Portable Raman, DRIFTS, and XRF Analysis to Diagnose the Conservation State of Two Wall Painting Panels from Pompeii Deposited in the Naples National Archaeological Museum (Italy)

Abstract

This work presents a methodology that combines spectroscopic speciation, performed through portable Raman spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS), and energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (ED-XRF) working in situ, and thermodynamic speciation to diagnose the environmental impacts, induced by past and current events, on two wall painting panels (Nos. 9103 and 9255) extracted more than 150 years ago from the walls of a Pompeian house (Marcus Lucretius House, Regio IX, Insula 3, House 5/24) and deposited in the Naples National Archaeological Museum (MANN). The results show a severe chemical attack of the acid gases that can be explained only by the action of H2S during and just after the eruption of the Vesuvius volcano, that expelled a high concentration of sulfur gases. This fact can be considered as the most important process impacting the wall painting panels deposited in the museum, while the rain-wash processes and the colonization of microorganisms have not been observed in contrast to the impacts shown by the wall paintings left outside in the archaeological site of Pompeii. Moreover, the systematic presence of lead traces and strontium in both wall paintings suggests their presence as impurities of the calcite mortars (intonacco) or calcite binder of these particular fresco Pompeian murals.