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Materials Used in Romanian Manuscripts from 15th to 19th century
Stereomicroscopy
by Mihai I. A. Lupu
Introduction
The paper presents the results of compared stereomicroscopy for the pigments used in the Romanian manuscripts dated between 15th and 19th century from the National Museum of Art of Romania (NAMR) collection. This type of analysis was done because it was not possible to take samples for microchemical analysis. An Olympus stereomicroscope SZ 60 was used to compare the pigments with others already determined. The results are presented synthetically and show similarities with the pigments used in the same period in Western Europe [1, 2]. Three different kinds of inks were determined: a black one - containing vegetable charcoal; a gold one - gold powder; and a red one - cinnabar or red lead. The pigments correspond to all those already mentioned for that period: ceruse (white lead), ultramarine, azurite, smalt, malachite, red and yellow ochre, cinnabar and red lead, green and brown earth, massicot and litharge, orpiment and realgar, gold sheet and some unidentified organic pigments. Another possibility to make these analyses without sampling was carried out using the following in-situ techniques: X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), micro-Raman, Fiber-Optic Fourier Transform Mid-Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy and Near Infrared (NIR). This was possible due to the European research project MOLAB with the help of the University of Perugia in 2005 at Putna Monastery which focused on the research of the most important illuminated Romanian manuscripts from the 15th century. The results indicated the presence of: gelatine, iron gall ink and charcoal for the black ink; colloidal gold for the gold ink; and cinnabar for the red ink. According to the analyses, the results were similar to those obtained by stereomicroscopy (SMC), but much more precise and it was possible to determine calcite and gypsum, even in very small quantities. [3] The Romanian Medieval Art Department of NMAR contains a collection of 33 illuminated manuscripts from the 13th to the 19th century, some written in Greek, some bilingual, written in Greek-Romanian and Slavonic-Romanian, one in Romanian written in Slavonic and one in Latin alphabet. This study presents the results of the microscopic research in the visible and U.V light for 13 of these artworks, for the pigments used in the miniature paintings and manuscripts decorations (Table 1), which were presented in the second volume of the book “Miniatura si ornamentul manuscriselor din Colectia de Arta Medievala Romaneasca”, published by Simetria, Bucharest (2006), written by the Romanian art historian Liana Tugearu. Results and discussions Table I presents in chronological order the studied manuscripts and the Monasteries or Counties where they were made. The Illuminated Manuscripts are written in the Slavonic alphabet, which was used in the official Romanian medieval documents and by the Orthodox Church between the 12th and the 19th century. The manuscripts were made in Moldavia, the north-east side of the Romanian present territory and in Walachia, the south-east region. The first of them was written in Bulgarian and the last one in Russian-Ukrainian language. Most part of the illuminated manuscripts have two different kinds of decorations: one of them is used for the beginning and the final parts of each Gospel (images 1-3 and 5) while the other one depicts the images of the Four Evangelists. Sometimes the authors used the same pigments while other times differences between the number and the tones of the used colours can be seen. Identification of the materials was made by comparison with original pigments. The results are presented in Table 2. As an example, the manuscript MS 9/12616 from Putna Monastery, Moldavia will be presented. Decoration: red lead, red ochre, green earth, azurite, gold powder, litharge, candle black. Illustration: red lead, red lead + charcoal black, malachite, green earth, yellow ochre, reddish-violet: cinnabar + lead white + azurite, azurite, red-orange: cinnabar, Natural Umber, charcoal black, pink: cinnabar + ceruse, gold powder, lead white (image 4). The difference between the decoration and illustration consists in the double number of colours, 7 for the first and 14 for the second. The miniaturist tried to represent in a pictorial mode the Four Evangelists, and thus, he could not limit himself to use a smaller number of colours - he either mixed some of them or added more pigments. In this particular manuscript the technique is most similar with that used for the Byzantine Icons from the Balkan Peninsula (Greeks, Serbian, Bulgarian and Romanian) and Russia. The portraits are painted from dark colours (proplasma) to lighter ones. This method does not permit to see if the ground layer from the Gospel illustration is similar with that usually used for icons. In the Illuminated Manuscripts the original technique uses the whiteness of the vellum, prepared with lead white [3]. Previous studies regarding Romanian icons from the same period and the comparison with the Illuminated Manuscripts indicate the use of best quality pigments (lapis-lazuli, massicot, litharge and orpiment), especially in the 15th century, when the Byzantine culture was very well represented in Moldavia and Walachia. Until the 18th century, gold was preponderantly used for text and illustration; after this, it was replaced with yellow ochre.
Table 1. The studied manuscripts, the monasteries or counties where they were made and the period;
Table 2. Pigment results. Pigments presence is shown by the coloured rectangles. The numbers of the manuscripts are correspondent to Table 1.
Image 1. Manuscript Ms. 10/12617; Image 2. Manuscript Ms. 10/12617, detail of decoration; Image 3. Manuscript Ms. 4/12611; Image 4. Manuscrpit Ms. 9/12616, Luke the Evangelist; Image 5. Manuscript Ms. 6/12613, ensamble of decoration.
Acknowledgements This study could not have been possible without the decisive contribution of Ms. Liana Tugearu, art historian, specialist in Romanian Illuminated Manuscripts. I would also like to thank my colleague, Carmen Tanasoiu, art conservator, for her help with the documentation for this paper. References 1. M. Clark, “The analysis of medieval European manuscripts”, Reviews in Conservation (2001), pp. 3-17 2. Cenino Cennini, “The Craftsman’s Handbook”, translated by Daniel V. Thompson, Jr., Dover Publications, New York (1960) 3. MOLAB, “User Report”, Access, Research and Technology for the Conservation of the European Cultural Heritage (2005) 4. J. Plesters, “Cross-section and Chemical Analysis of Paint Samples”, Studies in Conservation 2, (1956), pp. 134-155 5. M. I. A. Lupu, "Microchemical Analysis of Inorganic Materials used in Romanian 16th-19th Century Icons”, Part I, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Non-destructive Testing and Microanalysis for the Diagnostics and Conservation of the Cultural and Environmental Heritage ART’99, Rome, May 1999, pp. 2141-2151 6. M. I. A. Lupu, “Microchemical Analysis of Inorganic Materials used in Romanian 16th-19th Century Icons”, Part II, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Non-Destructive Testing and Microanalysis for the Diagnostics and Conservation of the Cultural and Environmental Heritage (ART 2002), Antwerp, 2-6 June 2002, pp. 631-639.
About the author:
Mihai I. A. Lupu Contact: lupu@art.museum.ro Mihai Lupu is a conservator scientist at the Conservation Department of National Museum of Art (MNAR) from Bucharest. He has continuously worked in the conservation field since 32 years, performing research and acquiring experience in different materials such as metals, graphic documents, painting, mural painting and textiles. He collaborated on the analysis and conservation of the mural paintings from Agapia Monastery and several other painted monuments from Romania. The results of his research were published and presented at national and international conferences among which ART 1999, 2002 and 2005, Triennal ICOM-CC meetings in 1987, 1993 and 1996, METAL 1995 and 1998, etc. He was also member of the Artistic Components Commission, Ministry of Culture and Cults from Romania. National Museum of Art of Romania Calea Victoriei 49-53, Bucharest Romania www.mnar.arts.ro Phone: 0040-21-313 30 30 Fax: 0040-21-312 43 27
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