The Byzantine Church of '40 Holy Martyrs' in Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria: Pigments and Technique

Journal Article · Thu Jan 21 00:00:00 EST 2010 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3322496· OSTI ID:21371471

Sakellariou, E; Zorba, T; Pavlidou, E; Paraskevopoulos, K M ^[1]; Angelova, S ^[2]

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1. Physics Departmen, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki (Greece)
2. Dept. of Archeology, Univ. of Sofia, Sofia (Bulgaria)

The 'St. 40 Martyrs' church is the most famous medieval building in Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria. It is located in Assenova mahala, just next to Tsarevets. It was built and its walls were painted during the reign of Bulgarian king Ivan Assen II after the victory against Epyrus despot Theodoros Comninos (1230 AD). It consists of two buildings - a six-column basilica and another, smaller building on its western wall, which was built later. During the presence of the Ottoman Turks, maybe until the first half of the 18th century, the church remained christian. When it was converted to a mosque, all the christian symbols in it were destroyed. The archeological researches on site were initiated in 1969. As it is clear, the 40 Martyrs church is a historical monument of culture with great significance. The church had murals, from the earlier period, but in the following years and especially during the Ottoman period, the church has suffered many and different destructions. Nevertheless, the very few pieces of murals that are rescued till nowadays provide important information for the technique and the pigments that were used on its wall paintings. In the present work, twelve series of samples from the wall paintings were studied in order to characterize the materials and the technique used for church iconography. The study was based on the micro-analytical techniques of the Fourier Transform Infrared micro-spectroscopy (mus-FTIR), the Optical Microscopy and the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) coupled to an Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometer (EDS). In the FTIR spectra of all pigments the characteristic peaks of calcite were detected, confirming the use of fresco technique for the creation of murals. The combination of FTIR spectroscopy and SEM-EDS analysis, reveal the existence of lapis-lazuli for the blue color, green earth for the green color, cinnabar for the red color, calcite for the white color and carbon black for the black color. Moreover, in other chromatic layers, the presence of iron oxides (hematite and limonite) indicating the use of ochre for the yellow and red pigments, is identified. Finally, the surface of some samples was covered by a transparent and tensile material. This material was characterized by mus-FTIR spectroscopy as an organic substance, probably a natural resin that was used to protect the murals in the early ages.

• OSTI ID: 21371471
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1203, Issue 1; Conference: 7. international conference of the Balkan Physical Union, Alexandroupolis (Greece), 9-13 Sep 2009; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3322496; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
BUILDINGS
BULGARIA
CALCITE
CARBON BLACK
COLOR
CULTURAL OBJECTS
FOURIER TRANSFORMATION
HEMATITE
INFRARED SPECTRA
IRON OXIDES
LAYERS
LIMONITE
OPTICAL MICROSCOPY
PIGMENTS
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
RESINS
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
SULFIDE MINERALS
SURFACES
X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY
CARBON
CARBONATE MINERALS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
EASTERN EUROPE
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
ELEMENTS
EUROPE
INTEGRAL TRANSFORMATIONS
IRON COMPOUNDS
IRON ORES
MICROSCOPY
MINERALS
NONMETALS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
ORES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC POLYMERS
ORGANOLEPTIC PROPERTIES
OXIDE MINERALS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PETROCHEMICALS
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
POLYMERS
SPECTRA
SPECTROSCOPY
TRANSFORMATIONS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS