Lead on icons

Kiki Kagiopoulou <kkagiopoulou [at] yahoo__com> writes

>Using Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy in order to identify the
>components of varnish on Byzantine and Russian icons, has detected
>the presence of lead. I wonder where I could find information about
>the use of lead on icons since its presence seems to alter the
>component analysis of the icon.

Lead white, alum and zinc sulphate are mentioned as siccative for
icon-varnish in the Bulgarian Hermeneias of Dicho Zograf and
Zacharij Petrovich (after 1834). Lead white as siccative  has been
first recommended by Heraclius (12th century) and by Cennini (ca.
1390): Icon Conservation in Europe, published by The Valamo Art
Conservation Institute, Frankfurt am Main 1999, pp.69,84.

Ivan Bentchev
Rheinisches Amt fur Denkmalpflege
D-Pulheim-Brauweiler


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 15:34
                 Distributed: Monday, October 22, 2001
                       Message Id: cdl-15-34-002
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