Abstract
Though ancient violins and other stringed instruments are often revered for the beauty of their varnishes, the varnishing techniques are not much known. In particular, very few detailed varnish analyses have been published so far. Since 2002, a research program at the Musée de la musique (Paris) is dedicated to a detailed description of varnishes on famous ancient musical instruments using a series of novel analytical methods. For the first time, results are presented on the study of the varnish from a late 16th century Venetian lute, using synchrotron micro-analytical methods. Identification of both organic and inorganic compounds distributed within the individual layers of a varnish microsample has been performed using spatially resolved synchrotron Fourier transform infrared microscopy. The univocal identification of the mineral phases is obtained through synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction. The materials identified may be of utmost importance to understand the varnishing process and its similarities with some painting techniques. In particular, the proteinaceous binding medium and the calcium sulfate components (bassanite and anhydrite) that have been identified in the lower layers of the varnish microsample could be related, to a certain extent, to the ground materials of earlier Italian paintings.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
J.-P. Echard, Art et chimie: les polymères (CNRS Editions, Paris, 2003), p. 75
J. Hammerl, R. Hammerl, Violin Varnishes (Hammerl, Baiersdorf, 1988)
J. Michelman, Science 112, 337 (1950)
C.Y. Barlow, P.P. Edwards, G.R. Millward, R.A. Raphael, D.J. Rubio, Nature 332, 313 (1988)
P.A. Tove, D. Sigurd, S. Petersson, Nucl. Instrum. Methods 168, 441 (1980)
A. von Bohlen, Anal. Lett. 37, 487 (2004)
A. von Bohlen, F. Meyer, Spectrochim. Acta B 52, 1053 (1997)
J.-P. Echard, Spectrochim. Acta B 59, 1663 (2004)
J.-P. Echard, S. Vaïedelich, De la peinture de chevalet à l’instrument de musique: vernis, liants et couleurs (Cité de la musique, Paris, 2008), pp. 104–113
A. von Bohlen, S. Röhrs, J. Salomon, Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 387, 781 (2007)
F. Meyer, in Dartington Violin Conf., East Devon College, 1995, p. 29
R. White, in ICOM Committee for Conservation 5th Trienn. Meet., Zagreb, 16 January 1978, p. 1
F. Caruso, S. Orecchio, M.G. Cicero, C. Di Stefano, J. Chromatogr. A 1147, 206 (2007)
J.-P. Echard, C. Benoit, J. Peris-Vicente, V. Malecki, J.V. Gimeno-Adelantado, S. Vaiedelich, Anal. Chim. Acta 584, 172 (2007)
L.M. Condax, Catgut Acoust. Soc. Newslett. 37, 31 (1982)
J.-P. Echard, Les vernis de violon (Cité de la musique, Paris, 2007), p. 82
J. Dugot, in Les luths (Occident) – Catalogue des collections du Musée de la musique, vol. 1 (Cité de la musique, Paris, 2006), pp. 7, 58
M. Cotte, E. Checroun, J. Susini, P. Dumas, P. Tchoreloff, M. Besnard, P. Walter, Talanta 70, 1136 (2006)
B. Hochleitner, M. Schreiner, M. Drakopoulos, I. Snigireva, A. Snigirev, in Proc. Conf. Art 2002, Antwerp, Belgium, June (2003)
L. Bertrand, Synchrotron imaging for archaeology, art history, conservation and paleontology, in Physical Principles in Art and Archaeometry, vol. 2 (Elsevier, 2007), pp. 97–112
N. Salvado, S. Butı, M.J. Tobin, E. Pantos, A.J.N.W. Prag, T. Pradell, Anal. Chem. 77, 3444 (2005)
J. Susini, M. Cotte, P. Dumas, M. Rak, K. Scheidt, F. Polack, O. Chubar, in preparation
F.A. Miller, C.H. Wilkins, Anal. Chem. 24, 1253 (1952)
R.J. Gettens, M.E. Mrose, Stud. Conserv. 1, 174 (1954)
R.J. Gettens, G.L. Stout, Gypsum, in Painting Materials: A Short Encyclopedia (Dover, New York, 1966), p. 117
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
PACS
61.10.Nz; 78.30.-j; 89.20.-a
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Echard, JP., Cotte, M., Dooryhee, E. et al. Insights into the varnishes of historical musical instruments using synchrotron micro-analytical methods. Appl. Phys. A 92, 77–81 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-008-4449-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-008-4449-7