artists' materials of Fernando Melani: a precursor of the Poor Art artistic movement in Italy

A comprehensive understanding of both the chemical composition and physical behaviour of modernmaterials is an important consideration in devising correct conservation treatments for contemporaryartworks. To this end, national and international research projects and networks have been establishedthat deal mainly with the preservation, conservation, and understanding of materials used by contemporaryartists.This paper focuses on the self-taught artist Fernando Melani (1907-1985), one of the precursors of thePoor Art artistic movement in Italy, and for the first time provides a scientific viewpoint on the artist'smaterials and works. The analyses, which mainly focus on the pigments/dyes found in his home-studio,were carried out primarily by using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and ultraviolet, visible,and near-infrared Fibre Optic Reflectance Spectroscopy (UV-Vis-NIR FORS). This paper emphasisesthe performance of FT-IR and FORS in the identification of contemporary artistic materials, since thesetwo techniques have been found to produce highly complementary data. The use of both of these wasrequired in order to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the composition of Melani's materials. Furthermore,one of his artworks, named by Melani himself with its inventory number N. Inv. 2625 (1981),was investigated in situ with the sole use of the FORS technique.The results showed that Melani used traditional inorganic pigments as well as modern organic dyes.Calcite and barite were used as fillers and extenders. Sulphur and abrasive powder were also found, thusconfirming his use of a large variety of non-conventional artists' materials.