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This paper will discuss the scientific results of a recent sampling of the polychrome and gilded stone, stucco and clay sculptures of Gandharan art not yet published. Four years ago, we had the opportunity to begin an articulated research project focused on the Gandharan polychrome stone and stucco sculptures, and in the last two years, thanks to a very limited grant, offered by the Italian Government to the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro (ISCR), we had the opportunity to develop a new research. This allowed us to investigate some important artefacts displayed in these Museums: the Archaeological Museum of Milan, the Museum of Oriental Art of Turin, the Museum Guimet in Paris. Moreover, we had the opportunity to take some archaeological samples from the new excavations of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan and the Italian Archaeological Mission in Afghanistan. In this new research we analysed the artistic technique of painting and gilding on sculptures of Gandharan art made in different materials (stone, stucco and clay). The results discussed in this paper comes from a notable number of chemical analyses (optical stero-microscope, SEM-EDS, micro-FTIR, micro-XRD and micro- Raman). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resinous materials, generally added to drying oils, were often employed as final protective films in paintings, both in tempera and oil techniques. Most of the resins used in fine arts come from exudates of plants. Natural resins are mainly composed by terpenoids. Among these resins, dammar, rosin, mastic, elemi gum, Venice turpentine were frequently employed in easel paintings. The aim of this work is the identification of natural resins in samples collected from works of art. In this paper we propose to use micro-FTIR spectrometry as a preliminary and non destructive technique to detect the presence of resinous materials in microsamples collected from paintings, followed by GC-MS analyses to obtain a precise identification of the resin. To reach this aim commercial resins, employed as standard, were analysed previously by micro-FTIR spectrometry and then analysed by GC-MS chromatography, searching characteristic chemical compounds used as "markers" of resins. The results obtained on standards allowed us to successfully analyse samples collected from two works of art: the "Portrait of a Young Gentleman", by Lorenzo Lotto (XVI century), and the "Madonna with the Infant Jesus and Saints": by Carlo Maratta (XVII secolo).