Nouvelles méthodes de préparation et d'analyse par combinaison de techniques synchrotron hyperspectrales pour l'étude de micro-fragments de peintures et d'autres matériaux du patrimoine culturel

This project aims at developing a new methodological approach, providing a more efficient and synergetic use of FTIR and X-ray microscopies, for the analysis of painting fragments. Usually, painting fragments are prepared as polished sections and analyses are carried out on the cross-section surface. This sample preparation is easy to handle, however ends into critical constraints regarding feasibility and efficiency of micro-analyses. We propose to explore a different strategy: preparation and analysis of thin sections. These preparation procedures were first optimized and validated with µFTIR, µXRF, µXRD and µXANES. Besides, new methodological capabilities based on full-field/µXANES were assessed. Paintings were ideal candidates for estimating pros and cons of this new strategy for CH materials in general.Le projet vise à développer une nouvelle approche méthodologique dans le but d'améliorer l'utilisation combinée de plusieurs techniques de microscopies infrarouge et X lors de l'analyse de fragments de peintures. Historiquement et ordinairement, les fragments de peintures sont préparés en coupes épaisses polies et les analyses sont réalisées à la surface de ces dernières. Bien que cette préparation d'échantillon facilite sa manipulation ainsi que son orientation lors des analyses, elle limite aussi l'efficacité et la faisabilité de certaines techniques de microscopie. Par conséquent, ce travail propose d'explorer une nouvelle stratégie analytique : la préparation et l'analyse de coupes fines. Ces deux étapes ont été optimisées et validées dans le cadre d'analyses par µFTIR, µXRD, µXRF et µXANES. En parallèle, de nouvelles possibilités analytiques ont été testées dans le cadre de l'analyse des peintures, basées sur la technique XANES plein champ. Les échantillons de peintures se sont révélés être d'excellents candidats pour évaluer les avantages et inconvénients de cette technique pour les matériaux du Patrimoine Culturel en général

New methods for the preparation and analyses of paint samples from Cultural Heritage artifacts with combined hyperspectral techniques.

Le projet vise à développer une nouvelle approche méthodologique dans le but d'améliorer l'utilisation combinée de plusieurs techniques de microscopies infrarouge et X lors de l'analyse de fragments de peintures. Historiquement et ordinairement, les fragments de peintures sont préparés en coupes épaisses polies et les analyses sont réalisées à la surface de ces dernières. Bien que cette préparation d'échantillon facilite sa manipulation ainsi que son orientation lors des analyses, elle limite aussi l'efficacité et la faisabilité de certaines techniques de microscopie. Par conséquent, ce travail propose d'explorer une nouvelle stratégie analytique : la préparation et l'analyse de coupes fines. Ces deux étapes ont été optimisées et validées dans le cadre d'analyses par µFTIR, µXRD, µXRF et µXANES. En parallèle, de nouvelles possibilités analytiques ont été testées dans le cadre de l'analyse des peintures, basées sur la technique XANES plein champ. Les échantillons de peintures se sont révélés être d'excellents candidats pour évaluer les avantages et inconvénients de cette technique pour les matériaux du Patrimoine Culturel en général.This project aims at developing a new methodological approach, providing a more efficient and synergetic use of FTIR and X-ray microscopies, for the analysis of painting fragments. Usually, painting fragments are prepared as polished sections and analyses are carried out on the cross-section surface. This sample preparation is easy to handle, however ends into critical constraints regarding feasibility and efficiency of micro-analyses. We propose to explore a different strategy: preparation and analysis of thin sections. These preparation procedures were first optimized and validated with µFTIR, µXRF, µXRD and µXANES. Besides, new methodological capabilities based on full-field/µXANES were assessed. Paintings were ideal candidates for estimating pros and cons of this new strategy for CH materials in general

Artificial Intelligence for Pigment Classification Task in the Short-Wave Infrared Range

Hyperspectral reflectance imaging in the short-wave infrared range (SWIR, “extended NIR”, ca. 1000 to 2500 nm) has proven to provide enhanced characterization of paint materials. However, the interpretation of the results remains challenging due to the intrinsic complexity of the SWIR spectra, presenting both broad and narrow absorption features with possible overlaps. To cope with the high dimensionality and spectral complexity of such datasets acquired in the SWIR domain, one data treatment approach is tested, inspired by innovative development in the cultural heritage field: the use of a pigment spectral database (extracted from model and historical samples) combined with a deep neural network (DNN). This approach allows for multi-label pigment classification within each pixel of the data cube. Conventional Spectral Angle Mapping and DNN results obtained on both pigment reference samples and a Buddhist painting (thangka) are discussed

Entre tradition et modernité: l'atelier verrier des Salines au coeur des Hautes Corbières (Aude) au début du XVIIIe siècle

International audienc

Entre tradition et modernité: l’atelier verrier des Salines au coeur des hautes Corbières (Aude) fin XVIIe- début XVIIIe

Actes des rencontres de l'AFAV Bordeaux 2013International audienc

Casting Light on 20th-Century Parisian Artistic Bronze: Insights from Compositional Studies of Sculptures Using Hand-Held X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Paris was home to scores of bronze foundries making it the primary European center for the production of artistic bronzes, or bronzes d’art. These foundries were competitive, employing different casting methods—either lost-wax or sand casting—as well as closely guarded alloy and patina recipes. Recent studies have demonstrated that accurate measurements of the metal composition of these casts can provide art historians of early 20th-century bronze sculpture with a richer understanding of an object’s biography, and help answer questions about provenance and authenticity. In this paper, data from 171 20th-century bronzes from Parisian foundries are presented revealing diachronic aspects of foundry production, such as varying compositional ranges for sand casting and lost-wax casting. This new detailed knowledge of alloy composition is most illuminating when the interpretation of the data focuses on casts by a single artist and is embedded within a specific historical context. As a case study, compositional analyses were undertaken on a group of 20th-century posthumous bronze casts of painted, unbaked clay caricature portrait busts by Honoré-Victorin Daumier (1808⁻1879)

Preparation of thin-sections of painting fragments: classical and innovative strategies

For more than a century, the analyses of painting fragments have been carried out mainly through the preparation of thick resin-embedded cross-sections. Taking into account the development of innovative micro-analytical imaging techniques, alternatives to this standard preparation method are considered. Consequently, dedicated efforts are required to develop preparation protocols limiting the risks of chemical interferences (solubilisation, reduction/oxidation or other reactions) which modify the sample during its preparation, as well as the risks of analytical interferences (overlap of detected signals coming from the sample and from materials used in the preparation). This study focuses particularly on the preparation of thin-sections (1-20 μm) for single or combined fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray 2D micro-analysis. A few strategies specially developed for the μFTIR analysis of painting cross-sections have already been reported and their potential extrapolation to the preparation of thin-sections is discussed. In addition, we propose two new specific methods: (i) the first is based on a free-embedding approach, ensuring a complete chemical and analytical neutrality. It is illustrated through application on polymeric design objects corpus; (ii) the second is based on a barrier coating approach which strengthens the sample and avoids the penetration of the resin into the sample. The barrier coating investigated is a silver chloride salt, an infrared transparent material, which remains malleable and soft after pellet compression, enabling microtoming. This last method was successfully applied to the preparation of a fragment from a gilded Chinese sculpture (15th C.) and was used to unravel a unique complex stratigraphy when combining μFTIR and μXRF