Search

International audience; A variety of techniques were used to investigate flax yarns sampled from four selected Italian paintings on canvas dated between the 17th and 18th centuries and compare them with a modern flax yarn. The goal was to establish their state of preservation and highlight the critical issues thanks to a combined approach that used SEM, atomic force microscopy, nanoindentation, nuclear magnetic resonance, second harmonic generation imaging microscopy and FTIR spectroscopy. The condition of the flax fibres was assessed, and the results showed that two of the four canvases were in a generally good state of preservation, while the other two exhibited signs of biological attack and brittleness due to a previous relining intervention.

This work aimed at evaluating the possible use of several organic compounds as novel conservation products against the biocolonization of cultural heritage materials. In a first step, the antifungal activity of 10 selected essential oil (EOs) constituents was tested against a strain of Aspergillus niger collected from a Roman mural painting (Pompeii, Italy). According to antifungal assays, thymol, eugenol and cinnamaldehyde provided a strong and enduring inhibition effect. These properties open the way to the possible exploitability of EOs constituents for middle and long-term protection applications. In this perspective, the three compounds were exposed to different light conditions with the purpose of assessing their stability under photo-oxidation conditions. After ageing, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis and in vitro antifungal assays were performed. The collected results proved that light exposure had a critical negative effect on the antifungal capability of cinnamaldehyde samples. On the contrary, composition and properties of eugenol and thymol were not affected by ageing, confirming their possible use in the future development of long-lasting conservation products.

Mortar quality is a fundamental parameter to take into account when studying the structural behavior of masonry, especially under seis− mic actions. Separation between the leaves of rubble masonry can occur, inducing the partial or total collapse of the construction. A good quality mortar is essential to delay/prevent the separation of leaves, but often, especially in ancient building with a cultural value, mor− tars have low binder capabilities. The paper presents an experimental investigation on mortar specimens taken from buildings of a little municipality in Marche region, Arquata del Tronto, heavily damaged by recent earthquakes in Central Italy (2016−2017). Both diagnostic techniques as X−Ray diffrac− tion, Fourier−Transform infrared spectroscopy and calcimetry, and mechanical test as compression tests were carried out in order to cor− relate the obtained values with the performance of the original masonry.