THE PIGMENTS OF THE CANOSA VASES: A TECHNICAL NOTEDAVID A. SCOTT, & MICHAEL SCHILLING
ABSTRACT—Examination of several fragmentary and complete Canosa ceramics in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum has been conducted to identify the nature of the pigments employed. Among the colorants identified were rose madder, goethite (FeOOH), Egyptian blue, burnt Sienna, and a carbonaceous black, probably a charcoal black. The range of colors produced on these funeral ceramics is typically white, blue, yellow, pink, light purple, and black, with some of the colorants very susceptible to surface damage because they have not been fired onto the ceramic body. The techniques employed for identification included polarized light microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence analysis, Fourier transform infrared microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, x-ray powder diffraction, and optical emission spectroscopy.
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