This study reports the mineralogical and chemical characterization of the ceramic body of tiles
signed by Gabriel del Barco, which belong to the Palácio Almada in Lisbon [1]. Nowadays, the tile
panels are not in its original place and their appearance reflect the constant changes that they have
been through. Gabriel del Barco was an important tile painter from the 17th century, who began his
career as an oil painter, linked to the most relevant Portuguese baroque artists. The influent Almada
family was the owner of the former palace near Rossio, one of the most significant and busy squares
in 17th century Lisbon.
Gabriel del Barco has been currently under investigation by the authors of this presentation
through a FCT funded project [2]. In fact, the painter’s characteristics and his large amount of works
(both signed and ascribed), make him a unique artist in the Portuguese tile’s panorama.
Powder samples carefully removed from the two panels of the palace were analysed by X-ray
diffraction (DRX) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The results revealed that the
mineralogical and chemical compositions are almost the same for the two panels. Chloride is present
only in one of the panels. A comparison with the present results is made with a recent work, where
signed and nonsigned tiles attributed to the artist, was made [3]. We discuss the several factors that
may affect the characteristics of old tiles, which may involve differences in the manufacturing process,
or environmental factors as the precipitation of waterinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
