Beeswax; Ganosis; Statues; TOF-SIMS; Conservation; Chemistry (miscellaneous); Archeology (arts and humanities); Materials Science (miscellaneous); Economics, Econometrics and Finance (all); Spectroscopy; Computer Science Applications; Archeology; General Economics, Econometrics and Finance
Abstract :
[en] The material evidence for the wax finish on ancient marble statues, known as ganosis, is scarce and controversial, although Greek and Latin sources describe the recipes and cultural value of this treatment. The surface treatment of a colossal Roman head from the Roman theatre of Dougga (Tunisia), dated to the end of the second century CE, is studied by a multi-analytical protocol (video-microscope, cross section, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry of one sample). The results of this physico-chemical analysis and the comparison with ancient recipes, prove the use of ganosis on a Roman statue and explore, for the first time, the application of the recipes described in ancient sources. This result shows the potential of the Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry analysis, detecting at the same time organic and inorganic materials and their stratigraphy, to study the ancient recipes.
Disciplines :
Archaeology
Author, co-author :
Neri, Elisabetta ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Unités de recherche interfacultaires > Art, Archéologie et Patrimoine (AAP)
Bouvier, Caroline ; Sorbonne Université́, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Archéologie Moléculaire et Structurale, Paris, France
de Viguerie, Laurence; Sorbonne Université́, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Archéologie Moléculaire et Structurale, Paris, France
Brunelle, Alain ; Sorbonne Université́, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Archéologie Moléculaire et Structurale, Paris, France
Nasr, Nesrine; Institut National du Patrimoine (INP), Tunis, Tunisia
Béjaoui, Fathi; Institut National du Patrimoine (INP), Tunis, Tunisia
Baratte, François; Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Orient & Méditerranée, Paris, France
Walter, Philippe ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Centres généraux > Centre européen en archéométrie ; Sorbonne Université́, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Archéologie Moléculaire et Structurale, Paris, France
Language :
English
Title :
Wax finishing in Roman polychrome statuary: Ganosis on the colossal head from Dougga (Tunisia)
H2020 - 896000 - PolyCRomA - Polychromy: the meaning of Colour in Roman African statues
Funders :
EU - European Union
Funding text :
The fieldwork for this study was supported by the Coblarcheo program (Paris-Sorbonne: program Convergence 2016 at LAMS laboratory) and in the frame of the project “Corpus des sculptures du Musée du Bardo-Tunis”, headed by Francois Baratte and Fathi Bejaoui. This work was financially supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France, grant ANR-2015-CE29-0007 DEFIMAGE). This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement “PolyCRomA: No. 89600 to EN). The funding organisation had no influence in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Abbe, M.B., Polychromy. Friedland, E.A., Sobocinski, M.G., Gazda, E.K., (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture, 2015, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 173–188.
Østergaard, J.S., Polychromy of Greek and Roman sculptural. The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2018, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Brecoulaki, H., Andreotti, A., Bonaduce, I., Colombini, M.P., Lluveras, A., Characterization of organic media in the wall-paintings of the “Palace of Nestor” at Pylos, Greece: evidence for a secco painting techniques in the Bronze Age. J. Archaeolog. Sci. 39 (2012), 2866–2876.
Brøns, C., Rasmussen, K.L., Melchiorre Di Crescenzo, M., Stacey, R., Lluveras-Tenorio, A., Painting the Palace of Apries I: ancient binding media and coatings of the reliefs from the Palace of Apries, Lower Egypt. Herit. Sci. 6 (2018), 2866–2876.
Stacey, R.J., Dyer, J., Mussell, C., Lluveras-Tenorio, A., Colombini, M.P., Duce, C., Nasa, J.La, Cantisani, E., Prati, S., Sciutto, G., Mazzeo, R., Sotiropoulou, S., Rosi, F., Miliani, C., Cartechini, L., Mazurek, J., Schilling, M., Ancient encaustic: An experimental exploration of technology, ageing behaviour and approaches to analytical investigation. Microchem. J. 138 (2018), 472–487.
Freccero, A., Wax paint and Punic wax - research and experiment. Omarini, S., (eds.) Encausto: Storia, Tecniche e Ricerche = Encaustic: History, 2012, Technique and Research, Nardini, Firenze, 105–113.
Omarini, S., (eds.) Encausto: Storia, Tecniche e Ricerche = Encaustic: History, 2012, Technique and Research, Nardini, Firenze.
E. Leka, La thérapéia des scultpures en Grèce ancienne: le témoignage des sources textuelles, in: B. Bourgeois, Thérapéia. Polychromie et restauration de la sculpture dans l'Antiquité (Techné, 40), Paris, pp. 61-68.
Ramer, B., The Technology, Examination and Conservation of the Fayum Portraits in the Petrie Museum. Stud. Conserv. 24:1 (1979), 1–13.
Lalli, C.G., Lanterna, G., Andrash, D., Innocenti, F., The rewiew of analytical data of te Fayum in the light of new investigations technique. Omarini, S., (eds.) Encausto: Storia, Tecniche e Ricerche = Encaustic: History, Ed., 2012, Technique and Research, Nardini, Firenze, 114–122.
M.L. Sargent, R.H. Therkildsen, The Technical Investigation of Sculptural Polychromy at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek 2009–2010 – An Outline, in: Tracking colour. The Polychromy and Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Report 2, Copenhagen, 2010, pp. 11-27.
Bourgeois, B., Re)peindre, dorer, cirer. La thérapéia en acte dans la sculpture grecque hellenistique. Bourgeois, B., (eds.) Thérapéia. Polychromie et restauration de la sculpture dans l'Antiquité (Techné, 40), Paris, 2014, 69–80.
Balcar, N., Langlois, J., Vandenberghe, Y., Caracterisation d'une cire d'abeille sur un portrait en marbre antique dit de Berenice II. Bourgeois, B., (eds.) Thérapéia. Polychromie et restauration de la sculpture dans l'Antiquité (Techné, 40), Paris, 2014, 81–84.
Bourgeois, B., « Les vies d'une reine. A propos des remaniements antiques de polychromie sur le portrait de Bérénice II à Mariemont ». van den Hoff, R., Queyrel, F., Perrin-Saminadayar, E., (eds.) Eikones. Portraits en contexte. Recherches nouvelles sur les portraits grecs du Ve au Ier s. av. J.-C., 2016, Venosa: Osanna Edizioni, 151–168.
Liverani, P., Per una ‘Storia del colore.’ La scultura policroma romana. Liverani, P., Santamaria, U., (eds.) Diversamente Bianco. La Policromia Della Scultura Romana, Roma, 2014, 9–23.
M. Scharff, R. Hast, N. Kalsbeek, J.S. Østergaard, Investigating the polychromy of a Classical Attic Greek marble female head NCG IN 283013, in: Tracking colour. The Polychromy and Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Report 1, Copenhagen, 2009, 13-40.
M.L. Sargent, L.R. Spaabek, M. Scharff, J.S. Østergaard, Documentation and investigation of traces of colour on the Archaic Sphinx NCG IN 1203 74, in: Tracking colour. The Polychromy and Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Report 1, Copenhagen, 2009, 74-88.
I. Bonaduce, J. Boon, An integrated mass spectrometric and molecular imaging analytical approach to identify and localise constituents in paintings applied to gilded multilayer structures from 14th to 16th works of art, in: M. P Colombini & L Tassi, New Trends in Analytical, Environmental and Cultural Heritage Chemistry. Transworld Research Network, 345–388.
F. Baratte, Fiche 73 - Tête-portrait masculine colossale, in: F. Baratte, N. de Chaisemartin, F. Béjaoui, Corpus Raisonné des Sculptures du Musée du Bardo, Ausonius, Bordeaux (forthcoming).
Fittschen, K., Zanker, P., Katalog der römischen Porträts in den Capitolinischen Museen und den anderen kommunalen Sammlungen der Stadt Rom. 1. Kaiser-und Prinzenbildnisse (Beiträge zur Erschliessung hellenistischer und kaiserzeitlicher Skulptur und Architektur iii.). 1985, Von Zabern, Mainz.
Sanyova, J., Cersoy, S., Richardin, P., Laprévote, O., Walter, P., Brunelle, A., Unexpected materials in a Rembrandt painting characterized by high spatial resolution cluster-TOF-SIMS imaging. Anal. Chem. 83 (2011), 753–760.
Richardin, P., Mazel, V., P., Walter, Laprévote, O., Brunelle, A., Identification of different copper green pigments in Renaissance paintings by cluster-TOF-SIMS imaging analysis. J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 22 (2011), 1729–1736.
Vanbellingen, Q.P., Elie, N., Eller, M.J., Della-Negra, S., Touboul, D., Brunelle, A., Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry imaging of biological samples with delayed extraction for high mass and high spatial resolutions. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 29 (2015), 1187–1195.
Noun, N., Van Elslande, E., Touboul, D., Glanville, H., Bucklow, S., Walter, P., Brunelle, A., High mass and spatial resolution mass spectrometry imaging of Nicolas Poussin painting cross-section by cluster-TOF-SIMS. J. Mass Spectrom. 51 (2016), 1196–1210.
Regert, M., Colinart, S., Degrand, L., Decavallais, O., Chemical alteration and use of beeswax through time: accelerated ageing tests and analysis of archaeological samples from various environmental contexts. Archaeometry 43:4 (2001), 549–569.
Freccero, A., Encausto and ganosis. Beeswax as Paint and Coating during the Roman Era and its Applications in Modern Art, Craft and Conservation. Göteborg Stud. Conserv., 9, 2002.
J.K., Delaney, K.A., Dooley, R.Radpour, I.Kakoulli, Macroscale multimodal imaging reveals ancient painting production technology and the vogue in Greco-Roman Egypt. Sci. Rep., 7(1), 2017, 15509.
Leka, E., L'emploi des huiles, des onguents et des parfums dans l'entretien des statues en Grèce ancienne. Frère, D., Hugot, L., (eds.) Les huiles parfumées en Méditerranée occidentale et en Gaule (VIIIe siècle av. - VIIIe siècle apr. J.-C.), Centre Jean Bérard n° 38, Archéologie de l'artisanat antique, 6, eds., 2012, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 277–290.
