Object Analysis

Analyzing Detail in Art Objects

Artistic endeavor results in a diverse spectrum of works ranging from monumental sculpture to fine textile decoration. The history of art objects is not just in their production, but in their use through time. Approaches to characterizing and understanding these objects that describe our cultural heritage are as diverse as the artworks themselves, and can be supported by a wide range of instrumentation allowing a deeper understanding of an object's story. Bruker allows you to access the diversity of art with the latest in non-invasive elemental and molecular analyzers.

Application Examples

Elemental Mapping of 3D Cultural Heritage Objects

When conducting image-based analysis of cultural heritage objects, samples with high topography or even a three-dimensional form present challenges. When measuring these samples the resolution is reduced, often significantly, depending on the distance from the spectrometer.

Various recent approaches have attempted to resolve this by developing techniques that follow the object's surface topology. However, such methods introduce the risk of harming the object, and this should be prevented under all circumstances when dealing with Cultural Heritage objects.

Using an Aperture Management System (AMS), a patented feature of the M6 JETSTREAM, a high spatial resolution can be retained even in areas 10 cm out of focus while keeping a constant distance to the object.

Find out more and see the different types of cultural heritage objects that we have analyzed using the M6 JETSTREAM in this application note.

Read the Application Note

Provenance Studies via Elemental Analysis

In the field of cultural heritage, researchers must often determine the origins and authenticity of different objects and artworks. Production marks on the object, as well as the artistic style are great places to start but often a more thorough analytical approach is required.

Material analysis of, for example, the elemental composition of different colorants or additives, or the ratios of trace elements in the clay used to produce pottery, helps provide a more definite answer.

Portable micro-XRF systems are able to provide users with an accurate elemental composition reading that can be used to identify the materials used and match them with other similar samples. In the following application note we show the use of micro-XRF with a portable system in a provenance study on Sèvres Biscuit Figurines.

Read the Application Note

Recent Publications

Bruker's TRACER handheld XRF and ELIO portable mapping XRF instruments reveal new insights into the production techniques represented in the Portuguese illuminations.

Learn more here:

On the use of EDXRF and UV-Vis FORS to unveil the production of two illuminated manuscripts from the fifteenth century Portuguese Royal Court

C. Tibúrcio , S. Valadas , A. Cardoso , A. Candeias , C. Barreira, C. Miguel
Microchemical Journal, 153, 104455, 2020

Non-invasive investigation of illuminated manuscripts using Bruker's ALPHA FTIR portable spectrometer discriminates between pigment-binder systems on painted parchment.

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Non‑invasive identification of paint binders in illuminated manuscripts by ER‑FTIR spectroscopy: a systematic study of the influence of different pigments on the binders’ characteristic spectral features

Luca Nodari and Paola Ricciardi
Heritage Science, 7:7, 2019

Bruker's ELIO portable XRF spectrometer was used to study the pigments of a collection of 17th-18th enameled French watches from the Musée du Louvre in Paris, revealing key compositional information that sheds light on technological developments during this period.