AIC's 46th Annual Meeting

The application of gold leaf is ubiquitous in late medieval painting, but our knowledge of how it was applied is based largely on historical treatises and modern practice. Analytical techniques traditionally applied to the study of historic works of art, such as X-radiography and point-analysis x-ray fluorescence (XRF), identify only the presence and elemental composition of the metal leaf at a single point, respectively. MA-XRF scanning has opened up a new avenue of research into the study of gilding materials and techniques by providing unprecedented new insight into visualizing the dimensions of individual gold leaves, differences in how the leaf was applied by various artists and workshops, and the variability of gold leaf alloy compositions available. In addition to elucidating the original artistic creative process, MA-XRF can identify and map restoration interventions using gold leaf, thereby providing new documentation of historic conservation or restoration efforts. Statistical measurement of the dimensions of individual gold leaves provides a new tool for supporting or refuting links between separated components of altarpieces. This poster presents the results of studies from a number of paintings and manuscript illuminations that demonstrate the ability of MA-XRF to elucidate new information about the composition of metal leaf, its application, and its past conservation.