Gabriela Siracusano

BLUE PIGMENTS IN SOUTH AMERICAN PAINTING (1610–1780)

AbstractThis article shows the results reached by an interdisciplinary team of chemists and art historians following studies of the use of blue pigments in a group of 106 paintings done in the Andes region during the colonial period (1610–1780). It describes the methods employed and the results obtained in the analysis of these pigments, along with important observations on the historical dimension of the practices developed by South American artists of that period.

GREEN, YELLOW, AND RED PIGMENTS IN SOUTH AMERICAN PAINTING, 1610–1780

Abstract A multidisciplinary team of chemists and art historians from the University of Buenos Aires and the National Council of Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET) has examined the green, yellow, and red pigments used in a collection of 29 paintings from the highlands of Peru in the Andean region during the colonial period (1610–1780). The results described in this paper are a continuation of previous research on blue pigments found in the same corpus (JAIC 38[1999]: 100–23). The results show how the artists from the big workshops of Cusco and the cities of the Alto Peru (the highlands of Bolivia and N.W Argentina) followed the recipes for color preparation included in the technical treatises written by Spanish painters. Once again, the figure of Mateo Pisarro, an artist active in the Puna of Atacama at the end of the 17th century, emerges as an exceptional investigator of color-rendering problems.

Programa iconográfico y material en las pinturas murales de la iglesia de San Andrés de Pachama, Chile

iglesia de San Andrés de Pachama, Chile Fernando Guzmán, Marta Maier, Magdalena Pereira, Marcela Sepúlveda, Gabriela Siracusano, José Cárcamo, Diana Castellanos, Sebastián Gutiérrez, Eugenia Tomasini, Paola Corti, Carlos Rúa Centro de Estudios del Patrimonio, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez; CONICET Universidad de Buenos Aires, Unidad de Microanálisis y Métodos Físicos Aplicados a la Química Orgánica; CONICET Centro de Investigación en Arte, Materia y Cultura, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero; Investigadora de la Fundación Altiplano; Universidad de Tarapacá, Instituto de Alta Investigación, Laboratorio de Análisis e Investigaciones Arqueométricas; Taller Nacional de Patrimonio Mueble, Ministerio de Culturas y Turismo, La Paz-Bolivia

Virtuous colours for Mary. Identification of lapis lazuli, smalt and cochineal in the Andean colonial image of Our Lady of Copacabana (Bolivia)

The image of Our Lady of Copacabana, a gilded polychrome sculpture carved in maguey wood in 1583, is one of the most important devotions in the Americas. In former research, we have identified the use of gypsum, Armenian bole, cerussite and atacamite in its polychromy. In this study, a red sample taken from the Virgins tunic and a blue sample extracted from the cloak have been analysed with the aim to identify both pigments and offer insights into the painting technique. Analysis by micro-Raman spectroscopy complemented with scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive spectroscopy and high-performance liquid chromatography allowed the identification of carmine lake in the red sample. Analysis by micro-Raman spectroscopy of the surface of the blue sample and its cross section showed the presence of smalt—the blue-glass pigment—over a cerussite layer, bathed by a very thin ultramarine layer—from a probable native origin—following a pictorial tradition that would last even until the eighteenth century. This is the first time that lapis lazuli has been scientifically identified in a Spanish American colonial painted layer. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Raman spectroscopy in art and archaeology’.

Characterization of pigments and binders in a mural painting from the Andean church of San Andrés de Pachama (northernmost of Chile)

The Andean church of San Andrés de Pachama is located in the highland of the northernmost of Chile, near the limit with Bolivia and next to the Ruta de la Plata. This commercial route contributed in the past to the transport and commerce of various raw materials, such as silver, from the Andean mountains region to the Pacific Ocean coast and then to the European market. The walls inside the church are decorated with paintings from the end of the eighteenth century that reproduce religious motivs together with flowers, fruits, and birds. In this study, micro samples taken from one of the mural paintings have been analysed to acquire information on the artistic materials and the painting technique previous to the restoration of the paintings. Analysis by micro-Raman spectroscopy complemented with scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection allowed the identification of orpiment, vermilion, indigo, smalt, antlerite, hematite, carmine lake, and wood charcoal as pigments as well as gypsum as the ground layer. Lipidic and proteinaceous materials extracted from the microsamples were identified by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry and indicated the use of a mixture of egg and siccative oil as binders and a secco painting technique involving animal glue as the plaster primer. Smalt and the prized cochineal lake are reported for the first time in an Andean colonial mural painting.

Materiality between Art, Science, and Culture in the Viceroyalties (16th–17th Centuries): An Interdisciplinary Vision toward the Writing of a New Colonial Art History

Abstract The seminar “Materiality between Art, Science, and Culture in the Viceroyalties” brought together art historians, conservators, and conservation scientists to analyze the art of the Spanish viceroyalties from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Over a period of three years, this project organized a series of seminars, involving presentations and site visits in Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Los Angeles. Specialists from Latin America, Europe, and the United States have adopted a holistic research approach, taking into account all aspects of colonial artworks: material, contextual, and conceptual.