COMPARATIVE ANALYTICAL STUDY OF THE MATERIALS USED IN WALL PAINTING OF HISTORICAL PALACES

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of Conservation, Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University, Egypt

Abstract

Historical palaces are adorned with valuable wall paintings which were applied by tempera
techniques. These techniques were directly applied on the wall or after preparing the surface with a
canvas layer. Most of these wall paintings suffered from several deterioration aspects such as
cracking, loss of paint layers, and formation of color stains due to biological or salt effects. The
chemical composition of the materials used in the construction and decoration of the wall paintings
were studied by means of light optical microscope (L.O.M), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
(FT-IR), atomic absorption spectrophotometry (A.A.) and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD). The
obtained results will be used to lay out a scientific plan for restoration and preservation.

Keywords