Colorimetric and spectrophotometric analyses for an ecoinnovative application of natural dyeing in textile conservation

Authors

  • Tiziana Cavaleri Centro Conservazione e Restauro “La Venaria Reale”, Italy
  • Isabelle Clonier ARRDHOR CRITT Horticole, France
  • Paola Croveri Centro Conservazione e Restauro “La Venaria Reale”, Italy; Chemistry Department, 3 University of Turin, Italy
  • Annamaria Giovagnoli Centro Conservazione e Restauro “La Venaria Reale”, Italy
  • Anna Piccirillo Centro Conservazione e Restauro “La Venaria Reale”, Italy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23738/ccsj.i62016.07

Keywords:

Natural dyes, Nontoxic mordants, Eco-innovative dyeing, Textile conservation, Historical tapestry, Fiber Optics Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS), Colorimetry

Abstract

An eco-innovative application of natural dyes and nontoxic mordants was recently experimented at Centro Conservazione e Restauro “La Venaria Reale” (CCR, Italy) in the conservation of some historical tapestries, in collaboration with Coulers de Plantes (CdP, France).

Until now, textile conservation makes use of synthetic pre-metallized dyes that contain heavy metals such as chrome and cobalt: the synthetic dyes allow to obtain different hues and saturation levels of the textile fibres simply varying ratio and concentration of three primary dye. This project aimed at finding eco- friendly materials for substituting the synthetic ones. All dyes and mordants used in this application were produced by CdP inside the INNOCOLORS project, carried out by CCR and ARRDHOR CRITT Horticole. A palette of textile fibres was made with 7 natural dyes and 4 nontoxic mordants with more than 300 different recipes. Spectrophotometric and colorimetric analyses were used to evaluate and compare the natural palette with the synthetic one. As expected, the colours of the synthetic palette show to vary linearly changing the ratios of the three pre-metallized dyes, whereas, in the natural palette, each ingredient plays an important, not predictable rule on the final colour. The analyses so carried out allowed to better understand in particular the influence of mordant on the final colour of the textile fibres. The study allowed to modulate the recipes in order to obtain precise colours. The samples’ lightfastness was monitored and studied.

At the end, some lacunae on historical tapestries were integrated in this innovative way.

Author Biographies

  • Tiziana Cavaleri, Centro Conservazione e Restauro “La Venaria Reale”, Italy

    Tiziana Cavaleri graduates in Science and technology applied to cultural heritage at the Department of Chemistry, University of Turin (Italy). She works at CCR as conservation scientist since 2009. Her research focuses on noninvasive analytical methods such as hyperspectral imaging and UV-Vis-NIR reflectance spectroscopy, colorimetry and colour appearance, remote sensing, RGB rendering and lighting science.

  • Isabelle Clonier, ARRDHOR CRITT Horticole, France

    Isabelle Clonier has a PhD in Phytochemistry at the National School of Chemistry in Toulouse (France). Since 2001 she’s textile engineer at ARRDHOR-CRITT Horticole: her research in the field of natural dyes focuses on sourcing and development of plant extracts for dyes industry, plant staining on organic or inorganic supports and laboratory and industrial developments of textile dyeing processes.

  • Paola Croveri, Centro Conservazione e Restauro “La Venaria Reale”, Italy; Chemistry Department, 3 University of Turin, Italy

    Paola Croveri has a MSc in Chemistry and a PhD in Science for Cultural Heritage Conservation. She was assistant lecturer at Malta Centre for Restoration, now lecturer on contract at University of Turin. Research interests focus on deterioration and conservation of paintings, glasses, stones, textiles, VP-SEM analysis. At CCR is today Project manager for Scientific Innovation and Research Development.

  • Annamaria Giovagnoli, Centro Conservazione e Restauro “La Venaria Reale”, Italy

    Annamaria Giovagnoli graduates in Chemistry in 1978 and works as conservation scientist (chemist) at Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione e il Restauro (ISCR, MiBAC) since 1983. She was the Director of CCR’s Scientific Laboratories (2008-2014). Her studies and projects focus in particular on the conservation of historical buildings, monuments and exhibits. She teaches “Environmental Chemistry for cultural heritage” at ISCR School.

  • Anna Piccirillo, Centro Conservazione e Restauro “La Venaria Reale”, Italy

    Anna Piccirillo has a PhD in Chemical science at University of Turin (2004) focused on the study of ancient binding media. Since 2008, she works at CCR as conservation scientist (chemist). In the field of cultural heritage conservation, she dedicates herself to the characterization of materials with particular attention on modern and contemporary materials and on their degradation products.

References

D. Cardon, “Natural dyes”, Archetype Publication, 2007.

C. Oleari, “Misurare il colore”, Hoepli, 2008.

R. Johnston-Feller, “Color science in the examination of Museum Objects”, the Getty conservation institute, 2001.

C. Bisulca, M. Picollo, M. Bacci, D. Kunzelman, “UV-VIS- NIR reflectance spectroscopy of red lakes in paintings”, 9th international conference on NTD of Art, Jerusalem Israel, May 2008.

C. Montagner, M. Bacci, S. Bracci, R. Freeman, M. Picollo, “Library of UV-Vis-NIR reflectance spectra of modern organic dyes from historic pattern-card coloured papers”, Elsevier, 2010

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Published

2016-09-30

Issue

Vol. 6 (2016)

Section

Papers

License

The "Cultura e Scienza del Colore - Color Culture and Science" journal is registered at the Court of Milan at n.233 of 24.06.2014.

The journal is an open access journal, free for readers and authors and has joined ROAD, the Directory of Open Access scholarly Resources, since 2014. Articles published in the “Cultura e Scienza del Colore - Color Culture and Science" journal are open access articles, distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The copyright is retained by the author(s).

How to Cite

“Colorimetric and spectrophotometric analyses for an ecoinnovative application of natural dyeing in textile conservation” (2016) Cultura e Scienza del Colore - Color Culture and Science, 6, pp. 71–79. doi:10.23738/ccsj.i62016.07.