Surasky Family Papers - Accession 250 - M115 (147)

The Surasky Family Papers consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings, reminiscences, poetry, and other papers mostly photocopies. Of particular interest are a reminiscence by Esther Pinck entitled “Remembrance of Things Past”, concerned with the Jewish experience in Aiken, SC; papers related to Mina Tropp, a painter who developed a unique medium of painting with flora and who is also published poet; and letters of Judge Justine Wise Polier, well known Juvenile Court judge in New York. Collection is almost all photocopies.

Review of The Elemental Prairie: Sixty Tallgrass Plants (Watercolors and introduction) by George Olson

The Elemental Prairie provides a general discussion of the Great Plains and the tallgrass prairie for the general reader. Its botanically accurate plant drawings render a beautiful and artistic view into prairie plants. George Olson writes a compelling introduction about "Prairie Elements," painting a graphic verbal description about his trip into the prairie with noted prairie author John Madson. The introduction draws readers into the book and prepares them for John Madson's essay "The Running Country," an eloquent portrayal of the history of the tallgrass prairie. We are led into the hearts and minds of the pioneers who crossed the immense expanse of the Great Plains. Madson's descriptions of prairie plants help us visualize how the Great Plains looked prior to settlement, stirring us to see not only the allure of the prairies, but also the solitude and sometimes the loneliness. Madson mixes his personal experiences with current scientific theory of the formation of the prairies across the region, offering a way of seeing how the present fits into the past.

Pissing Glass and the Body Crass: Adaptations of the Scatological in Théophile

Examination of scatological motifs in Théophile de Viau’s (1590-1626) libertine, or ‘cabaret’ poetry is important in terms of how the scatological contributes to the depiction of the Early Modern body in the French lyric.1 This essay does not examine Théophile’s portrait of the body strictly in terms of the ‘Baroque’ or the ‘neo-Classical.’ Rather, it argues that the scatological context in which he situates the body (either his, or those of others), reflects a keen sensibility of the body representative of the transition between these two eras. Théophile reinforces what Bernard Beugnot terms the body’s inherent ‘eloquence’ (17), or what Patrick Dandrey describes as an innate ‘textuality’ in what the body ‘writes’ (31), and how it discloses meaning. The poet’s scatological lyric, much of which was published in the Pamasse Satyrique of 1622, projects a different view of the body’s ‘eloquence’ by depicting a certain realism and honesty about the body as well as the pleasure and suffering it experiences. This Baroque realism, which derives from a sense of the grotesque and the salacious, finds itself in conflict with the Classical body which is frequently characterized as elegant, adorned, and ‘domesticated’ (Beugnot 25). Théophile’s private body is completely exposed, and, unlike the public body of the court, does not rely on masking and pretension to define itself. Mitchell Greenberg contends that the body in late sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century French literature is often depicted in a chaotic manner because, ‘the French body politic was rent by tumultuous religious and social upheavals’ (62).2 While one could argue that Théophile’s portraits of a syphilis-ridden narrators are more a reflection of his personal agony rather than that of France as a whole, what emerges in Théophile is an emphasis on the movement, if not decomposition of the body.3 Given Théophile’s public persona and the satirical dimension of his work, it is difficult to imagine that the degeneration he portrays is limited only to his individual experience. On a collective level, Théophile reflects what Greenberg calls ‘a continued, if skewed apprehension of the world in both its physical and metaphysical dimensions’(62–3) typical of the era. To a large extent, the body Théophile depicts is a scatological body, one whose deterioration takes the form of waste, disease, and evacuation as represented in both the private and public domain. Of course, one could cast aside any serious reading of Théophile’s libertine verse, and virtually all of scatological literature for that matter, as an immature indulgence in the prurient. Nonetheless, it was for his dissolute behavior and his scatological poetry that Théophile was imprisoned and condemned to death. Consequently, this part of his work merits serious consideration in terms of the personal and poetic (if not occasionally political) statement it represents. With the exception of Claire Gaudiani’s outstanding critical edition of Théophile’s cabaret lyric, there exist no extensive studies of the poet’s libertine œuvre.4 Clearly however, these poems should be taken seriously with respect to their philosophical and aesthetic import. As a consequence, the objective becomes that of enhancing the reader’s understanding of the lyric contexts in which Théophile’s scatological offerings situate themselves. Structurally, the reader sees how the poet’s libertine ceuvre is just that — an integrated work in which the various components correspond to one another to set forth a number of approaches from which the texts are to be read. These points of view are not always consistent, and Théophile cannot be thought of as writing in a sequential manner along the lines of devotional Baroque poets such as Jean de La Ceppède and Jean de Sponde. However, there is a tendency not to read these poems in their vulgar totality, and to overlook the formal and substantive unity in this category of Théophile’s work. The poet’s resistance to poetic and cultural standards takes a profane, if not pornographic form because it seeks to disgust and arouse while denigrating the self, the lyric other, and the reader. Théophile’s pornography makes no distinction between the erotic and scatological. The poet conflates sex and shit because they present a double form of protest to artistic and social decency while titillating and attacking the reader’s sensibilities. Examination of the repugnant gives way to a cathartic experience which yields an understanding of, if not ironic delight in, one’s own filthy nature.

Projeto de adaptação do sistema de injeção do túnel transônico para ensaios em bocais de foguete

In this work, the project of a new experimental facility to be installed at the Aerodynamics Division of the Institute of Aeronautics and Space is presented. This new facility will provide means to perform experimental campaigns to analyze the flow behavior at different rocket nozzle concepts using cold gas that will be obtained from a modification of the Pilot Transonic Wind Tunnel air system. The new installation will enable less expensive experiments in a more secure environment, since the cold gas experimental procedures do not demand fuel storage and burn and security procedures are much less severe. Furthermore, experiments can be carried with different types of sensors, commonly used in wind tunnel tests. Also, the optical access is facilitated enabling the use of optical techniques for the characterization of flow properties inside the nozzles, such as pressure and temperature sensitive painting. The full project design and the operation conditions will be showed, as also some technical considerations about the flor behavior in the facility

Esttrutura cromossômica e caracterização cariotípica no gênero Characidium (Teleostei, Characiformes, Crenuchidae)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Economia política da arte moderna II/ notas para uma sistematização provisória

Paradigma tradicional de excelência artesanal, com que meios pode a pintura responder à abstração do trabalho e à sua ordenação serial, inerentes à modernização capitalista? O texto presente busca sistematizar os momentos decisivos de um percurso que se estende de Manet (1832-1883) a Rothko (1903-1970). Constitui o capítulo conclusivo de uma investigação sobre a transformação crítica do modo de pintar em modo de fabricação, fundado na superação reflexiva da dicotomia entre trabalho intelectual e corporal, imposta historicamente à sociedade. Atualizada criticamente e assinalando um fecho possível do processo da arte moderna, a pintura de Rothko põe-se como a negação de todo aspecto individual da pintura e de unidade orgânica e monádica da obra. Alcança-se assim o último termo de um processo; termo que assinala o fim do ciclo da autonomia estética como forma ligada à liberdade do sujeito, idealizado como natureza desinteressada. Para o trabalho de resistência contra a aceleração da barbárie é fundamental doravante levar em conta os fatores de heteronomia supraindividuais que, se não logram controlar toda a produção, detêm a hegemonia na esfera da circulação.

The IDEOLOGY SPACE BRAZILIAN NATIONAL STATE OF CONSTITUTIVE

In the debate over the construction of the Brazilian national state, we assume that this process has established itself at the heart of a fragmentary appreciation of their aesthetic variants, forming a controversial ideology spatial sense of identity to the nation. progress, modernization and territorial integration emerge as slogans on the link between the imagined nation, Brazil Imperial, and the nation as concretized throughout the twentieth century, despite the discourse and actions in the rescue culture synthesis Brazilianness. It is evident, that scope, a tendency to think the nation more as a product of a cultural elite (fragments of baroque and colonial cities consecrated) than through symbols forming territories hybrids representatives of all of their constructors: the antagonistic protagonists.

Thermal efficiency of fiber cement corrugated sheets applied to individual housing for calves exposed to sun and shade

This research presents a study of roof thermal efficiency in individual housing for calves exposed to sun and shade through infrared thermography, internal temperature and thermal comfort indexes. Four different individual housing for calves covered with asbestos-free fiber-cement corrugated sheets were evaluated. Three of them were directly exposed to the sun: (i) corrugated sheets painted white in the external surface, (ii) corrugated sheets without painting and (iii) with screen shade fabric installed 0.10m under de internal surface of the corrugated sheet. The fourth individual housing was installed in the shade area and covered with unpainted corrugated fiber-cement sheets. The analysis was taken for 21 days at 11h00min, 14h00min and 17h00min. The results indicate significant variations in the roofing surface temperature and thermal comfort indexes among the treatments exposed to the sun and shade, for all the evaluations during the day. The infrared thermography images were effective for better understanding the heat transfer processes from the roof to the internal environment of the housing.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) and rheumatoid arthritis

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), one of the world's most celebrated impressionist painters, suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for most of his life. His symptoms developed when he was in his 50s and they became aggressive at about the age of 60 years that led to almost complete disability when he was 70 years old. Although the deformities he suffered because of the rheumatoid arthritis were disabling, Renoir never stopped painting nor decreased the quality of his work. The transition between styles adopted by the painter (Impressionist, Dry and Pearly periods) bear no relationship to the stages of flare-ups or the establishment of joint deformities due to rheumatoid arthritis. His work shows aspects of the body's ability to overcome pain and physical limitation.

Phylogeographic Structure and Karyotypic Diversity of the Brazilian Shrew Mouse (Blarinomys breviceps, Sigmodontinae) in the Atlantic Forest

Blarinomys breviceps possesses cryptic and burrowing habits with poorly documented genetics and life history traits. Due to its rarity, only a few specimens and DNA sequences have been deposited in collections worldwide. Here, we present the most comprehensive cytogenetic and molecular characterization of this rare genus. Phylogenetic analyses based on partial cytochrome b sequences were performed, attempting to establish the relationships among individuals with distinct karyotypes along the geographic distribution of the genus in the Atlantic Forest. Classical and molecular cytogenetics, using banding patterns and FISH of telomeric and whole chromosome X-specific painting probes (obtained from the Akodontini Akodon cursor) were used to characterize and compare the chromosomal complements. Molecular phylogenetic analyses recovered 2 main geographically structured clades, northeastern and southeastern with pair-wise sequence divergences among specimens varying between 4.9 and 8.4%. Eight distinct karyomorphs are described: (A) 2n = 52 (50A, XX), (B) 2n = 52 (48A, XY+2Bs), (C) 2n = 45 (42A, XY+1B), (D) 2n = 43 (37A, XX+4Bs), (E) 2n = 37 (34A, XY+1B), (F) 2n = 34 (32A, XX), (G) 2n = 31 (27A, XX+2Bs), (H) 2n = 28 (26A, XY), all with the same number of autosomal arms (FNA = 50). Variation of 0-4 supernumerary chromosomes (Bs) presenting heterogeneity in morphology and distribution of interstitial telomeric sequences (ITSs) is reported. ITSs are also found in some metacentric autosomes. The phylogeographic separation between 2 major lineages with high levels of genetic divergence, and the wide karyotypic diversity indicate that B. breviceps is a diverse group that warrants taxonomic re-evaluation. Copyright (C) 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel

Application of FTIR microscopy to cultural heritage materials

Research in art conservation has been developed from the early 1950s, giving a significant contribution to the conservation-restoration of cultural heritage artefacts. In fact, only through a profound knowledge about the nature and conditions of constituent materials, suitable decisions on the conservation and restoration measures can thus be adopted and preservation practices enhanced. The study of ancient artworks is particularly challenging as they can be considered as heterogeneous and multilayered systems where numerous interactions between the different components as well as degradation and ageing phenomena take place. However, difficulties to physically separate the different layers due to their thickness (1-200 µm) can result in the inaccurate attribution of the identified compounds to a specific layer. Therefore, details can only be analysed when the sample preparation method leaves the layer structure intact, as for example the preparation of embedding cross sections in synthetic resins. Hence, spatially resolved analytical techniques are required not only to exactly characterize the nature of the compounds but also to obtain precise chemical and physical information about ongoing changes. This thesis focuses on the application of FTIR microspectroscopic techniques for cultural heritage materials. The first section is aimed at introducing the use of FTIR microscopy in conservation science with a particular attention to the sampling criteria and sample preparation methods. The second section is aimed at evaluating and validating the use of different FTIR microscopic analytical methods applied to the study of different art conservation issues which may be encountered dealing with cultural heritage artefacts: the characterisation of the artistic execution technique (chapter II-1), the studies on degradation phenomena (chapter II-2) and finally the evaluation of protective treatments (chapter II-3). The third and last section is divided into three chapters which underline recent developments in FTIR spectroscopy for the characterisation of paint cross sections and in particular thin organic layers: a newly developed preparation method with embedding systems in infrared transparent salts (chapter III-1), the new opportunities offered by macro-ATR imaging spectroscopy (chapter III-2) and the possibilities achieved with the different FTIR microspectroscopic techniques nowadays available (chapter III-3). In chapter II-1, FTIR microspectroscopy as molecular analysis, is presented in an integrated approach with other analytical techniques. The proposed sequence is optimized in function of the limited quantity of sample available and this methodology permits to identify the painting materials and characterise the adopted execution technique and state of conservation. Chapter II-2 describes the characterisation of the degradation products with FTIR microscopy since the investigation on the ageing processes encountered in old artefacts represents one of the most important issues in conservation research. Metal carboxylates resulting from the interaction between pigments and binding media are characterized using synthesised metal palmitates and their production is detected on copper-, zinc-, manganese- and lead- (associated with lead carbonate) based pigments dispersed either in oil or egg tempera. Moreover, significant effects seem to be obtained with iron and cobalt (acceleration of the triglycerides hydrolysis). For the first time on sienna and umber paints, manganese carboxylates are also observed. Finally in chapter II-3, FTIR microscopy is combined with further elemental analyses to characterise and estimate the performances and stability of newly developed treatments, which should better fit conservation-restoration problems. In the second part, in chapter III-1, an innovative embedding system in potassium bromide is reported focusing on the characterisation and localisation of organic substances in cross sections. Not only the identification but also the distribution of proteinaceous, lipidic or resinaceous materials, are evidenced directly on different paint cross sections, especially in thin layers of the order of 10 µm. Chapter III-2 describes the use of a conventional diamond ATR accessory coupled with a focal plane array to obtain chemical images of multi-layered paint cross sections. A rapid and simple identification of the different compounds is achieved without the use of any infrared microscope objectives. Finally, the latest FTIR techniques available are highlighted in chapter III-3 in a comparative study for the characterisation of paint cross sections. Results in terms of spatial resolution, data quality and chemical information obtained are presented and in particular, a new FTIR microscope equipped with a linear array detector, which permits reducing the spatial resolution limit to approximately 5 µm, provides very promising results and may represent a good alternative to either mapping or imaging systems.

Max Bill in Italia . Lo spazio logico dell'architettura

I Max Bill is an intense giornata of a big fresco. An analysis of the main social, artistic and cultural events throughout the twentieth century is needed in order to trace his career through his masterpieces and architectures. Some of the faces of this hypothetical mural painting are, among others, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Ernesto Nathan Rogers, Kandinskij, Klee, Mondrian, Vatongerloo, Ignazio Silone, while the backcloth is given by artistic avant-gardes, Bauhaus, International Exhibitions, CIAM, war events, reconstruction, Milan Triennali, Venice Biennali, the School of Ulm. Architect, even though more known as painter, sculptor, designer and graphic artist, Max Bill attends the Bauhaus as a student in the years 1927-1929, and from this experience derives the main features of a rational, objective, constructive and non figurative art. His research is devoted to give his art a scientific methodology: each work proceeds from the analysis of a problem to the logical and always verifiable solution of the same problem. By means of composition elements (such as rhythm, seriality, theme and its variation, harmony and dissonance), he faces, with consistent results, themes apparently very distant from each other as the project for the H.f.G. or the design for a font. Mathematics are a constant reference frame as field of certainties, order, objectivity: ‘for Bill mathematics are never confined to a simple function: they represent a climate of spiritual certainties, and also the theme of non attempted in its purest state, objectivity of the sign and of the geometrical place, and at the same time restlessness of the infinity: Limited and Unlimited ’. In almost sixty years of activity, experiencing all artistic fields, Max Bill works, projects, designs, holds conferences and exhibitions in Europe, Asia and Americas, confronting himself with the most influencing personalities of the twentieth century. In such a vast scenery, the need to limit the investigation field combined with the necessity to address and analyse the unpublished and original aspect of Bill’s relations with Italy. The original contribution of the present research regards this particular ‘geographic delimitation’; in particular, beyond the deep cultural exchanges between Bill and a series of Milanese architects, most of all with Rogers, two main projects have been addressed: the realtà nuova at Milan Triennale in 1947, and the Contemporary Art Museum in Florence in 1980. It is important to note that these projects have not been previously investigated, and the former never appears in the sources either. These works, together with the most well-known ones, such as the projects for the VI and IX Triennale, and the Swiss pavilion for the Biennale, add important details to the reference frame of the relations which took place between Zurich and Milan. Most of the occasions for exchanges took part in between the Thirties and the Fifties, years during which Bill underwent a significant period of artistic growth. He meets the Swiss progressive architects and the Paris artists from the Abstraction-Création movement, enters the CIAM, collaborates with Le Corbusier to the third volume of his Complete Works, and in Milan he works and gets confronted with the events related to post-war reconstruction. In these years Bill defines his own working methodology, attaining an artistic maturity in his work. The present research investigates the mentioned time period, despite some necessary exceptions. II The official Max Bill bibliography is naturally wide, including spreading works along with ones more devoted to analytical investigation, mainly written in German and often translated into French and English (Max Bill himself published his works in three languages). Few works have been published in Italian and, excluding the catalogue of the Parma exhibition from 1977, they cannot be considered comprehensive. Many publications are exhibition catalogues, some of which include essays written by Max Bill himself, some others bring Bill’s comments in a educational-pedagogical approach, to accompany the observer towards a full understanding of the composition processes of his art works. Bill also left a great amount of theoretical speculations to encourage a critical reading of his works in the form of books edited or written by him, and essays published in ‘Werk’, magazine of the Swiss Werkbund, and other international reviews, among which Domus and Casabella. These three reviews have been important tools of analysis, since they include tracks of some of Max Bill’s architectural works. The architectural aspect is less investigated than the plastic and pictorial ones in all the main reference manuals on the subject: Benevolo, Tafuri and Dal Co, Frampton, Allenspach consider Max Bill as an artist proceeding in his work from Bauhaus in the Ulm experience . A first filing of his works was published in 2004 in the monographic issue of the Spanish magazine 2G, together with critical essays by Karin Gimmi, Stanislaus von Moos, Arthur Rüegg and Hans Frei, and in ‘Konkrete Architektur?’, again by Hans Frei. Moreover, the monographic essay on the Atelier Haus building by Arthur Rüegg from 1997, and the DPA 17 issue of the Catalonia Polytechnic with contributions of Carlos Martì, Bruno Reichlin and Ton Salvadò, the latter publication concentrating on a few Bill’s themes and architectures. An urge to studying and going in depth in Max Bill’s works was marked in 2008 by the centenary of his birth and by a recent rediscovery of Bill as initiator of the ‘minimalist’ tradition in Swiss architecture. Bill’s heirs are both very active in promoting exhibitions, researching and publishing. Jakob Bill, Max Bill’s son and painter himself, recently published a work on Bill’s experience in Bauhaus, and earlier on he had published an in-depth study on ‘Endless Ribbons’ sculptures. Angela Thomas Schmid, Bill’s wife and art historian, published in end 2008 the first volume of a biography on Max Bill and, together with the film maker Eric Schmid, produced a documentary film which was also presented at the last Locarno Film Festival. Both biography and documentary concentrate on Max Bill’s political involvement, from antifascism and 1968 protest movements to Bill experiences as Zurich Municipality councilman and member of the Swiss Confederation Parliament. In the present research, the bibliography includes also direct sources, such as interviews and original materials in the form of letters correspondence and graphic works together with related essays, kept in the max+binia+jakob bill stiftung archive in Zurich. III The results of the present research are organized into four main chapters, each of them subdivided into four parts. The first chapter concentrates on the research field, reasons, tools and methodologies employed, whereas the second one consists of a short biographical note organized by topics, introducing the subject of the research. The third chapter, which includes unpublished events, traces the historical and cultural frame with particular reference to the relations between Max Bill and the Italian scene, especially Milan and the architects Rogers and Baldessari around the Fifties, searching the themes and the keys for interpretation of Bill’s architectures and investigating the critical debate on the reviews and the plastic survey through sculpture. The fourth and last chapter examines four main architectures chosen on a geographical basis, all devoted to exhibition spaces, investigating Max Bill’s composition process related to the pictorial field. Paintings has surely been easier and faster to investigate and verify than the building field. A doctoral thesis discussed in Lausanne in 1977 investigating Max Bill’s plastic and pictorial works, provided a series of devices which were corrected and adapted for the definition of the interpretation grid for the composition structures of Bill’s main architectures. Four different tools are employed in the investigation of each work: a context analysis related to chapter three results; a specific theoretical essay by Max Bill briefly explaining his main theses, even though not directly linked to the very same work of art considered; the interpretation grid for the composition themes derived from a related pictorial work; the architecture drawing and digital three-dimensional model. The double analysis of the architectural and pictorial fields is functional to underlining the relation among the different elements of the composition process; the two fields, however, cannot be compared and they stay, in Max Bill’s works as in the present research, interdependent though self-sufficient. IV An important aspect of Max Bill production is self-referentiality: talking of Max Bill, also through Max Bill, as a need for coherence instead of a method limitation. Ernesto Nathan Rogers describes Bill as the last humanist, and his horizon is the known world but, as the ‘Concrete Art’ of which he is one of the main representatives, his production justifies itself: Max Bill not only found a method, but he autonomously re-wrote the ‘rules of the game’, derived timeless theoretical principles and verified them through a rich and interdisciplinary artistic production. The most recurrent words in the present research work are synthesis, unity, space and logic. These terms are part of Max Bill’s vocabulary and can be referred to his works. Similarly, graphic settings or analytical schemes in this research text referring to or commenting Bill’s architectural projects were drawn up keeping in mind the concise precision of his architectural design. As for Mies van der Rohe, it has been written that Max Bill took art to ‘zero degree’ reaching in this way a high complexity. His works are a synthesis of art: they conceptually encompass all previous and –considered their developments- most of contemporary pictures. Contents and message are generally explicitly declared in the title or in Bill’s essays on his artistic works and architectural projects: the beneficiary is invited to go through and re-build the process of synthesis generating the shape. In the course of the interview with the Milan artist Getulio Alviani, he tells how he would not write more than a page for an essay on Josef Albers: everything was already evident ‘on the surface’ and any additional sentence would be redundant. Two years after that interview, these pages attempt to decompose and single out the elements and processes connected with some of Max Bill’s works which, for their own origin, already contain all possible explanations and interpretations. The formal reduction in favour of contents maximization is, perhaps, Max Bill’s main lesson.

Trasmission and Reflection (ATR)Far-Infrared Spectroscopy Applied in the Analysis of Cultural Heritage Materials

FIR spectroscopy is an alternative way of collecting spectra of many inorganic pigments and corrosion products found on art objects, which is not normally observed in the MIR region. Most FIR spectra are traditionally collected in transmission mode but as a real novelty it is now also possible to record FIR spectra in ATR (Attenuated Total Reflectance) mode. In FIR transmission we employ polyethylene (PE) for preparation of pellets by embedding the sample in PE. Unfortunately, the preparation requires heating of the PE in order to produces at transparent pellet. This will affect compounds with low melting points, especially those with structurally incorporated water. Another option in FIR transmission is the use of thin films. We test the use of polyethylene thin film (PETF), both commercial and laboratory-made PETF. ATR collection of samples is possible in both the MIR and FIR region on solid, powdery or liquid samples. Changing from the MIR to the FIR region is easy as it simply requires the change of detector and beamsplitter (which can be performed within a few minutes). No preparation of the sample is necessary, which is a huge advantage over the PE transmission method. The most obvious difference, when comparing transmission with ATR, is the distortion of band shape (which appears asymmetrical in the lower wavenumber region) and intensity differences. However, the biggest difference can be the shift of strong absorbing bands moving to lower wavenumbers in ATR mode. The sometimes huge band shift necessitates the collection of standard library spectra in both FIR transmission and ATR modes, provided these two methods of collecting are to be employed for analyses of unknown samples. Standard samples of 150 pigment and corrosion compounds are thus collected in both FIR transmission and ATR mode in order to build up a digital library of spectra for comparison with unknown samples. XRD, XRF and Raman spectroscopy assists us in confirming the purity or impurity of our standard samples. 24 didactic test tables, with known pigment and binder painted on the surface of a limestone tablet, are used for testing the established library and different ways of collecting in ATR and transmission mode. In ATR, micro samples are scratched from the surface and examined in both the MIR and FIR region. Additionally, direct surface contact of the didactic tablets with the ATR crystal are tested together with water enhanced surface contact. In FIR transmission we compare the powder from our test tablet on the laboratory PETF and embedded in PE. We also compare the PE pellets collected using a 4x beam condenser, focusing the IR beam area from 8 mm to 2 mm. A few samples collected from a mural painting in a Nepalese temple, corrosion products collected from archaeological Chinese bronze objects and samples from a mural paintings in an Italian abbey, are examined by ATR or transmission spectroscopy.

Study of the building and decorative materials and techniques used in Hungarian Roman sites

The aims of this research were: - To identify the characteristics, properties and provenance of the building and decorative material found in three Hungarian Roman sites: Nagyharsány, Nemesvámos-Balácapuszta and Aquincum - To provide a database of information on the different sites - To have an overview of main conservation strategies applied in Hungary. Geological studies, macroscopical and microscopical observations, XRD investigations, physical and chemical analyses allowed us to define the characteristics and properties of the different kinds of collected materials. Building stones sampled from Nagyharsány site showed two different kinds of massive limestone belonging to the areas surrounding the villa. Also Building stones sampled from Nemesvámos-Balácapuszta Roman villa proved to be compatible with limestone belonging to local sources. Mural painting fragments show that all samples are units composed of multilayered structures. Mosaic tesserae can be classified as following: -Pale yellow , blackish and pink tesserae are comparable with local limestone; -White tessera, composed of marble, was probably imported from distant regions of the Empire, as the usual practice of Romans. Mortars present different characteristics according to the age, the site and the functions: -Building mortars are generally lime based, white or pale yellow in colour, present a high percentage of aggregates represented by fine sand; -Supporting mortars from both mosaics and mural paintings are reddish or pinkish in colour, due to the presence of high percentage of brick dust and tiles fragments, and present a higher content of MgO. Although the condition of the sites, there is an insignificant content of soluble salts. Database The whole study has allowed us to provide work sheets for each samples, including all characteristics and properties. Furthermore, all sites included in the frame of the research have been described and illustrated on the base of their floor plans, material and construction methodologies. It can be concluded that: 1. In Nagyharsány Archaeological site, it is possible to define a sequence of different construction phases on the base of the study of building material and mortars. The results are comparable with the chronology of the site provided by the archaeologists 2. The material used for construction was of local origin while the more precious ones, used for decorative elements, were probably imported from long distance 3. Construction techniques in Hungary mainly refer to the usual Roman knowledge and practice (Vitruvius); few differences have been found 4. The database will represent an archive for Archaeologists, Historians and Conservators dealing with Roman period in Hungary.