Search Results (4)

This article explores the phenomenon of a specific type of personal adornment worn by members of the Scythian elite in the North Black Sea region in the second half of the 5th century and throughout the 4th century BCE. The discussion juxtaposes the records from 19th-century and early 20th-century excavations with contextual analyses of very recent discoveries from Ukraine, which shed significant new light on the appearance, production, and meaning of Scythian jewelry. The reconstruction of the shape of the jewelry type in question is greatly complicated by two factors: the lack of relevant depictions in the contemporary corpus of Scythian and Greco-Scythian figure scenes and misleading scholarly references to supposed analogies in a Roman-era mosaic, which became the chief reason for the misinterpretations of the ornament’s appearance. Composed of numerous gold or gilded silver tubes; beads; pendants; and, sometimes, “buttons,” this jewelry type is reconstructed in two gender-specific variants in this article: one mesh-like and the other with a cross-chest form. For over a hundred years, scholars have considered only the mesh variant to be the correct reconstruction. As a result, many costume reconstructions of this jewelry form in specialist research and museum displays alike are still proposed without a sufficient evidentiary base. Full article

The authors studied forty-three beautiful nose ornaments from the Moche tomb of the Lady of Cao, located in the north of Peru, which has been dated to be around 300–400 d.C. Of these items, thirty-nine are composed of a sheet of gold alloy joined together in various manners to a silver alloy sheet, which provides a strong contrast at their interface. Two nose ornaments are on gold alloy and two on silver alloy. These nose ornaments were studied using the following methods: (i) Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF); (ii) Transmission of monoenergetic X-rays (XRT) and (iii) X-ray Radiography (RAD). The conclusion, deduced from all applied methods, was that two sheets of gold and silver alloys were joined together with various methods, including gluing, mechanically joining, soldering, smelting with the aid of heating or using mercury to create an amalgam. It cannot be excluded that a few areas, visibly appearing as silver, were obtained by depletion silvering from the base Au-Cu-Ag alloy. By analyzing a fragment from the silver area of a nose ornament and by studying a few other nose ornaments from the tomb of the Lady of Cao in situ, G. Ingo and co-workers concluded that a unique sheet of three-component alloy (Ag-Cu-Au), whichemployed and transformed the surface of the objects to appear to be gold and silver by depletion gilding and silvering. Full article

Wooden icons used in liturgical activities suffer a series of evolutionary deteriorations and degradations over time, due to improper storage and use conditions. The deterioration of the physical state of the structural-functional elements and degradation of the chemical nature of the components often lead old easel paintings to precarious preservation (almost close to pre-collapse), impossible to use or display as an artifact. In this study was included an old oil-painted icon on a carved linden wood support with fine gilded ornaments, which frames a central icon (“Coronation of Virgin Mary”) and a complex Menaion icon system with iconographic scenes. It was made by an anonymous author and dates back to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. As the icon has a special beauty and an ornamental and iconographic complexity, having a great heritage value, it required the elaboration of an optimal preservation–restoration protocol for the museum exhibition. Initially, the nature of the pictorial materials was determined, and their preservation state was evaluated using the OM, SEM-EDX, micro-FTIR methods, and CIE L*a*b* colorimetry and visible and UV reflectography were used in the evaluation of the wash test and in compatibility studies. Based on the data obtained, the optimal materials and procedures for structural reintegration were selected (including support fillings and filling of gaps), then chromatic reintegration and gilding, followed by final revarnishing, with or without patination additives. Full article

The present work comprises the application of a multi-analytical strategy based on the combination of several non-destructive and micro-invasive methodologies for the examination of the glazed tiles from the tomb of Benozzo Federighi made by Luca della Robbia. The marble tomb is framed by flat glazed terracotta tiles, each ornamented with naturalistically depicted flowers. The tiles are assembled like an “opus sectile” and their background is gilded. The leaf is incorporated on the top of the glaze, differently by traditional gilding technique as in previous glazed works of della Robbia. The identification methodology integrates the results from spot analyses such as UV-vis reflectance spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence, with those obtained on tiny samples by X-ray diffraction, electron microscopic observations, laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and firing temperature analysis. The adopted analytical protocol allowed us to clarify peculiarities of the artist’s technique and of the manufacturing technology used to create the terracotta and gilded glazed tiles. The terracotta body shows main phases related with Ca-rich ceramic body and the glaze results Pb-based and additioned with Sn as an opacifier. Co, Pb-Sb and Cu were identified as glazes colouring agents. The hypothesis on the use of the “third firing” technique for gilding tiles is explored in the text. Full article