Analysis of pigments from Roman wall paintings found in Vicenza

The analysis of about 60 samples of wall paintings was carried out using different chemicophysical techniques: optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with an EDS microanalysis detector, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The identified pigments were cinnabar, hematite, red ochre, celadonite, cuprorivaite (Egyptian blue), yellow ochre, goethite and carbon. Only in one case some lead white was found instead. In general, the mortar preparation did not correspond to the complex structure suggested by Vitruvius (De Architectura), but it generally showed a porous layer, with crushed grains under the pigment layer. In certain cases two superposed pigment layers were found: yellow superimposed on both red and pink, black on pink, green on black.