CHARACTERIZATION OF MAX ERNST'S PALETTE AND PAINTING TECHNIQUE BY A MULTI-ANALYTICAL APPROACH

Multi analytical investigations on 20th century paintings allow a detailed characterization of the used materials and the understanding of the execution techniques. Moreover, the thorough knowledge of the materials is essential to evaluate the conservation state, to determine suitable environmental conditions and to plan a proper maintenance action. In fact, while a well-founded knowledge about techniques and methods of intervention on traditional materials has been already acquired, modern and contemporary art are still not so deeply investigated: it is a very complex scenario as the artists prefer the use of new type of materials - often incompatible with each other - whose response to environmental conditions and evolution over time are not yet well known [1]. In this study, in the frame of a project in collaboration with the Peggy Guggenheim Foundation in Venice, different oil paintings of Max Ernst- belonging to the collection - have been analysed by means of complementary non-invasive techniques. [2]. A multi-disciplinary approach which involves portable X-Ray Fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), portable External Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ER-FT-IR) and UV-Vis-NIR multispectral imaging has been adopted directly in situ, inside the museum. Herein, we report some preliminary results of these investigations.This work highlights that an integrated approach based on non-destructive techniques can successful provide useful information for the study of modern and contemporary oil paintings, by overcoming the intrinsic limitation of each single method. [1] K. J. Van den Berg, Issues in contemporary oil paints, A. Burnstock, M. de Keijzer, J. Krueger, T. Learner, A. De Tagle, G. Heydenreich (Eds.), Springer, London, 2014. [2]F. Rosi, C. Grazia, R. Fontana, F. Gabrieli, L. Pensabene Buemi, E. Pampaloni, A. Romani, C. Stringari, C. Miliani, Disclosing Jackson Pollock's palette in Alchemy (1947) by noninvasivespectroscopies, Heritage Science, 4, 18, 2016.