 |
| Titel |
Identifying the material of original and restored parts of a 14th
century alabaster annunciation group through stable isotopes |
| VerfasserIn |
Wolfram Kloppmann, Lise Leroux, Pierre-Yves Le Pogam, Philippe Bromblet |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2017
|
| Medientyp |
Artikel
|
| Sprache |
en
|
| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 19 (2017) |
| Datensatznummer |
250151035
|
| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2017-15576.pdf |
|
|
|
|
|
| Zusammenfassung |
| The origin of raw materials for sculpture is often obscure before the 17th century due to the
scarcity of written sources. Identifying this origin provides hints to economic exchanges but
also, potentially, allows for attributing sculptures to a specific context of creation (regional
workshops, artists). Another challenge for art historians is the identification of restorations
and their potential chronology. We present an example of a 14th century group of two statues,
made of gypsum alabaster, representing an annunciation group, with the Virgin Mary and
the angel Gabriel. Their original position was a near Troyes in the eastern Paris
Basin, they are now separated being conserved at the Louvre Museum (Virgin Mary)
and the Cleveland Museum of Art (Gabriel). Our multi-isotope study revealed the
common origin of the material used for both sculptures, their isotope fingerprints
being identical within the analytical error. These fingerprints are highly specific and
point to an origin in a historical gypsum and alabaster quarry in the northern part of
Provence, France, first mentioned at the end of the 13th century. We were also
able to identify an unknown restoration of lower part of the Virgin Mary statue
with an optically undistinguishable material, using Tuscan alabaster, most likely
in the 19th century. This underlines the potential and usefulness of independent
geochemical evidence to underpin stylistic hypotheses on grouping of individual artworks,
historical economic relationships between regions and on past restoration activities. |
|
|
|
|
|
|