SELECTIVE DATING OF PAINT COMPONENTS: RADIOCARBON DATING OF LEAD WHITE PIGMENT

Hendriks, Laura; Hajdas, Irka; Ferreira, Ester S. B.; Scherrer, Nadim; Zumbühl, Stefan; Küffner, Markus; Carlyle, Leslie; Synal, Hans-Arno; Günther, Detlef (2019). SELECTIVE DATING OF PAINT COMPONENTS: RADIOCARBON DATING OF LEAD WHITE PIGMENT Radiocarbon, 61(2), pp. 473-493. Cambridge University Press 10.1017/rdc.2018.101

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Lead white is a man-made white pigment commonly used in works of art. In this study, the possibility of radiocarbon dating lead white pigments alone and in oil paints was explored using well-dated lead white pigments and paints. Resulting C-14 ages on lead white pigments produced following the traditional stack process, where carbonate groups results from the incorporation of CO2 originating from fermentation, matched the production years, while radiocarbon dating of lead white made using other industrial processes indicate that C-14 depleted CO2 was used in their production. The method was applied to two case studies, where lead carbonate samples were dated in two oil paintings, one Baroque and one from the 20th century. We hereby show that the lead white pigment can be dated by C-14 and used as proxy for the time of creation of an artwork. Additionally, a two-step method was developed to allow C-14 analysis of both the lead white pigment and oil binder from the same sample. A single lead white paint sample can yield two distinct radiocarbon ages, one from the carbonate and one from the natural organic binder. This study thus proposes new strategies for C-14 dating of artworks.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	Bern Academy of the Arts Bern Academy of the Arts > Institute Materiality in Art and Culture
Name:	Hendriks, Laura; Hajdas, Irka; Ferreira, Ester S. B.; Scherrer, Nadim0000-0002-6576-885X; Zumbühl, Stefan0000-0002-8896-2938; Küffner, Markus; Carlyle, Leslie; Synal, Hans-Arno and Günther, Detlef
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > ND Painting
ISSN:	0033-8222
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Language:	English
Submitter:	Nadim Scherrer
Date Deposited:	08 Oct 2019 10:27
Last Modified:	18 Dec 2020 13:28
Publisher DOI:	10.1017/rdc.2018.101
Related URLs:	Publisher
Web of Science ID:	000461424500007
Additional Information:	Notes: ISI Document Delivery No.: HP1KB Times Cited: 2 Cited Reference Count: 41 Hendriks, Laura Hajdas, Irka Ferreira, Ester S. B. Scherrer, Nadim C. Zumbuehl, Stefan Kueffner, Markus Carlyle, Leslie Synal, Hans-Arno Guenther, Detlef ETH-grant [ETH-21 15-1] This study was funded by an ETH-grant (ETH-21 15-1). The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of both the MOLART and HART projects which allowed preliminary feasibility studies. We wish to thank the Swiss Institute for Art Research (SIK-ISEA) for their collaboration in the study and for the access given to their painting collection. In particular we wish to acknowledge Jens Stenger for the introduction to handling of the XRF instrument, as well as Lukas Wacker and Negar Haghipour for their help running the CHS-AMS measurement. Also to be thanked are the reviewers who helped to improve this manuscript. Univ arizona dept geosciences Tucson Custom 1: Article Date: 2019
Uncontrolled Keywords:	carbonates lead white micro-sampling paintings pigment radiocarbon dating stack process c-14 micadas
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.8087
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/8087