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Since early history, humans have been attracted to the exotic. In 16th century Europe, expanding overseas trading brought a fascination for oriental lacquerware. This, in turn, gave rise to a rich tradition by European craftsmen of imitating and paraphrasing these luxury items, using locally available materials and techniques. Although very different in their basic composition, these European lacquers replicated closely the glossy luxury of their Oriental equivalent. Through study of historical sources and physico-chemical analysis of museum objects and reconstructed mock-ups, the EUROPEAN LACQUER IN CONTEXT project (ELinC) aims to bring to light the history, techniques, materials and aging phenomena of the European lacquer.
Introduction
Project
The project focuses on the collections of the Royal Museums of Art and History (KMKG/MRAH) in Belgium.
MethodologyThe European lacquer in Context (ELinC) project is funded by the Belgian Research Action through Interdisciplinary Networks (BRAIN.be), a framework programme for research, which is part of the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO). This 4 year multi-disciplinary project (2014-2018) involves three Belgian and one foreign partner:
L. Decq1,2, V. Cattersel3, C. Indekeu3, E. Van Binnebeke4, D. Steyaert4, W. Fremout1, S. Saverwyns1
1Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK/IRPA) ● Laboratories Department ● Jubelpark 1 ● 1000 Brussels ● Belgium2Ghent University (UGent) ● Department of Organic Chemistry ● Krijgslaan 281 ● 9000 Ghent ● Belgium 3University of Antwerp (UA) ● Conservation studies ● Blindestraat 9 ● 2000 Antwerp ● Belgium4Royal Museums of Art and History (KMKG/MRAH) ● Jubelpark 10 ● 1000 Brussels ● Belgium [email protected] ● +32 (0)2 739 68 42 ● www.kikirpa.be
European LacquersArt-historical, technological and analytical study of European
lacquer in Belgian federal collections
Royal Museums of Art and History (KMKG/MRAH)
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA)
Getty Conservation Institute (GCI)
ELinCproject
University of Antwerp(UA)
technological & physical characterisation
advice, results
• Study of historical context, materials and recipes from historical sources
• Reconstruction of lacquers from historical recipes (mock-up objects)
• Chemical and physical characterisationof raw materials, mock-up samples and historical objects
• Analysis before, during and afterartificial aging of mock-ups
• Linking of analyses, recipes and objects in a database.
RECIPES
GLOSSARY
SAMPLES
MOCK-UPS
HISTORICALOBJECTS
ANALYSIS RESULTS
Chemical analysis
• European lacquers are mainly complex, layered combinations of various natural resins, including among others mastic, sandarac, shellac and copals
• Characterisation of the raw materials. Commercially available natural resins are compared with reference materials to control purity and labelling, using Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry with tetramethylammonium hydroxyde (TMAH-Py-GC/MS)
• Creating a database of (aged) resin markers fromreference data and artificially aged lacquer samples
• Identifying materials used in historical objects by comparing against marker database
TMAH-Py-GC/MS Chromatogram of Abies excelsa resin (REF0065)
Commercial resin, sold as…Detected resin
(TMAH-Py-GC/MS)
South-American copal - Hymenaea courbaril Dammar – Dipterocarpus sp.
Colophony – Pinus sp. Colophony – Pinus sp.
Mastic – Pistacia lentiscus Mastic – Pistacia lentiscus
Fir resin – Abies excelsa Fir resin – Abies excelsa
Technological and physical characterisation
Cabinet with writing desk, 19th century
(KMKG/MRAH)(Photo: J. Veenhoven)
• The production of mock-up samples will result in a gain of historical technological knowledge
• Physical characteristics such as colour, gloss, hardness, elasticity, scratch resistance, etc. are measured for both young and artificially aged mock-ups
• By measuring and comparing changes of physical properties, new insights will be gained on the ageing and degradation processes of these European lacquers
• The obtained data will be useful for re-evaluating conservation guidelines for European lacquerware
Salmon, W. (1701). Polygraphice or The Arts of Drawing, Limning, Painting, &c., p. 913
Measurement of gloss characteristics on a mock-up sample (Photo: V. Cattersel)
Selection of results: quality control of commercially obtained resins
Database setup
