A combination of portable non-invasive techniques to study on reverse glass paintings at Mistretta museum

Abstract

Reverse painting on glass is an old decorative technique used since the Roman time consisting in applying a cold paint layer on the reverse side. The Sicilian Regional Museum of forestry and pastoral traditions in Mistretta (Messina, Italy) houses the largest collection of reverse glass paintings in Italy with a total of 195 artworks. The artworks are attributed to the different Italian geographic area from north to south Italy. A combination of non-invasive analysis by using complementary portable spectroscopic instrumentations (mainly XRF and Raman Spectrometers) was applied on some selection of reverse glass paintings. The goal of the work is the characterization of the nature of pigments and of binders used in the realization of the paints. The composition of glasses used as substrate has been also investigated.