Recent years have seen significant progress in the field of soft- and hard-X-ray microscopy, both technically, through developments in source, optics and imaging methodologies, and also ...scientifically, through a wide range of applications. While an ever-growing community is pursuing the extensive applications of today's available X-ray tools, other groups are investigating improvements in techniques, including new optics, higher spatial resolutions, brighter compact sources and shorter-duration X-ray pulses. This Review covers recent work in the development of direct image-forming X-ray microscopy techniques and the relevant applications, including three-dimensional biological tomography, dynamical processes in magnetic nanostructures, chemical speciation studies, industrial applications related to solar cells and batteries, and studies of archaeological materials and historical works of art.
Full text
Available for:
IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
L’histoire des collections camerounaises illégalement exportées se distingue d’autres pays d’Afrique par deux éléments : la présence de trois puissances coloniales (Allemagne, France, ...Grande-Bretagne) et un contexte de forte polarisation communautaire et d’identités dans les demandes de rapatriement et de restitution. Cette note de recherche présente la démarche adoptée par le Cameroun à travers la stratégie nationale pour la mise en œuvre des activités de rapatriement des objets d’art illicitement exportés et déposés à l’étranger, afin de suivre et de contrôler, de manière concrète et prudente, les demandes issues de communautés qui ont subi des pillages.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, INZLJ, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK, ZRSKP
Display omitted
•Production of patinas that are representative of modern copper-based works of art.•Characterization of chloride and sulphate-induced degradation products.•Effective use of infrared ...spectroscopy to distinguish Cu2(OH)3Cl polymorphs.•Identification of copper hydroxysulphates by means of X-ray diffraction.
Naturally grown patinas are typically detected onto the surface of modern copper-based artefacts and strictly affect their surface reactivity and appearance. The production of representative patinas is a key issues in order to obtain model systems which can be used for the development and validation of appropriate conservation materials and methods. In this study, we have prepared different artificial representative patinas by using a quaternary Cu-Sn-Zn-Pb alloy with chemical composition and metallurgical features similar to those of valuable modern works of art. In order to produce degradation products usually observed onto their surface, chloride and sulphate species were used to induce corrosion processes. Different patinas were produced by changing the nature of corrosive species and the set-up for the accelerated degradation. The composition and structural properties of the patinas were investigated by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The results allow to identify degradation products and to distinguish copper hydroxychloride polymorphs and copper hydroxysulphates with similar structure. Our findings show that patina composition can be tailored by modifying the degradation procedure and patinas representative of modern artefacts made of quaternary Cu-Sn-Zn-Pb alloy can be obtained.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) has been widely used in many research areas for the advantages of providing informative molecular distribution with high specificity. Among the recent progress, ...ambient MSI has attracted increasing interests owing to its characteristics of ambient, in situ, and nonpretreatment analysis. Here, we are presenting the ambient MSI for traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) and authentication of work of art and documents using plasma assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (PALDI-MS). Compared with current ambient MSI methods, an excellent average resolution of 60 μm × 60 μm pixel size was achieved using this system. The feasibility of PALDI-based MSI was confirmed by seal imaging, and its authentication applications were demonstrated by imaging of printed Chinese characters. Imaging of the Radix Scutellariae slice showed that the two active components, baicalein and wogonin, mainly were distributed in the epidermis of the root, which proposed an approach for distinguishing TCMs’ origins and the distribution of active components of TCMs and exploring the environmental effects of plant growth. PALDI-MS imaging provides a strong complement for the MSI strategy with the enhanced spatial resolution, which is promising in many research fields, such as artwork identification, TCMs’ and botanic research, pharmaceutical applications, etc.
Full text
Available for:
IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
The article is studying the role and place of art in shaping the spiritual and functional space of the cemetery and the church in the conditions of moral and religious chaos. The study is based on ...the study of historical monuments and newly built church complexes in Galicia. In particular, the dynamics of the coexistence of church and cemetery in large cities, as well as in historic towns and villages are considered.
To write about works that cannot be sensually perceived involves
considerable strain. Absent the object, art historians must stretch
their methods to, or even past, the breaking point. This concise
...volume addresses the problems inherent in studying medieval works
of art, artifacts, and monuments that have disappeared, have been
destroyed, or perhaps never existed in the first place.
The contributors to this volume are confronted with the full
expanse of what they cannot see, handle, or know. Connecting object
histories, the anthropology of images, and historiography, they
seek to understand how people have made sense of the past by
examining objects, images, and architectural and urban spaces.
Intersecting these approaches is a deep current of reflection upon
the theorization of historical analysis and the ways in which the
past is inscribed into layers of evidence that are only ever
revealed in the historian's present tense.
Highly original and theoretically sophisticated, this volume
will stimulate debate among art historians about the critical
practices used to confront the formative presence of destruction,
loss, obscurity, and existential uncertainty within the history of
art and the study of historical material and visual cultures.
In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are
Michele Bacci, Claudia Brittenham, Sonja Drimmer, Jaś Elsner, Peter
Geimer, Danielle B. Joyner, Kristopher W. Kersey, Lena Liepe,
Meekyung MacMurdie, and Michelle McCoy.
The red pigment mercury sulfide, called cinnabar or vermilion, is well known to suffer from an alteration giving rise to a grey, grey-white or black color at the surface of degraded works of art. ...This phenomenon can dramatically affect the esthetical value of artworks. This work aims at assessing the factors (light, halides) influencing the instability of red mercury sulfide and understanding (by combining thermodynamic and experimental approaches) the chemical equilibria governing the formation and evolution of the different degradation compounds. From the thermodynamic study of the Hg-S-Cl-H
2
O system, it was concluded that Hg(0), Hg
3
S
2
Cl
2
, and Hg
2
Cl
2
can be formed from the reaction of α-HgS with ClO
(g)
. In the second part, the artificial ageing experiments presented were carried out on model samples following the conditions assessed in the first part, in order to reproduce natural ageing observed on red mercury sulfide. Similarly to degradation compounds detected on original works of art, mercury chlorine compounds such as calomel (Hg
2
Cl
2
) and corderoite (α-Hg
3
S
2
Cl
2
) were identified on the surface of α-HgS model samples, when exposed to light and a sodium hypochlorite solution. Sulfates were detected as well, and more particularly gypsum (CaSO
4
·2H
2
O) when Ca was originally present in the model sample. The relationship between color and composition is discussed as well.
Combination of thermodynamic and experimental approaches to study the instability of red mercury sulfide and the formation and evolution of the different degradation compounds.
Ancient Egypt, being one of the developed centers of the East, had close ties with Western Asia and the South Caucasus, both from a political and commercial point of view. This country, which had not ...been conquered until the VII century BC, was in the forefront as a political and military power of the period. It was from this viewpoint that many countries sought to establish political union with it, as well as the trade relations. As a result of this relationship, various works of art related to Ancient Egypt also spread to the South Caucasus through the Western Asia. No doubt that Egyptian art items found in Egypt itself are more than samples from other countries where similar finds are common. The paper deals with the archaeological finding – an Egyptian figurine. This artifact, which is so far the only example, found in Azerbaijan, testifies to the existence of ties between the South Caucasus and Egypt. The discovery also contributes to the creation of certain ideas about the small plastic art of that period. It is possible that complex archaeological studies in the region will reveal new artifacts of such art