Scanning macro x‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy maps for matching 17th century paintings color areas to different earth pigments uses and for investigating attribution issues

Abstract

Fe and/or Mn‐containing yellow ochre, red ochre, and umber earth pigments are omnipresent in 17th century paintings. Less common in the materials used in historical paintings of this period is the Fe and Mn‐rich earth pigment sienna. Different uses of historical pigments in one painting by Georg Flegel (1566–1638) and another version of the same painting but of disputed attribution were recently uncovered by means of macro‐x‐ray fluorescence (MA‐XRF) scanning and other non‐invasive analytical techniques. In this paper, an approach solely based upon the correlation of Fe and Mn MA‐XRF maps with the optical image of the painting is compared to the use of Mn/Fe correlation plots. The identification of clusters within a plot of the Fe counts vs. the Mn counts can aid to infer whether an area with a certain color matches with the use of the earth pigments found in the two paintings and to ultimately shed light on the different usage of these pigments. The analytical thresholds found in the Mn/Fe correlation plots allowed to identify clusters differing in composition, which matched an area of a certain color with the earth pigments used therein. This highlighted the differences and similarities between the two paintings, ultimately ascertaining the lower value of the painting of disputed attribution. The analysis of single‐pixel spectra allowed refining the interpretation of specific Mn/Fe correlation plots. The purpose of these data evaluation steps is presented and the limitations of the proposed methodology are also discussed.