Project 2

Title: The Investigation of the Constituent Materials of Several Religious Paintings Belonging to the National Cultural Heritage (Movable and Immovable)

Partners:

  • BABES BOLYAI UNIVERSITY - Coordinator
  • NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPEMENT OF ISOTOPIC AND MOLECULAR TECHNOLOGIES INCDTIM- P1
  • ROMANIAN ACADEMY CLUJ - NAPOCA BRANCH - P2

    • Project Description:

    The project proposes the employment of a series of multi-analytical investigation techniques (artistic, theological, physical-chemical – XRF techniques, X-ray diffraction, FTIR, DSC, GC-MS) for the scientific investigation of several religious artworks belonging to to Grigore Ranite and Dumitru Ispas. As a result of these investigations, several databases will be created in order to develop a software used for the authentication and attribution of the unsigned religious art works.

    Activities:

    Stage 1

  • 1.1 The elaboration of a protocol for the selection of the artworks by Grigore Ranite and Dumitru Ispas in order to perform physical-chemical investigations.
  • 1.2 The theological identification and analysis (the dogmatic analysis – pointing out the liturgical role and importance, placing their meaning within the text of the Scripture, the spiritual and artistic signification of the artworks painted by Dumitru Ispas in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century Transylvania, in terms of iconography, theology and art criticism.
  • 1.3 Elaborating a metadata set (consisting of photos of the identified series of paintings, the theological and artistic analysis, etc.) so that they can be integrated into the Project 3 database for their multi-criteria use in the analysis of theological works to be studied.
  • 1.4 The identification and quantification of the elements relevant to Dimitrie Ispas’ paintings through XRF, the non-destructive method.
  • 1.5 The investigation of the painting materials present in Dimitrie Ispas’ artworks using FTIR spectroscopy.
  • 1.6 Investigations of the constituent materials from Dimitrie Ispas’ artworks using DSC calorimetry.
  • 1.7 Investigation of the painting materials employed by Dimitrie Ispas using X-ray diffraction.
  • 1.8 Identifying the binders present in Dimitrie Ispas’ paintings from Transylvanian wooden churches using GC-MS coupling.

    • Stage 2

  • 2.1 The theological identification and analysis (the dogmatic analysis – pointing out the liturgical role and importance, placing their meaning within the text of the Scripture, the spiritual and artistic signification of the artworks painted by Grigore Ranite in Transylvania, Wallachia and Banat in terms of iconography, theology and art criticism.
  • 2.2 Elaborating a metadata set (consisting of the photos of the identified series of paintings, theological and artistic analysis, etc.) so that they can be integrated in the Project 3 database for their multi-criteria use in the analysis of the theological works to be studied.
  • 2.3 The identification and quantification of the elements relevant to Grigore Ranite’ paintings through XRF, the non-destructive method.
  • 2.4 The determination of the constituent materials from Grigore Ranite’s works using FTIR spectroscopy.
  • 2.5 Identifying the binders and the organic pigments from Grigore Ranite’s paintings using GC-MS coupling.
  • 2.6 Taking into account the results obtained through the aforementioned physical-chemical analysis, the constituent materials will be identified and the ensuing database will be forwarded to Project 3.

    • Stage 3

  • 3.1 Identifying and conducting the theological and artistic analysis of several works allegedly created by Dimitrie Ispas and Grigore Ranite.
  • 3.2 Identifying and quantifying the constituent materials belonging to the paintings created, but not signed by Dimitrie Ispas and Grigore Ranite, using XRF, the non-destructive method.
  • 3.3 Determining the constituent materials of the artworks allegedly created by Dimitrie Ispas and Gregory Ranite using FTIR spectroscopy.
  • 3.4 Employing other physical-chemical methods to investigate the constituent materials of the religious paintings supposedly created by Dimitrie Ispas and Grigore.
  • 3.5 Determining of the constituent materials (ensuing from the physical-chemical analysis) of the artworks supposedly created by Dimitrie Ispas and Grigore Ranite. (The resulting database will be forwarded to Project 3).
  • 3.6 Establishing Grigore Ranite’s and Dumitru Ispas’ method for the creation of their artworks on the basis of the investigations we carried out. .

    • Results

  • 1 patent application for pigment identification in artworks;
  • 8 analysis methods for the painting materials;
  • 4 studies/catalogues on the painters;
  • 1 method for the analysis of the materials;
  • 2 documentation sheets;
  • 1 database collection;