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- Paint, Colour, and Style: The Contribution of Minerals to the Palette of the Descent from the Cross, Attributed to the Portuguese Painter Francisco João (act. 1558 1595)Publication . Melo, Helena; Cruz, António João; Sanyova, Jana; Valadas, Sara; Cardoso, AnaThe paint materials and techniques of The Descent from Cross, a panel painting attributed to the Portuguese painter Francisco João (act. 1558–1595), were investigated with a combination of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared imaging and an analysis of paint samples with microscopic, spectroscopic, and chromatographic techniques. The colour palette is composed of lead white, lead–tin yellow, minium, vermilion, ochres of different colours, umber, smalt, azurite, verdigris, charcoal black, and a variety of different-coloured red lakes made of brazilwood and cochineal. An oil-based medium was identified. The characterisation of the pigment mixtures, paint build-up, and particular paint handling techniques enabled us to determine their role in the style and formal appearance of this painting and to discuss Portuguese painting practices in the larger context of 16th-century European painting. Mineral and elemental associations or impurities in the blue pigments, as well as degradation issues affecting minium, and smalt paints were reported. In particular, the deterioration of the glass matrix in some of the smalt particles mixed in lead white paint raises special concern.
- Italian Influence in a Portuguese Mannerist Painting (Part II): A Matter of Image or a Matter of Technique?Publication . Melo, Helena Pinheiro de; Cruz, António João; Valadas, Sara; Cardoso, Ana Margarida; Helvaci, Yigit Zafer; Candeias, AntónioThe panel depicting The Descent from the Cross, painted in 1620 by the Portuguese artist Pedro Nunes (1586-1637), shows a clear Italian formal influence. The painter’s colour palette was identified in another paper. The panel is now investigated from a technical perspective, discussing aspects related to the support, preparatory system, and paint layer build-up. The research is based on the visual inspection of the painting’s surface with complementary imaging techniques and on the analysis of the materials from the preparatory layers with microscopic and spectroscopic techniques. The characterisation of the painting technique revealed an ingenious use of colour that is based on the understanding of the optical and handling properties of oil paint. This knowledge is illustrated by the painter’s ability to exploit and combine a range of different oil painting techniques, such as glazing, scumbling, wet-in-wet, or wet-in-dry painting; by his formulation of a wide variety of pigment mixtures; and by his use of diverse and often complex layering systems - some quite unconventional for Portuguese painting practice. The material and technical originality of this painting clearly reflects Nunes’ international Roman experience and his desire to update the Portuguese mainstream practice of his time.
- The Matter from Which an Orange Colour Is Made: On the Arsenic Pigment Used in a Portuguese Mannerist PaintingPublication . Cruz, António João; Melo, Helena P.; Valadas, Sara; Miguel, Catarina; Candeias, AntónioThe painting The Descent from the Cross, painted in 1620 by Pedro Nunes (1586–1637), presents two large figures with orange-coloured fabrics with conservation problems. Through the analysis of two samples with several analytical techniques, especially scanning electron microscopy combined with X-ray spectroscopy and Raman microscopy, it was possible to conclude that the orange colour is due to a complex artificial pigment made of amorphous arsenic sulphide. It essentially consists of spherical particles obtained by sublimation and condensation, possibly from orpiment, which ended up being joined with irregularly shaped particles resulting from crushing of the residual fraction obtained by solidification and fusion. This is a rare documented case of the extensive use of artificial arsenic sulphides in European easel painting, especially outside Italy. The conservation problems can be explained by the great sensitivity of the arsenic sulphides to photodegradation and the formation of powdery compounds.