Polychromy in the Iberian Sculptures of Cerrillo Blanco: Analytical Study, Historical Context and State of Conservation
Abstract
:1. Introduction
Polychromy in Iberian Sculpture
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Instrumentation
2.1.1. Stereoscopic Optical Microscopy (SOM)
2.1.2. Petrographic Microscopy (PM)
2.1.3. Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (SEM-EDX)
2.1.4. Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR)
3. Results
3.1. Optical Microscopy
3.2. SEM-EDX
3.3. FTIR Spectroscopy
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
- The study carried out shows that many of the Cerrillo Blanco ensemble of sculptures had polychromy on them. The pigment used was a red clay. No remains of other pigments have been found, nor of organic compounds typical in materials used as binders in Prehistory.
- No preparation layer prior to the polychrome has been observed under the microscope. However, the FTIR analysis indicates the presence of gypsum in one of the samples, so the initial existence of a stucco coating, which was lost over the time the sculptures remained buried, cannot be ruled out.
- An acrylic resin has been identified in two samples as a result of restoration tasks that do not seem to have been justified, because the sculptures are in a good state of conservation and are kept in controlled interior spaces.
- The reddish monochrome paint described on the Cerrillo Blanco sculptures coincides with the kind described in other representative sculptural groups of the Iberian period, though very little is known about its meaning and symbolism.
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Chemical Composition (wt%) | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sample | 6 | 0092 | 0093 | 0097 | ||||
Element | Area | Spot | Area | Spot | Area | Spot | Area | Spot |
N | 7 (1) | |||||||
O | 38 (4) | 61.3 | 72 (5) | 71 (5) | 57 (5) | 65 (6) | 71 (5) | 54 (5) |
Mg | 0.4 (0.1) | 0.9 (0.1) | 0.9 (0.1) | 1.3 (0.2) | 0.71 (0.09) | 1.3 (0.2) | 1.1 (0.1) | 0.73 (0.09) |
Al | 1.1 (0.5) | 2.53 (0.03) | 1.04 (0.01) | 4.00 (0.04) | 1.88 (0.02) | 5.39 (0.05) | 4.06 (0.04) | 3.6 (0.1) |
Si | 3.42 (0.03) | 6.86 (0.07) | 2.91 (0.03) | 11.4 (0.1) | 5.13 (0.05) | 21.5 (0.2) | 11.6 (0.1) | 13.8 (0.1) |
P | n.d. | n.d. | 0.24 (0.05) | n.d. | n.d. | n.d. | n.d. | n.d. |
S | n.d. | n.d. | 1.60 (0.05) | 0.77 (0.2) | n.d. | n.d. | n.d. | n.d. |
K | 0.21 (0.06) | n.d. | n.d. | 0.46 (0.08) | 0.49 (0.01) | 1,4 (0.5) | 0.97 (0.03) | 1.67 (0.05) |
Ca | 9.48 (0.09) | 7.99 (0.08) | 13.1 (0.1) | 8.37 (0.08) | 30.2 (0.3) | 3,78 (0.04) | 7.52 (0.08) | 3.25 (0.03) |
Fe | 5.3 (0.4) | 20.4 (0.2) | 0.55 (0.03) | 2.30 (0.01) | 4.58 (0.01) | 2,18 (0.01) | 3.03 (0.01) | 22.2 (0.4) |
Minerals Identified | Sample | IR Bands’ Assignment (cm−1) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
6 | 0092 | 0093 | 0097 | ||
Calcite | X | X | X | X | 2873 (2ν3 mode of carbonate group) |
X | X | X | X | 2515 (2ν2 + ν4 mode of carbonate group) | |
X | X | X | X | 1798 (2ν1 + ν4 mode of carbonate group) | |
X | X | X | X | 1397-1408 (ν3 symmetric stretching of carbonate group) | |
X | X | X | X | 870 (ν2 out of plane deformation of carbonate group) | |
X | X | X | X | 711-2 (ν4 in-plane deformation of carbonate group) | |
Clayey minerals Quartz | X | 3674 (stretching of inner-surface hydroxyl groups located at the surface of the octahedral sheet of the layers in dioctahedral 1:1 clays) | |||
X | X | 3621-26 (stretching of inner hydroxyl groups bonded to octahedral cations in dioctahedral 1:1 clays) | |||
X | X | X | X | 3397-3400 (stretching of surface hydroxyl groups of adsorbed water) | |
X | X | X | X | 1084 (shoulder) (in phase stretching band of apical Si-O bonds) | |
X | X | X | X | 1020-27 (antisymmetric in-plane stretching of the Si-O-Si group) | |
X | X | X | X | 910 (deformation of inner and inner-surface OH groups) | |
X | X | X | X | 795-800, 775-784 (perpendicular Si-O deformations of the surface hydroxyl layer) | |
Haematite | X | X | X | X | 520-65 (isodimensional and an-isodimensional stretching of Fe-O bond) |
Magnetite | X | 579 (stretching of Fe-O bond) | |||
Acrylic resin | X | X | X | X | 2983, 2947, 2872 (stretching of CH2 and CH3 group) |
1722 (stretching of C=O ester group) | |||||
X | 1422 (shoulder) (bending -CH2 group) | ||||
X | 1387 (shoulder) (bending -CH3 group) | ||||
X | 1235 (stretching C-O-C group) | ||||
X | 1143 (stretching C-O-C group) | ||||
X | 1024 (stretching CH3-COO- group) | ||||
Gypsum | X | 3500-3400 (stretching OH group) | |||
X | 1680, 1620 (deformation OH group) | ||||
X | X | 1115 (ν3 stretching of sulfate group) | |||
X | 673, 600 (ν2 stretching of sulfate group) | ||||
Apatite minerals | X | 562 ν4 stretching of apatite group |
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Romero-Noguera, J.; Ruiz-Ruiz, M.B.; Doménech-Carbó, M.T.; Bolívar-Galiano, F. Polychromy in the Iberian Sculptures of Cerrillo Blanco: Analytical Study, Historical Context and State of Conservation. Coatings 2023, 13, 1798. https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13101798
Romero-Noguera J, Ruiz-Ruiz MB, Doménech-Carbó MT, Bolívar-Galiano F. Polychromy in the Iberian Sculptures of Cerrillo Blanco: Analytical Study, Historical Context and State of Conservation. Coatings. 2023; 13(10):1798. https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13101798
Chicago/Turabian StyleRomero-Noguera, Julio, María Belén Ruiz-Ruiz, María Teresa Doménech-Carbó, and Fernando Bolívar-Galiano. 2023. "Polychromy in the Iberian Sculptures of Cerrillo Blanco: Analytical Study, Historical Context and State of Conservation" Coatings 13, no. 10: 1798. https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13101798