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Cleaning painted surfaces: evaluation of leaching phenomenon induced by solvents applied for the removal of gel residues

  • Chemistry in a sustainable society
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Abstract

Cleaning is one of the most important, delicate, and at the same time controversial processes in the conservation treatment of paintings. Although a strict definition of cleaning would be the removal of dirt, grime, or other accretions (surface cleaning), in the conservation field, cleaning is used in the broader meaning to include thinning/removing altered or “unwanted layers” of materials without damaging or altering the physicochemical properties of the surfaces to be preserved. The cleaning of unvarnished paintings is one of the most critical issues that are currently discussed. Several studies exist regarding different cleaning tools, such as gels, soaps, enzymes, ionic liquids, and foams, as well as various dry methods and lasers, but only a few have been performed on the risk associated with the use of water and organic solvents for the cleaning treatments in relation to the original paint binder. The aim of the study is to verify analytically the behavior of water gelling agents during cleaning treatments and the interaction of the following elements: water or organic solvents applied for the removal of gel residues with the original lipid paint binder. For this purpose, the study was conducted on a fragment of canvas painting (sixteenth to seventeenth century) of Soprintendenza per i Beni Storici, Artistici ed Etnoantropologici del Friuli Venezia Giulia (Superintendence for the Historical, Artistic and Ethno-anthropological Heritage of Friuli Venezia Giulia), Udine by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, and scanning electron microscopy.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. Paolo Cremonesi who suggested this research, contributed directly to the work, and provided intellectual support and technical help (including writing and result analyses) and Soprintendenza per i Beni Storici, Artistici ed Etnoantropologici del Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy) for providing a real ancient paint. Special thanks to Paolo Casadio, official of Soprintendenza, to Nicoletta Buttazzoni, restorer, and also to Dr. Stefano Volpin, scientific consultant at Soprintendenza Beni Storico-artistici in Trento (Italy), for his advice about this paper.

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  1. Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi, Parco Area delle Scienze 17/a, 43124, Parma, Italy

    Antonella Casoli, Zaira Di Diego & Clelia Isca

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  1. Antonella Casoli
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  2. Zaira Di Diego
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  3. Clelia Isca
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Correspondence to Antonella Casoli.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Casoli, A., Di Diego, Z. & Isca, C. Cleaning painted surfaces: evaluation of leaching phenomenon induced by solvents applied for the removal of gel residues. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 13252–13263 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2658-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2658-5

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