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Striking presence of Egyptian blue identified in a painting by Giovanni Battista Benvenuto from 1524

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Abstract

Egyptian blue has been identified in a painting from 1524 by the Italian artist Ortolano Ferrarese (Giovanni Battista Benvenuto). Egyptian blue is the oldest known synthetic pigment, invented by the Egyptians in the fourth dynasty (2613–2494 bc) of the Old Kingdom and extensively used throughout Antiquity. From about 1000 a.d., it disappeared from the historical record and was only reinvented in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The discovery of Egyptian blue in Ortolano Ferrarese’s painting from 1524 shows that Egyptian blue was in fact available in the period from which it is normally considered not to exist. The identification of Egyptian blue is based on optical microscopy supported by energy-dispersive spectroscopy and visual light photon-induced spectroscopy, and finally confirmed by Raman microspectroscopy.

St. Margaret by Giovanni Batista Benvenuto. National Gallery of Denmark.

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Acknowledgements

The first author wants to thank Kim Pilkjær Simonsen for many stimulation discussions and for help with figures. Irma and Georg Norlander Staal gave the first author substantial encouragement during the writing process. We are grateful to Troels Filtenborg, chief conservator at National Gallery of Denmark, who generously placed the samples at our disposal and offered instructive guidance to the third writer. Finally, we express warm thanks to Wim Fremout for prompt help with the MRS instrument and to Clara Lauridsen for assistance with the samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Conservation, Esplanaden 34, 1263, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Jørn Bredal-Jørgensen & Vibeke Rask

  2. Laboratories of IRPA/KIK, Parc du Cinquantenaire, 1, 1000, Brussels, Belgium

    Jana Sanyova

  3. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Dantes Plads 7, 1556, Copenhagen V , Denmark

    Maria Louise Sargent & Rikke Hoberg Therkildsen

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  1. Jørn Bredal-Jørgensen
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  2. Jana Sanyova
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  3. Vibeke Rask
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  4. Maria Louise Sargent
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  5. Rikke Hoberg Therkildsen
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Correspondence to Jørn Bredal-Jørgensen.

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Bredal-Jørgensen, J., Sanyova, J., Rask, V. et al. Striking presence of Egyptian blue identified in a painting by Giovanni Battista Benvenuto from 1524. Anal Bioanal Chem 401, 1433–1439 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-011-5140-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-011-5140-y

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