Lead white from Venice: a whiter shade of pale?
- ️https://nga.academia.edu/BarbaraBerrie
Related papers
According to historical recipes, lead white quality depends on a number of factors. Amongst these, authors have given most attention to raw material purity, skilled production, to processing or purification methods and to the addition of adulterants. The development of production methods during the period under consideration is described. Descriptions of recipes for lead white washing, grinding with liquids such as water, vinegar and urine, recipes for particle size selection through decanting and hints for the detection of adulterants show a continuous concern with quality. The paper furthermore provides an overview of lead white nomenclature. Changes in lead white terminology during the period under consideration demonstrate a devaluation of certain lead white names originally assigned to high quality pigment. When modern production methods were introduced to provide safer, more controlled or cheaper alternatives to traditional stack-process preparation, nomenclature diversified.
Pigments—Lead-based whites, reds, yellows and oranges and their alteration phases
Open Access - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2022
This review summarises the state-of-the-art of lead-based pigment studies, addressing their production, trade, use and possible alteration. Other issues, such as those related to the investigation and protection of artworks bearing lead-based pigments are also presented. The focus is mineralogical, as both raw materials and degradation products are mineral phases occurring in nature (except for very few cases). The minerals described are abellaite, anglesite, blixite, caledonite, challacolloite, cerussite, cotunnite, crocoite, galena, grootfonteinite, hydrocerussite, laurionite, leadhillite, litharge, macphersonite, massicot, mimetite, minium, palmierite, phosgenite, plattnerite, plumbonacrite, schulténite, scrutinyite, somersetite, susannite, vanadinite and an unnamed phase (PbMg(CO3)2). The pigments discussed are lead white, red lead, litharge, massicot, lead-tin yellow, lead-tin-antimony yellow, lead-chromate yellow and Naples yellow. An attempt is made to describe the history, technology and alteration of these pigments in the most complete manner possible, despite the topic's evident breadth. Finally, an insight into the analytical methods that can (and should) be used for accurate archaeometric investigations and a summary of key concepts conclude this review, along with a further list of references for use as a starting point for further research.
Archaeological Evidence of Venetian Trade in Colouring Materials: The Case of the Gnalić Shipwreck
Trading Paintings and Painters’ Materials 1550–1800, 2019
In late October or early November 1583, the Gagliana Grossa sailed from Venice towards Constantinople but foundered off the coast of northern Dalmatia. The ship was loaded with cargo, a large part of which comprised colouring materials, from the most prominent European workshops. Studies of these unique archaeological finds are providing an insight into the colouring materials available in Venice, as well as its international export power capacity. Since 1967 numerous archaeometric analyses have been carried out on these colouring materials, resulting in the identification of lead carbonate, lead oxide, mercury sulphide, antimony sulphide, iron oxide- and arsenic-based colouring materials, lake pigment, elementary tin and mercury. Until now, an understanding of Venetian trade in colouring materials has been based entirely on archival sources. The aim of this research is to merge the results of the archaeological data with archival documents in order to obtain an overview of the trade in colouring materials. Precisely dated archaeological finds, combined with archival documents, have generated a list of colouring materials used in wholesale, retail and international trade. Archival and archaeological evidence presents a unique insight into the materials available in 16th-century Venice.
2012
Historical recipes describe several refining methods to improve the quality of lead white, usually by grinding or washing with water and/or vinegar. Processing methods also include decanting (particle size separation based on gravita- tional sedimentation speed). This paper reports on reconstructions of such processing methods using historically accurate materials and techniques. Particle size separation through gravitational sedimentation is easy to accomplish. The size frac- tion thus produced bears a close resemblance to the very fine grade of lead white present in Vermeer's The Art of Painting (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). Lead white is generally considered to be a basic lead carbonate, but it usually consists of basic and neutral lead carbonate, with small amounts of other lead salts. X-ray diffraction of the pigments produced with historically accurate techniques shows that all of the reconstructed processing methods influence the ratio of neutral to basic lead carbo...
Investigations of Ancient Lead White Pigments Using Lead Isotope Abundance Ratios
Chimia, 2005
White lead (2PbCO 3 ?Pb(OH) 2 ), a common component in 17c. artists' painting materials, was singled out to investigate the potential of lead isotope abundance ratios in the field of authentication and origin assignment. Paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and other Old Masters of the Northern and Southern schools were chosen for this study. An interdisciplinary approach was chosen using both analytical instrumental methods, art technological and art historical knowledge. Minute samples taken from paintings from selected art collections worldwide were investigated using mass spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The high precision lead isotope abundance ratios were measured by multiple collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). The determination of the calcium matrix influence with respect to possible bias effects to the isotope ratios gave clear decision support, to whether a result lies within the stated combined measurement uncertainty of the result, to eliminate time-consuming matrix separations. The scatter plots of the measured isotope abundance ratios for the painting pigments from P. P. Rubens, A. van Dyck and other Flemish painters exhibit a very narrow distribution forming a cluster. The range of the measured ratio 206 Pb/ 204 Pb amounts to 0.55% and for the ratio 207 Pb/ 204 Pb to 0.2%. The comparison of the data to cis-alpine (Italian) sample pigments from paintings from the same time period reveals a clear distinction between the two fields. With respect to the lead isotope data originating from the ores it is assumed that the pigment isotope ratio distribution can be explained by very distinct origin of raw materials. Presumably, no mixing of different lead ores from Europe took place. The comparison of the measured white lead isotope ratio values (Flemish paintings) and the data from ore samples led to the unexpected conclusion that local ores were not used for the pigment production but British or German sources. PAPER www.rsc.org/analyst | The Analyst 898 | Analyst, 2005, 130, 898-906
Theory vs practice: synthesis of white lead following ancient recipes
The Materials of the Image. As Matérias da Imagem (ed. Luís Urbano Afonso), 2010
The synthesis of white lead pigment (usually described as basic lead carbonate, 2PbCO 3 ·Pb(OH) 2 ) following the recipes of ancient Portuguese painting treatises was studied, aiming to clarify the importance of some procedure details and the effect of the experimental parameters. Currently available lead plates and commercial vinegar were used. The recipe reported in Filipe Nunes' treatise (1615), was the starting point of the study and the process was monitored by XRD. Selected samples were also characterized by SEM. The relative importance of temperature, CO 2 atmosphere and H 2 O vapour was demonstrated. The pigments obtained presents basic lead carbonate phase but also a large content of other components.
Archaeometry, 2014
The Naples Yellow pigment was apparently used for the first time by the Egyptians, as a glass-colouring agent. Also known in the Mesopotamian and Roman cultures, the recipe was lost in Western Europe between the fourth and the 16th centuries AD. The recipe for the production of lead antimonate recently discovered in the 'Codice Calabranci' (second half of the 15th century) at Montelupo, a small town near Florence (Italy) known for its large-scale ceramic production, possibly represents the very first evidence of the reintroduction of Naples Yellow in Western Europe after a long period of absence. The major-element composition of the lead antimonate pigment in the Montelupo ceramics of the 15th and 16th centuries is in accordance with the 'Codice Calabranci' recipes. Lead isotope analyses indicate that the lead used to produce the yellow pigments and the underlying glaze of the Montelupo majolica did not come from the Tuscan mining districts, but was possibly imported via Venice from more distant lead sources in Turkey.
Traditional "stack "manufacturing process (16-19th c.) of lead white pigment by lead corrosion is explored by exposing metal to acetic acid, carbon dioxide, dioxygen and water vapor. Global reaction scheme is revealed, along with stratification of corrosion products with CO 2 gradient, leading to flakiness of corrosion layer. Kinetic and epitaxial features rule the polyphased structure, explaining hydrocerussite-rich compositions and absence of plumbonacrite in classical easel paintings. Microstructure of cerussite appears as a differentiation criterion between stack-made and industrial precipitation-synthesized lead whites. Particular conditions reported in ancient writings are tested and discussed to understand unusual processes.