EVIDENCE FOR THE USE OF EGYPTIAN BLUE IN AN 11TH CENTURY MURAL ALTARPIECE BY SEM–EDS, FTIR AND SR XRD (CHURCH OF SANT PERE, TERRASSA, SPAIN)

Abstract

The present study shows the analysis performed on pigment samples taken from Sant Pere (Terrassa, Catalonia, Spain), a remarkable church built in the Romanesque style. On the basis of the results obtained from the analysis, an interesting discussion arises after finding evidence of Egyptian blue in one of the samples, a discovery that was not expected due to the time period of the samples. The pigments were identified by the combined use of FTIR and SEM with an EDS facility. For the blue pigment, since the EDS and FTIR analyses suggested the possible presence of cuprorivaite, micro‐XRD experiments using synchrotron radiation were run.