Anhydrite as a Filler for the Primers of Nev’yansk Icons: its Origin and Peculiarities of Identification
Keywords:
Ural icon, expertise of icon painting, late Russian icon painting, primer filler, anhydrite, gypsumAbstract
In the course of the study of a selection of 90 Nevyansk (Ural) icons of the 18th–19th centuries, the authors found that the main component of the ground in over 95% of the artworks is anhydrite (CaSO₄). Over many years of research by GOSNIIR, this mineral was identified in the primers of only a few works, while typical ground fillers used in Russian icon-painting are chalk (CaCO₃) and gypsum (CaSO₄.2H₂O).
Analysing the obtained result we came to the conclusion that the presence of anhydrite in Nevyansk icon painting can be explained as follows. Firstly, the icon painters could use a natural mineral, the deposits of which are known in the Urals. Secondly, the icon painters could dehydrate gypsum by calcining it (anhydrite is formed at a calcining temperature of 400–700 ºC). This hypothesis is based on the fact that in many 17th–19th-centuries Russian manuals for icon-painting, there are instructions recommending that gypsum should be strongly calcined before preparing the ground.
In order to determine the origin of anhydrite in Nevyansk icons, we prepared model mock-ups of ground made of gypsum and anhydrite, both untreated and heat-treated (at 400 and 650 ºC). All samples of minerals before and after calcination, as well as model mock-ups, were investigated by a complex of analytical methods, which made it possible to determine their exact chemical composition. An important part of the experiment involved the study of optic properties of the minerals’ crystals. It allowed us to reveal specific features that enabled us to make assumptions about the origin of the ground filler in the Nevyansk icons.
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