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Conservation state of two paintings in the Santa Margherita cliff cave: role of the environment and of the microbial community

  • The Interaction Between Environmental Pollution and Cultural Heritage: From Outdoor to Indoor
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract   

The conservation of ancient paintings sited in humid environments is an actual challenge for restorers, because it needs the knowledge of the materials the paintings are made up and of their interaction with a peculiar surrounding environment; thus, tailored procedures and strategies aimed at restoring and preserving paintings are necessary. Santa Margherita’s cave in Castellammare del Golfo (Trapani, Italy) is a natural cave, containing the remains of paintings, in a poor state of conservation, belonging to an ancient church dated back to the Middle Age. The present manuscript reports the monitoring of environmental conditions (i.e., temperature and humidity) in a full year, as well as a study on the materials constituting the stone support and the paintings together with a survey of the microbial community. The findings allow us to define the causes that mainly involve the degradation of the paintings. In detail, the degradation of the east and the west walls occurred differently because of the exposure to the sea aerosol, which influenced the salt composition, also contributing to diversifying the bacterial community. Some specific actions to plan the conservation and restoration of paintings and to preserve the site are suggested.

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Data availability

The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to Soprintendenza di Trapani for allowing us to investigate and collect samples from the paintings at Santa Margherita Cave and to thank Ignazio Sottile (BC Sicilia) for his fruitful cooperation.

The authors would like to express our gratitude to Comune di Catellammare del Golfo for the interest to the research. EC, GC, and FA thank Mr I. Sottile for useful discussions and guide us to reach the site. Thanks are due to Prof. G. Traina of the Academy of Art of Palermo for his precious suggestions about the methodology to use for the restoration of the paintings.

Eugenio Caponetti wants to dedicate this paper to the memory of prof. Sebastiano Tusa, who had inspired this work during a discussion about the conservation of paintings in Sicily caves.

Funding

A.P. and F.A thank MIUR for the Project PON Ricerca e Innovazione 2014–2020 – Avviso DD 407/2018 “AIM Attrazione e Mobilità Internazionale” (AIM1808223). This work is part of the project “Development and Application of Innovative Materials and processes for the diagnosis and restoration of Cultural Heritage—DELIAS”—PON03PE 00214 2 (Programma Operativo Nazionale Ricerca e Competitività2007–2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento Scienze E Tecnologie Biologiche, Chimiche E Farmaceutiche - STEBICEF, Università Di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze Ed.16 and 17, 90128, Palermo, Italy

    Francesco Armetta, Josue Cardenas, Eugenio Caponetti, Rosa Alduina, Alessandro Presentato & Maria Luisa Saladino

  2. Labor Artis C.R. Diagnostica S.R.L, Via Celona, Palermo, Italy

    Eugenio Caponetti

  3. Dipartimento Scienze E Tecnologie Biologiche, Chimiche E Farmaceutiche - STEBICEF, Università Di Palermo, Via Archirafi, 18, 90123, Palermo, Italy

    Luca Vecchioni

  4. Dipartimento Scienze Della Terra E del Mare, Università Di Palermo, Via Archirafi, 22, I-90123, Palermo, Italy

    Pietro di Stefano

  5. ATeN Center, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze Ed.18, 90128, Palermo, Italy

    Alberto Spinella

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  1. Francesco Armetta
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Contributions

FA, EC, and MLS: Conceptualization and methodology. JC and FA: XRD, XRF, and FT-IR investigations. PdS: petrographic analysis. RA, AP and LV: biological test, bioinformatic analysis and data analysis. AS: NMR data analysis. FA, EC, MS, RA, and AP: writing–review and editing. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

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Correspondence to Francesco Armetta or Alessandro Presentato.

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Armetta, F., Cardenas, J., Caponetti, E. et al. Conservation state of two paintings in the Santa Margherita cliff cave: role of the environment and of the microbial community. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 29510–29523 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17211-0

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