2019-03 2020-09-24T21:06:36Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1866-9557 1866-9565 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128380 Nicola, Marco et al. "Late production of Egyptian blue: synthesis from brass and its characteristics." Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11, 10 (June 2019): 5377–5392 © 2019 Springer-Verlag GmbH en https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00873-w Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature application/pdf Springer Science and Business Media LLC Springer Berlin Heidelberg |
| spellingShingle | Nicola, Marco Seymour, Linda Marie Aceto, Maurizio Priola, Emanuele Gobetto, Roberto Masic, Admir Late production of Egyptian blue: synthesis from brass and its characteristics |
| title | Late production of Egyptian blue: synthesis from brass and its characteristics |
| title_full | Late production of Egyptian blue: synthesis from brass and its characteristics |
| title_fullStr | Late production of Egyptian blue: synthesis from brass and its characteristics |
| title_full_unstemmed | Late production of Egyptian blue: synthesis from brass and its characteristics |
| title_short | Late production of Egyptian blue: synthesis from brass and its characteristics |
| title_sort | late production of egyptian blue synthesis from brass and its characteristics |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128380 |
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