The Portes Mordelaises, remnants of the medieval city walls of Rennes, France, has been the subject of several archaeological excavations until 2017. From these excavations, we created a ...three-dimensional (3D) model of the site reconstructed as it would have appeared during the 15th century, including the surrounding plus the interiors of its famed towers. Once our efforts and results were officially recognised as being of national interest by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, Department of Heritage and the National Museum Service of France, we presented our virtual model reconstruction in an exhibition curated by the Museum of Bretagne, entitled "Rennes, les vies d'une ville" (Rennes, the Lives of a City). This approach to 3D reconstruction of the site served to further study Rennes’ origins, its construction, organisation, as well as its historic relationship to surrounding territories. The main objective of this work was to investigate, using of a significant and complex archaeological site as proof of concept, how the digitalisation of an existing structure, the modelling of its hypothetical structures, and the interactions with its virtual spaces enabled the general public to provide critical feedback, and enhance archaeological knowledge and evaluation of such sites. This reconstruction was carried out under a West Digital Conservatory of Archaeological Heritage project, whose mission is to support and advise archaeologists in the production and exploration of 3D archaeological datasets using the latest digitisation, modelling, and virtual reality (VR) techniques. Through a complex but repeatable process, using the valuable data provided by various excavations, in addition to new information provided by the 3D digitalisation itself, we produced a 3D model, fully satisfactory to rigorous scientific standards, which was then incorporated into a VR space ready for diffusion to the general public. Furthermore, the fact that 45850 visitors were welcome to experience our 3D model at an exhibition in a city the size of Rennes proved to be a significant success.
•Early Medieval wall paintings from the Raetia Curiensis Region.•Application of non-invasive scientific methodologies for the documentation and analysis of wall paintings.•Detection of pigments in ...the crypt of the church of St Stephan in Chur in the transition period between Roman and Medieval time.•The painted stucco fragments from the church of St Martin in Disentis surprisingly indicated the absence of green and blue pigments.
The Early Medieval wall paintings preserved in historical sites of the ancient Raetia Curiensis region (today's Swiss Canton of Grisons and parts of Northern Italy and Austria) provide a rare testimony of the art of this period.
This contribution presents the results of the non-invasive scientific campaigns carried out in the churches of St. Stephan in Chur and St. Martin in Disentis/Mustér (Canton of Grisons, Switzerland). In the church of St. Stephan, the investigations were performed in-situ on the surviving wall paintings of the crypt and on several painted plaster fragments (crypt and upper church), while in Disentis a selection of painted stucco fragments was studied. All the painted surfaces were firstly examined with technical photography in visible, infrared, and ultraviolet ranges, followed by portable spectroscopic point analyses (i.e. HH-XRF, FORS, and FTIR). The findings revealed the composition of most pigments such as iron-based pigments (yellow and red ochres, green earth) and lead-based pigments (i.e., lead white and red lead). In addition, for the St. Stephan's site, the Visible Induced IR Luminescence (VIL) images combined with point analyses, allowed for the identification of Egyptian blue (EB). Furthermore, the presence of zinc in the wall paintings of the crypt of St. Stephan and the absence of this element in those referable to the upper church, suggested differences in the procurement of copper for the manufacture of EB. The presence of arsenic and lead in iron-bearing pigments detected in the wall paintings of the crypt and their negligible amount in those of the upper church, suggested that these pigments come from a different sourcing area.
In the church of St. Martin, the use of different pigments for the execution of the incarnate of the figures, the extraordinary state of conservation of minium, and the absence of green and blue pigments are remarkable features of the stucco decoration paintings.
This paper presents evidence supported by scientific analyses and historical documents that medieval plasters used for wall paintings in Denmark were, with high probability, produced by mixing ...quicklime, aggregate and water in an exothermic process, resulting in a mortar referred to as hot-mixed. This process enables the production of plaster with a very high binder content. Previous thin-section analyses were supplemented by recent analyses of samples collected from three medieval wall paintings in Danish churches. Also included in the analyses were plaster samples produced from hot-mixed mortar and samples produced from lime putty mortar. The analyses of the medieval plasters showed an average binder content in the range of two parts lime to one part aggregate. Moreover, lime inclusions, a characteristic of hot-mix, were found in all samples. SEM analyses showed a similar microstructure in the medieval plasters and the samples produced by hot-mixed mortar, while significant differences were found between the medieval plaster and lime putty samples.
This paper describes attempts to replicate medieval plaster using hot-mixing, where quicklime, aggregate, and water are combined in a single exothermic process. The experimental study aimed to ...reproduce the structural characteristics of medieval plaster while making sample materials for conservation trials, rendering them more relevant and comparable with the medieval materials on which treatments take place. For wall painting conservation, similar capillarity and permeability are particularly important for trials focusing on consolidation, desalination, and cleaning. These characteristics are greatly influenced by the materials, working protocol, and curing conditions used in the replication process. Replicated plaster and plaster sampled from Gothic wall paintings were analysed to provide data regarding porosity, type of lime, aggregates, and binder/aggregate ratio using thin-section analyses, X-ray diffraction, porosity measurements, and mercury intrusion porosimetry. The comparative study showed a close match between one of the two recreated mortars and the original plaster.
On the 9th of October, 1170 Pope Alexander III resided in Anagni, which had been the ancient residence of the court of the Popes for at least two centuries. He wrote to two influential local ...archbishops for help in pacifying King Henry II and Archbishop Thomas Becket, who had been in dispute for six years. Sensing Becket’s looming tragic fate, Alexander III began slowly to encircle the archbishop with rhetoric of the new martyr of Libertas Ecclesiae. When he had to flee from Rome besieged by factions led by Frederick I, the pope found refuge in Segni, where he canonised Thomas Becket on 21 February 1173. However, it was in faithful Anagni that he settled on and off from March 1173 through the following years (November 1176; December 1177–March 1178; September 1179). It was here that he decided to elaborate a powerful speech in images. In an oratory in the crypt of the grandiose cathedral, Alexander III had the last painful moments of the Archbishop’s death painted in a program imitating that of St. Peter’s in the Vatican. Becket thus became the new imitator of Christ, the new Peter, the new martyr on the altar of the Church of Rome.
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