The vault painting of the main hall at Verdala Palace Buskett, Malta : a study of constituent materials and techniques

Abstract

The vault paintings of the Main Hall at Verdala Palace show a composite history. Although traditionally attributed to the Florentine artist Filippo Paladini, they have been through various interventions and they presently show a complex stratigraphy of various overlapping painting schemes. Such a composite site offered a unique opportunity for a thorough study on materials and manufacturing techniques of wall paintings. The aim of this dissertation was to investigate the materials and techniques of the vault paintings and to shed light into their complex stratigraphy. Representative areas of the vault paintings were chosen and an extensive study was initially based on non-invasive investigations (visual observations using diffuse and raking light, UV fluorescence and IR-reflectography). This preliminary examination provided important information and helped to set up the parameters for the invasive investigation that followed. The latter specifically aimed to characterise both the inorganic and organic materials and to examine the painting's stratigraphy. Analytical techniques used included Optical Microscopy (OM), Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive X Ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), microchemical and histochemical tests and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). Despite the limited number of samples, a lot of information was revealed regarding the constituent materials and the painting technique. The integration of results from both invasive and non invasive methods of examination made it possible to differentiate between three different paintings phases present on the areas under study. The outcome of the present study may be considered as the starting point for a further holistic approach on the examination of such complex paintings. It is also believed that such study may contribute to the background knowledge on the materials and techniques of wall paintings in Malta.