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In November 2001 the wooden church of Södra Råda, dendrochronologically dated to the first decades of the 14th century, burnt down, the victim of arson. What was lost was a unique building, its walls covered with dated paintings, the ones in the choir from 1323, the ones in the nave from 1494. Although well known in art history, sometimes even styled the Arena Chapel of Swedish Medieval art, these paintings still contained a number of iconographically unsolved problems. The question of the identity of the donors, portrayed on the western wall of the choir, remained unan-swered. Their names (as verified in a restoration report of 1983) were never painted on the scrolls in the donor’s hands. Based on the firm dating of the paintings to 1323 and a new, thorough review of the scarce written source material, this article is an attempt to solve some of the iconographical problems in the light of the historical events of that year and of, sadly post factum, filling in the names on the donor’s scrolls. The latter, according to the author’s view, should have been those of Matts Kettilmundsson, at the time Swedish governor of Finland, and his daughter Ingrid.

Several medieval mural cycles in Austria were studied from the material and technical point of view, aiming to confirm (or reject) the art-historical hypothesis of their stylistic and workshop connection. These paintings can be found in the churches of Rust ("Fischerkirche"), Marz (Virgin's Coronation parish church), Kobenz (St. Ruprecht parish church), Ofenbach (St. Veid parish church), and St. Johann am Steinfelde (St. John parish church). They were carried out around 1400 in the International Gothic style. Their workshop connections based on the style are doubtful, therefore, a material and technical study was carried out. Results showed different plaster composition, similar pigment palette, and diverse painting procedures. The murals in Marz, St. Johann, and the older register in Rust reveal important similarities such as plaster composition, predominant a fresco painting technique, the use of natural inorganic pigments, as well as many aspects of the painting procedure and modeling. On the contrary, those in Kobenz, Ofenbach, and the younger register in Rust differ considerably. The second group reveals lower quality in plaster composition, larger a secco parts, addition of synthetic pigments (Kobenz), and a rougher color modeling, indicating less skilled artists. The lower quality also results in a worse conservation state of these murals. The obtained results confirm the same workshop, but different artists in the first group, while in the second group no clear workshop/artist connection could be established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deciphers for the first time the badly damaged and barely discernible wall paintings of Saydet el Rih in Enfeh (Lebanon) using graphic surveys. This procedure consists of copying all traces of the paintings and recording their chromatic values and stratigraphy, in order to understand and visualise the creative process behind them, both stylistically and iconographically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to a preliminary reassessment of the silk veil preserved in the Treasury of Trieste cathedral. The cloth is unparalleled in Byzantine as well in western medieval art, in that it is painted with tempera on both sides. It depicts a youthful martyr in a court costume, and bears an inscription that identifies the saint as St. Just. Since its alleged recovery from a reliquary in the early nineteenth century, the cloth has been often addressed by the scholars, who ascribed it either to a Byzantine or to a local master and dated it between the eleventh and the fourteenth century. Despite being referred to in several more general studies, it has been rarely considered individually. In this paper I address the many questions that the Trieste veil raises, including problems of chronology, provenance, function, and iconography. After careful observation and based on both primary sources and visual evidence, I argue that it was produced in Byzantium, possibly at an early date, to serve as a liturgical implement; later, it was brought to the West, where the saint was given a new identity and the cloth was reused as a banner after being painted on the reverse.

This paper is devoted to wall painting in the Middle Ages (ca. late fifth to early fifteenth centuries), with a focus on twelfth to fifteenth century Italy. It is conceived as a critical conflation of diverse methodologies, approaches and research tools, with the aim of investigating the topic from different and complementary perspectives. Historical textual sources provide the interpretive framework for the examination, which is conducted on specific, yet interrelated aspects. Special attention is paid to technical features, including the methods and materials used to produce wall paintings. Data from scientific investigations are incorporated into the discussion with the purpose of elucidating theoretical conceptualizations with material pieces of evidence. A number of selected case studies is presented within the text in order to keep the focus of analysis on the materiality of the paintings, hence avoiding the formulation of abstract concepts in favour of more pragmatic approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Images of the so-called “Sunday Christ,” a type of medieval wall painting found in many of England’s parish churches, have always been interesting because there are no medieval texts that discuss this image in any precise way. Notwithstanding the lack of textual references to this image modern scholarly commentators have used presuppositions derived from Christocentric theology to construct a widely-accepted interpretation of what these images would have “meant” to medieval English Catholics. This article argues, however, that if we rely only on the medieval evidence we have, and in particular on the “St. Sunday” label generally accepted as being associated with these images, then it is possible to construct an entirely plausible—but quite different—interpretation. The article concludes with some general lessons for the study of late medieval Catholicism that go beyond this specific case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cet article porte sur le rapport entre le texte et l’image dans la peinture roumaine du XVIe siècle. L’auteur souligne que l’icône ou la peinture murale orthodoxe ne sont pas des «compositions» dans le sens traditionnel du verbe « composer ». Le peintre médiéval ne compose pas l’image, il la transpose sur la surface de l’icône, du mur, de la feuille dessinée ou d’un autre support (en langue slavonne de l’église cette transposition s’appelle « perevod » ce qui veut dire «traduction» par rapport à un original, appelé « podlinnik »). L’image médiévale orthodoxe est une sorte d’idéogramme complexe qui exige un tout autre genre de « lecture » que la peinture moderne. Il est extrêmement intéressant de constater que les lois de cette « lecture » (et, par conséquent, de cette « écriture ») sont plus proches des lois de la lecture des textes littéraires que des lois de la contemplation et de la compréhension des images «purement visuelles». L’image médiévale a une «grammaire» si stricte et si détaillée, que rien – ou presque rien – n’est laissé au hasard. Grâce à la rigueur et à la prévisibilité de cette « grammaire », l’irréductibilité de la peinture (et des beaux-arts en général) à la langue parlée ou écrite est franchie en grande partie. Pas seulement la structure compositionnelle, l’emplacement des objets, les paysages, les architectures d’arrière plan, les gestes des figures, mais même le modelé des formes peintes, la carnation des visages et des mains, les accents de lumière et d’ombre sont strictement réglementés. Mais, comment s’articulent et quelles sont les structures et les typologies du texte et de l’image dans la peinture roumaine du XVIe siècle ? L’auteur de l’étude rappelle que, contrairement à l’espace physique newtonien qui est homogène et isotrope, l’espace de l’inscription, l’espace de la peinture monumentale ou de l’icône ont une « topologie » beaucoup plus complexe. Cette « topologie » suppose un espace profondément non homogène et anisotrope. Les « directions », la « gauche » et la « droite », le « haut » et le « bas », le « centre » et la « périphérie » ne sont pas ici de simples coordonnées neutres, comme dans l’espace euclidien. Ils ont leur dimension symbolique, dogmatique, axiologique. La production et l’interprétation des textes dépendent de l’existence des codes ou des conventions établis pour la communication. Le sens d’un signe dépend du code, au sein duquel il a été conçu, et les codes fournissent un cadre dans lequel les signes obtiennent leurs significations. Les programmes iconographiques des églises orthodoxes sont également des codes : différentes parties de leur architecture (murs, dômes, voûtes, pendentifs, tambours des coupoles, absides, conques, arcs de triomphe, piliers, colonnes, embrasures de portes, montants de fenêtres, contreforts etc.) sont codés par des thèmes et par des sujets iconographiques (en d’autres termes – par des types iconographiques). Parmi les autres questions soulevées dans cet article, nous devons mentionner la classification « par genres » pour les types iconographiques orthodoxes, la sémantique du geste, la typologie des erreurs dans les textes anciens, le rôle des inscriptions simulées et des écritures spéculaires, le problème du rapport entre le sens et la référence.

The paper deals with liturgical vestments represented on fragmentarily preserved figures on the walls of the so-called Byzantine basilica found in the archaeological excavations under Dubrovnik Cathedral, and the saints depicted in two churches on the Elaphiti Islands in Dubrovnik aquatorium: St John’s in Šilovo Selo on Šipan and St Nicholas’ on Koločep. An iconographic analysis shows that the vestments in question belong to the Eastern type of liturgical dress, and the elaboration on their origin, meaning and development provides some additional information for interpretation and dating of the paintings. Given conclusions are then observed in specific historical context of eleventh and twelfth century Dubrovnik, its traditions, dynamic relations with Byzantium and Rome, but also in the context of already recognized cultural contacts with the southern regions of the Apennine peninsula. Finally it is pointed to some further directions for re-addressing the problem of “Adrio-Byzantinism” in eleventh and twelfth century art and architecture of southern Dalmatia, but also to the need for examining the validity of the concept, its possible aspects, meanings and manifestations, in a wider socio-cultural context; which, after all, defines the underlying ideas of the visual imagery employed.

This article reflects on the Catholic Church's teaching on eschatology at the end of the Middle Ages. These teachings serve as the preliminary basis of an analysis of the visual catechesis depicted in medieval frescoes and paintings of the Last Judgment. The article will examine the Second Council of Lyons (1274), apostolic constitution Benedictus Deus (1336), and the Council of Florence's (1439) teaching on eschatology. The specific teachings that this article will address are: particular judgment and the Last Judgment, the essence of the beatitude experienced by those who are saved (visio beaticifa), and the existence of purgatory and what, precisely, it is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the events that took place in the year 1486, in a small town in northern Italy, Lonigo and the subsequent birth of a Marian devotion. According to some direct and indirect evidence, after a crime was committed, the image of the Virgin painted on the wall of a ruined chapel changed her position to defend herself from the sacrilegious attack of a murderer. A few days after the event, many miraculous healings strengthened and enhanced the faith in the Madonna di Lonigo, as evidenced by a rich collection of votive offerings. The new devotion led to changes in the architecture of the church of Lonigo and in the popular consideration of the nature of the image, as shown by numerous reproductions, which finally resulted in the loss of the originalmeaning of the painting in question.

In "The Crisis of the Easel Picture" (1948), Clement Greenberg compares the easel picture, disparagingly, to a box-like cavity cut into the wall. In this essay, I argue that late medieval panel paintings--which indeed often took the form of boxes--show Greenberg to be justified in making this comparison, if not in doing so disparagingly. But what Greenberg failed to fully acknowledge is that the easel picture had already long tried to escape this condition through the opening of the metaphor of the window. Failing to recognize this earlier effort to escape the material conditions of the box, many modernists and postmodernists, like Greenberg, attempting to move beyond the easel picture in the name of an art undivided from life, have unintentionally upheld the easel picture's own escapist ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Church of Our Lady before Týn is famous for its collection of medieval sculptures. Although these are very popular among researchers, murals from the era of Wenceslaus IV remained unnoticed. Based on the analysis of their form and style, the yet unpublished wall paintings are dated to belong to the era of Wenceslaus II. The murals demonstrate an immediate reflection of contemporary artistic and iconographic tendencies coming from the circle composed of the royal court, Church and monastic background as well as of the most affluent old-town patricians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Durante el siglo XX se lleva a cabo una revalorización de la pintura del medioevo heleno, ignorada durante todo el clasicismo europeo. AAnte la constatación de que el espacio representado en la pintura bizantina no reproduce el espacio natural se llega a la conclusión de que las operaciones pictóricas aplicadas por los pintores bizantinos tienen como objeto simbolizar un espacio sobrenatural. En las siguientes líneas intentaremos abrir la problemática del espacio en la pintura bizantina a una interpretación plástica, es decir, intentaremos presentar una lectura de las operaciones pictóricas en cuanto tales siguiendo los planteamientos de Georgos Kordis, profesor de la cátedra Eikonografia de la Facultad de Teología de la Universidad de Atenas y destacado pintor griego. Nuestro objetivo es plantear algunas directrices para introducirnos en la problemática pictórica de la representación del espacio en la pintura bizantina.During the twentieth century is carried out a revaluation of the Hellenic medieval painting, ignored during the European classicism. Given the finding that the space represented in Byzantine painting does not reproduce the natural space leads to the conclusion that painting operations implemented by the Byzantine painters are intended to symbolize a supernatural space. The following lines try to open the question of space in painting plastic Byzantine interpretation, ie to try to present a reading of the painting operations as such, following the approach of Georges Kordis, chair professor of the Faculty Eikonografia Theology of the University of Athens and prominent Greek painter. Our goal is to propose some guidelines for introducing us to the problem of pictorial representation of space in the Byzantine painting.

Sweden has several hundred churches with relatively well-preserved mediaeval mural paintings. A few churches possess murals painted in a Russian-Byzantine style, most of them on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. Four Gotland stone churches are included in this investigation as well as painted boards saved from three since-long demolished wooden stave churches. Most of the paintings are dated to the 12th century. In total 116 pigment samples were examined by SEM/EDX, and six lead pigments were also analyzed with a MC-ICP-MS mass spectrometer to determine the isotopic composition. The results show that the pigments used agree well with what has been observed for other Gotland murals, but are somewhat different from those commonly used in mediaeval church murals on the Swedish mainland. With the exception of Mästerby Church, the lead isotope measurements indicate a German origin for the lead pigments. It has for a century been argued whether these “Byzantine” paintings were produced by Russians or domestic painters. A contribution to this discussion is made in the light of the analyzed results and from historic and logical arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Virtual Archaeology Review is the property of Virtual Archaeology Review and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The refectory is located on the first level of an impressive building on the east side of Sacro Speco in Subiaco, the sanctuary built around the cave where St. Benedict of Nursia lived as a hermit between the fifth and sixth century. Due to its nature, the monastery was reserved for the monks and thus interdict to the pilgrims directed to the sacred grotto. The story of the two spaces is closely intertwined, however, starting from the founding of a priory at Sacro Speco during the pontificate of Innocent III (1198-1216). The erection of the first settlement for the monks actually dates from this time, although the current monastery is the result of the constructive campaign undertaken by Abbot Enricus (1245-1275) and of the raising of the monastic structure by Abbot Bartholomeus II (1318-1343). During the latter period, the great hall at the first floor was intended as a refectory bringing about certain structural changes and a completely new decoration with frescoes depicting The Crucifixion and The Last Supper, two popular scenes for this type of monastic space over the following centuries and here grouped together prematurely. The paintings, recently restored, have been virtually ignored by specialized critics. At present, however, a new analysis of the cycle allows for the dating of the frescoes to the second half of the fourteenth century and attributing them to painters from the Umbrian region, an area where the Subiaco monasteries had extremely close relations since the beginning of the century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article means to highlight two examples of Rudolf II's passion for art. Both of these examples concern the work of the Croatian Giulio Clovio. Th e article starts from the attempt on the part of the Emperor (known from letters) to take possession of the Farnese Book of Hours, illuminated by Clovio between 1537 and 1546 for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Rudolf II was unable, in the end, to obtain this precious work. A St. Ursula (now lost) was also addressed to the Emperor, as a letter from 1592 tells us that Clovio painted as ex-voto for being saved from a disease. Due to the close link between Clovio and St. Ursula, I am of the opinion that St. Ursula could be seen in the profile in Clovio's self portrait (Florence, Uffizi). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author of this contribution refers to the connection between Anton Kern's painting Virgin with St. Wenceslaus, Antonius from Padua and Margaret from the National Gallery in Prague with the altarpiece of Carlo Maratti in the Spada chapel in the Roman church Chiesa Nuova. Both paintings depict a Madonna adored by the saints in the compositional style "sacra conversazione" and the placement of the figures of the saints is also extremely similar. It seems to be evident that Anton Kern was inspired by the composition of Maratti. The actual research has emphasized Kern's dependence on his Venetian master Giovanni Battista Pittoni, who supposedly prepared the type of figures for Kern's composition as is shown some of his drawings. The newly suggested relationship between Kern and Maratti's paintings admits that it was Anton Kern who brought this type of composition to Venice and Central Europe. Kern visited Rome in 1740, while according to available documents Pittoni had never been to this city. Maratti's altarpiece in Spada chapel could be mediated to Pittoni through Anton Kern's drawings, because Maratti's painting had not been known in a graphic reproduction. If Kern was inspired by Maratti's canvas in Rome, there was a need to newly date his above-mentioned painting into the period after 1740, when he returned to Dresden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a number of Flemish artists settled at the court of Rudolf II Habsburg, in Prague, Denys Calvaert was the only one regularly based in Bologna. As of the beginning of the seventeenth century, Calvaert begins to paint erotic themes, absent in his previous production. In this study, the author presents certain new paintings with large female nudes and considers if Calvaert might have been inspired by the works of artists such as Bartholomeus Spranger and Joseph Heintz. It is not completely clear how Calvaert was familiar with the paintings of the Rudolfine school: perhaps through the presence in Bologna of certain foreign collectors (such as Paulus Praun, a merchant from Nurnberg), or through his relationship with certain engravers such as Aegidius Sadeler, Pieter de Jode and Jacob Matham. The stylistic links between Calvaert and the school of Prague are perfectly illustrated by the Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine presented here. Although formerly attributed to Calvaert himself, it is actually by Dirck de Quade van Ravesteyn. A comparison will be made with a painting in the National Museum of Warsaw. A beautiful, small unpublished painting representing Mars, Venus and Cupid is also attributed here to Ravesteyn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Marcadé Collection (treasury of Bordeaux Cathedral) includes 42 illuminations dating from the XIIIth to the XVIth century. Among them are three French medieval illuminations, dated about 1520-1530, never studied before. Beyond their iconographic, stylistic, and conservation study, the analysis of their materials is discussed here. Hyperspectral imaging technique is applied to characterize the pigments. The palette is composed of inorganic pigments such as azurite, red lead, cinnabar, yellow ochre, lead tin yellow, lead white, malachite, salt green and salts of copper, and also of organic pigments such as brazilwood lake, buckthorn, bucktooth and indigo. A shell gold technique is employed for the gildings. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 41, 302-307, 2016 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A combined analytical approach has been applied to the wall paintings, dated from 10th to 14th centuries, of the Santi Stefani crypt at Vaste (Lecce, Southern Italy). These paintings are a precious testimony of Medieval art in Southern Italy. However, the church shows problems of damp as well as clear evidences of flora, fungi and mold presence, and there is little knowledge of the pictorial methodologies used. Raman spectroscopy allowed to determine the palette and to reconstruct the worksite and the chronological sequence of the various paint layers. Kaolinite, calcite, carbon black, hematite, massicot, goethite, indigo and azurite were identified as pigments along with synthetic pigments, like phthalocyanine blue and chrome yellow. Attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy suggested the presence of egg as a binder in some pictorial layers. The conservation state of the crypt is poor, and detachments of pigmented layers are frequent because of the presence of subflorescence and efflorescence: nitrate, sulfate and chloride salts have been identified spectroscopically and quantified by ion chromatography. The extensive use of kaolinite in Santi Stefani, actually not uncommon in Medieval art, is observed for the first time in a crypt of Puglia: its use to stabilize some pigments and to improve their adhesion on substrate is proposed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how English medieval painting became the focus of a new kind of scholarly scrutiny, through the analysis of a series of articles written by W.R. Lethaby (1857–1931) forThe Burlington Magazinebetween 1916 and 1918. Lethaby's writings are interpreted here as an exercise intended to re-position English medieval painting as a subject worthy of connoisseurial attention. Contemporary exhibitionary practice was also crucial in illustrating the new status of English medieval painting and in defining its English character. The exhibitionBritish Primitives, held at the Royal Academy in 1923, is examined here to evaluate how this re-presenting of medieval art to reflect contemporary scholarship also made it vulnerable to contemporary modes of consumption, as witnessed in the increased value (both cultural and monetary) of medieval art on the international art market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article briefly considers the connection between Christianity and images, which began in the first centuries of Christian era. It then concisely analyzes topics related to the expected functions of religious images in Western medieval world. After these considerations, this article shall analyze possible sociopolitical interpretations of visual depictions of the Last Judgment, discussing particularly examples produced in the Italian Peninsula. It shall briefly discuss the development of concepts such as justice and judgment, and it shall demonstrate how such sociopolitical interpretations of these paintings would ultimately be related to the religious functions of these same images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Roumaine d'Histoire de l'Art. Serie Beaux-Arts is the property of G. Oprescu Institute of Art History of the Romanian Academy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper deals with liturgical vestments represented on fragmentarily preserved figures on the walls of the so-called Byzantine basilica found in the archaeological excavations under Dubrovnik Cathedral, and the saints depicted in two churches on the Elaphiti Islands in Dubrovnik aquatorium: St John's in Šilovo Selo on Šipan and St Nicholas' on Koločep. An iconographic analysis shows that the vestments in question belong to the Eastern type of liturgical dress, and the elaboration on their origin, meaning and development provides some additional information for interpretation and dating of the paintings. Given conclusions are then observed in specific historical context of eleventh and twelfth century Dubrovnik, its traditions, dynamic relations with Byzantium and Rome, but also in the context of already recognized cultural contacts with the southern regions of the Apennine peninsula. Finally it is pointed to some further directions for re-addressing the problem of "Adrio-Byzantinism" in eleventh and twelfth century art and architecture of southern Dalmatia, but also to the need for examining the validity of the concept, its possible aspects, meanings and manifestations, in a wider socio-cultural context; which, after all, defines the underlying ideas of the visual imagery employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct and indirect evidence of falls of extraterrestrial matter in west-central Poland (Great Poland Lowland) is proved historically and environmentally. The chronological list of such events has historical (documents, medieval paintings, newspaper reports), geological and morphological documentation. The most important are the environmental sites of Morasko/Oborniki, Przełazy and Jankowo Dolne, where metallic meteorites were recognized. These meteorite falls represent a series of cosmic events: the Morasko fall was c. 5000 years BP, the Przełazy fall was c. 10000 years BP, and the age of the Jankowo Dolne fall is not fully documented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2012, the wall paintings of theCastle of Streversdorp were investigated with anX-Ray Fluorescencemobile spectrometerbelonging to theEuropean Centre forArchaeometry(Liège).This instrumentprovides information about materials usedin thesemedieval paintings. The interest of the research and otherobservationsthat resultallowsthe developmentofan appropriate methodologyfor a futurerestoration project.

The article discusses the alleged miraculous manifestation of the Virgin Mary at the Santa Maria dei Miracoli church in Italy and its iconic representation through the painting "Madonna dei Miracoli."

Analytical procedure for the comprehensive chemical characterization of samples from medieval Nubian wall-paintings by means of portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF), laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS) and Raman spectroscopy (RS) was proposed in this work. The procedure was used for elemental and molecular investigations of samples from archeological excavations in Nubia (modern southern Egypt and northern Sudan). Numerous remains of churches with painted decorations dated back to the 7th–14th century were excavated in the region of medieval kingdoms of Nubia but many aspects of this art and its technology are still unknown. Samples from the selected archeological sites (Faras, Old Dongola and Banganarti) were analyzed in the form of transfers (n = 26), small fragments collected during the excavations (n = 35) and cross sections (n = 15). XRF was used to collect data about elemental composition, LA-ICPMS allowed mapping of selected elements, while RS was used to get the molecular information about the samples. The preliminary results indicated the usefulness of the proposed analytical procedure for distinguishing the substances, from both the surface and sub-surface domains of the wall-paintings. The possibility to identify raw materials from the wall-paintings will be used in the further systematic, archeometric studies devoted to the detailed comparison of various historic Nubian centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Development of an approach to evaluate mobile Raman instrumentation in archaeometry. [•] Evaluation of spectroscopic characteristics and specific archaeometrical properties. [•] Application of this protocol on the analysis of a mediaeval wall painting. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The present article is about the study of the medieval and modern painting in the Crown of Aragon with the documentation located for Centre Modern d'lnvestigació Medieval (CIMM) of the Universitat Politècnica of València and the Universitat de Lleida. This study includes a total of eighteen documents, ten of which are previously unpublished. The remaining eight were known, but have been revised and completed in the archives and perfectly transcribed again for this publication. Although the first documents date from before 1450, these documents are very important for a full understanding of the stylistic switch to the late Gothic of Flemish influence that began in Valencia in the mid-fifteenth century, and continued until the early decades of the sixteenth. Although many of the documents on Jacomart are very brief, they contribute to a better overall profile of this important artist, painter to King Alfonso V the Magnanimous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studies on Art & Architecture / Kunstiteaduslikke Uurimusi is the property of Estonian Society of Art Historians and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this article is to focus on the role of Mai Lumiste in the history of researching Tallinn's Dance of Death, her points of departure, and those of her predecessors, and their methodological bases. When speaking of Lumiste's contribution, the emphasis has always been on the fact that her positions were based on the technical studies conducted in Moscow between 1962 and 1965, which made the style assessment and iconographic analysis of the work possible for the first time. The literature also reflects the opinion that this research in Moscow confirmed the position that had been accepted until that time, i.e. that the author of the work was Bernt Notke. The following survey focuses on which positions formulated at that time were established on the basis of technical research and which issues still remain unresolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The non-invasive identification of paint materials used in works of art is essential, both for preserving and restoring them, and also for understanding and verifying the history surrounding their creation. As such, the development of suitable non-invasive techniques has received much interest in recent years. We have investigated the use of Fourier transform (FT)-Raman spectroscopy and fibre-optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), together with multivariate principal-component analysis (PCA) techniques, in order to identify the pigment and binding materials used in made-up samples representative of real artwork. We demonstrate that both types of spectroscopy provide complementary information which can be used to identify the pigments and binders in paint samples. We show that PCA with FT-Raman spectra can be used to assist in the identification of oil-based binders, and that the additional data provided by FORS spectra enables PCA on combined spectra to identify more complex proteinaceious and polysaccharide-based binding media. The results presented here demonstrate that multivariate analyses of lead-based paints, using data measured by FT-Raman and FORS in conjunction, have much potential for identifying individual pigments and binders in paint samples. This provides a path towards computer-assisted characterisation of paint materials on artwork. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]