Art casting in portuguese 19th century industrial foundries: a multi-analytical study of an emblematic copper-based alloy monument

Pablo General-Toro; Rui Bordalo; Patrícia Raquel Moreira; Eduarda Vieira; Antonio Brunetti; Roberta Iannaccone; Carlo Bottaini

doi:10.3390/heritage4040170

Art casting in portuguese 19th century industrial foundries: a multi-analytical study of an emblematic copper-based alloy monument

Pablo General-Toro
, Rui Bordalo
, Patrícia Raquel Moreira
, Eduarda Vieira
, Antonio Brunetti
, Roberta Iannaccone
, Carlo Bottaini^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

34 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The outdoor sculpture of the first Portuguese king, D. Afonso Henriques (c. 1109–1185 AD), placed in Guimarães (North Portugal), is one of the most emblematic national sculptures. Created in 1887 by António Soares dos Reis, it possesses a remarkable symbolic value in the presumed birthplace of the king. In addition to the artistic and heritage importance of the monument, it is one of the few sculptures cast by a Portuguese industrial foundry in the 19th century. This study obtained data on the sculpture’s elemental composition and corrosion products, gathering important historical and technical information. For this purpose, a multi-analytical approach consisting of X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS) was carried out to characterise the bulk metal and corrosion layers. The data revealed a ternary alloy of Cu, Sn and Zn, with Pb, Fe, As, Bi and Mn as minor elements. The alloy matches that of other sculptures cast in that period. In terms of corrosion, it is characterised by the presence of oxides. These results represent the first step for applying an appropriate conservation strategy for bronze sculptures with similar characteristics.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	3050-3064
Number of pages	15
Journal	Heritage
Volume	4
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage4040170
Publication status	Published - 02 Oct 2021
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding: The study was carried out within the first author’s PhD project under grant SFRH/BD/137253/2018, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and co-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Programa Operacional Capital Humano (POCH). R.B. acknowledges the GEO-SR project: “Multidisciplinary approach to alteration, alterability and conservation of Soares dos Reis geomaterial sculpture: breaking boundaries in museum paradigms and creating value in changing societies through Cultural Heritage” (funding by FEDER and FCT, reference number 031304). The analyses were performed with equipment from the HERCULES Laboratory (University of Évora, Portugal) (UIDB/04449/2020 and UIDP/04449/2020) funded by FCT.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia and FEDER: PTDC/ART-OUT/31304/2017 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031304) Data Availability Statement: Data generated and analysed during this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

19th century metal sculpture
Afonso Henriques
Art foundries
Corrosion
Elemental characterisation
Outdoor sculpture

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Archaeology
Conservation
Materials Science (miscellaneous)

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10.3390/heritage4040170Licence: CC BY

Art casting in Portugese 19th century industrial foundries
© 2023 The Authors. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited.
Final published version, 3.5 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Art casting in portuguese 19th century industrial foundries: a multi-analytical study of an emblematic copper-based alloy monument",

abstract = "The outdoor sculpture of the first Portuguese king, D. Afonso Henriques (c. 1109–1185 AD), placed in Guimar{\~a}es (North Portugal), is one of the most emblematic national sculptures. Created in 1887 by Ant{\'o}nio Soares dos Reis, it possesses a remarkable symbolic value in the presumed birthplace of the king. In addition to the artistic and heritage importance of the monument, it is one of the few sculptures cast by a Portuguese industrial foundry in the 19th century. This study obtained data on the sculpture{\textquoteright}s elemental composition and corrosion products, gathering important historical and technical information. For this purpose, a multi-analytical approach consisting of X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS) was carried out to characterise the bulk metal and corrosion layers. The data revealed a ternary alloy of Cu, Sn and Zn, with Pb, Fe, As, Bi and Mn as minor elements. The alloy matches that of other sculptures cast in that period. In terms of corrosion, it is characterised by the presence of oxides. These results represent the first step for applying an appropriate conservation strategy for bronze sculptures with similar characteristics.",

keywords = "19th century metal sculpture, Afonso Henriques, Art foundries, Corrosion, Elemental characterisation, Outdoor sculpture",

author = "Pablo General-Toro and Rui Bordalo and Moreira, \{Patr{\'i}cia Raquel\} and Eduarda Vieira and Antonio Brunetti and Roberta Iannaccone and Carlo Bottaini",

note = "Funding Information: Funding: The study was carried out within the first author{\textquoteright}s PhD project under grant SFRH/BD/137253/2018, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and co-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Programa Operacional Capital Humano (POCH). R.B. acknowledges the GEO-SR project: “Multidisciplinary approach to alteration, alterability and conservation of Soares dos Reis geomaterial sculpture: breaking boundaries in museum paradigms and creating value in changing societies through Cultural Heritage” (funding by FEDER and FCT, reference number 031304). The analyses were performed with equipment from the HERCULES Laboratory (University of {\'E}vora, Portugal) (UIDB/04449/2020 and UIDP/04449/2020) funded by FCT.Funda{\c c}{\~a}o para a Ci{\^e}ncia e a Tecnologia and FEDER: PTDC/ART-OUT/31304/2017 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031304) Data Availability Statement: Data generated and analysed during this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.",

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AU - Bordalo, Rui

AU - Moreira, Patrícia Raquel

AU - Vieira, Eduarda

AU - Brunetti, Antonio

AU - Iannaccone, Roberta

AU - Bottaini, Carlo

N1 - Funding Information: Funding: The study was carried out within the first author’s PhD project under grant SFRH/BD/137253/2018, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and co-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Programa Operacional Capital Humano (POCH). R.B. acknowledges the GEO-SR project: “Multidisciplinary approach to alteration, alterability and conservation of Soares dos Reis geomaterial sculpture: breaking boundaries in museum paradigms and creating value in changing societies through Cultural Heritage” (funding by FEDER and FCT, reference number 031304). The analyses were performed with equipment from the HERCULES Laboratory (University of Évora, Portugal) (UIDB/04449/2020 and UIDP/04449/2020) funded by FCT.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia and FEDER: PTDC/ART-OUT/31304/2017 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031304) Data Availability Statement: Data generated and analysed during this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2021/10/2

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N2 - The outdoor sculpture of the first Portuguese king, D. Afonso Henriques (c. 1109–1185 AD), placed in Guimarães (North Portugal), is one of the most emblematic national sculptures. Created in 1887 by António Soares dos Reis, it possesses a remarkable symbolic value in the presumed birthplace of the king. In addition to the artistic and heritage importance of the monument, it is one of the few sculptures cast by a Portuguese industrial foundry in the 19th century. This study obtained data on the sculpture’s elemental composition and corrosion products, gathering important historical and technical information. For this purpose, a multi-analytical approach consisting of X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS) was carried out to characterise the bulk metal and corrosion layers. The data revealed a ternary alloy of Cu, Sn and Zn, with Pb, Fe, As, Bi and Mn as minor elements. The alloy matches that of other sculptures cast in that period. In terms of corrosion, it is characterised by the presence of oxides. These results represent the first step for applying an appropriate conservation strategy for bronze sculptures with similar characteristics.

AB - The outdoor sculpture of the first Portuguese king, D. Afonso Henriques (c. 1109–1185 AD), placed in Guimarães (North Portugal), is one of the most emblematic national sculptures. Created in 1887 by António Soares dos Reis, it possesses a remarkable symbolic value in the presumed birthplace of the king. In addition to the artistic and heritage importance of the monument, it is one of the few sculptures cast by a Portuguese industrial foundry in the 19th century. This study obtained data on the sculpture’s elemental composition and corrosion products, gathering important historical and technical information. For this purpose, a multi-analytical approach consisting of X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS) was carried out to characterise the bulk metal and corrosion layers. The data revealed a ternary alloy of Cu, Sn and Zn, with Pb, Fe, As, Bi and Mn as minor elements. The alloy matches that of other sculptures cast in that period. In terms of corrosion, it is characterised by the presence of oxides. These results represent the first step for applying an appropriate conservation strategy for bronze sculptures with similar characteristics.

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KW - Afonso Henriques

KW - Art foundries

KW - Corrosion

KW - Elemental characterisation

KW - Outdoor sculpture

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DO - 10.3390/heritage4040170

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85116744269

SN - 2571-9408

VL - 4

SP - 3050

EP - 3064

JO - Heritage

JF - Heritage

IS - 4

ER -

Art casting in portuguese 19th century industrial foundries: a multi-analytical study of an emblematic copper-based alloy monument

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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