Material identification of three French medieval illuminations of the XVIth century by hyperspectral imaging (Treasury of Bordeaux Cathedral, France)

The Marcade Collection (treasury of Bordeaux Cathedral) includes 42 illuminations dating from the XIIIth to the XVIth century. Among them are three French medieval illuminations, dated about 1520-1530, never studied before. Beyond their iconographic, stylistic, and conservation study, the analysis of their materials is discussed here. Hyperspectral imaging technique is applied to characterize the pigments. The palette is composed of inorganic pigments such as azurite, red lead, cinnabar, yellow ochre, lead tin yellow, lead white, malachite, salt green and salts of copper, and also of organic pigments such as brazilwood lake, buckthorn, bucktooth and indigo. A shell gold technique is employed for the gildings. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 41, 302-307, 2016