10-10-2025, 11:08 PM
(10-10-2025, 08:56 PM)kckluge wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.With regard to the XRF work -- is there any possibility or work-in-progress of narrowing down the source of the pigments (in particular, the azurite) by comparing the distribution of the trace elements with XRF results from other mss. or samples from mines known to have served as historical sources?
XRF only determines the elements present in the sample. Thus for azurite and malachite it basically says "copper". It can detect minor elements, but I doubt that it can use them to identify the source of the pigment. It is not that precise, and the amounts will have been distorted by the preparation of the pigment and contamination over all those years.
I think one could determine the source of the pigment by isolating some crystals of azurite, clean from other contaminants, and determining the elements and isotopes in them. But I don't think that labs like McCrone have equipment that can do that.
Such investigation could perhaps give useful information, but pigments like azurite were traded all over the world. Thus the source of the pigment would not tell for sure where the paint was applied.
Much more informative, in my opinion, would be to locate the pages that Baresch apparently sent to Kircher. I bet that they were not yet painted...
All the best, --jorge