The white colour in Etruscan polychromes on terracotta: Spectroscopic identification of kaolin

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Francesca Bordignon ; Paolo Postorino ; Aless ; ro Nucara ; Paolo Dore ; Giorgio Trojsi ; Vincenzo Bellelli
• 关键词：Painted terracotta ; Etruscan ; White pigment ; Kaolin ; Infrared spectroscopy ; X-ray diffraction ; Micro-Raman spectroscopy
• 刊名：Journal of Cultural Heritage
• 出版年：2008
• 出版时间：January-March 2008
• 年：2008
• 卷：9
• 期：1
• 页码：23-29
• 全文大小：496 K

文摘

The present work reports on a spectroscopic study of white colour samples collected from Etruscan polychromes on terracotta from the Cerveteri area. In particular, both white-on-red potsherds of the Orientalising period and high-value polychromes of the Archaic period were considered. The white pigment, a fundamental element in this class of artworks, was not clearly identified in previous archaeological and analytical studies, although the use of kaolin was tentatively proposed. Therefore, samples from the Monte Sughereto kaolin quarry in the Cerveteri area were also studied. The results of detailed analyses carried out using micro-Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy first show that the quarry material is a high-purity kaolin containing quartz. Raman results strongly suggest that the same kind of kaolin was employed in the polychromes of the Archaic period. As to white-on red potsherds, infrared results have a key role in showing that the white pigment is a kaolin closely corresponding to the quarry material since a particular kaolin polytype (dickite) is dominant in both cases. The present work thus provides the first definitive identification of the white pigment used in Etruscan polychromes on terracotta from the Cerveteri area, and suggests that the source of kaolin might be the Monte Sughereto quarry.