Stories of the Life of Saint George: Materials and Techniques from a Barbelli Mural Painting

ABSTRACT

Gian Giacomo Inchiocchio (1604–1656), better known as Barbelli, was one of the main exponents of Lombard painting of the seventeenth century. A large body of work is attributed to him, encompassing a wide range of drawings, murals, and oil paintings. However, despite his broad production, there are still many open questions regarding his painting techniques and materials. In this paper, a multi-analytical study of the cycle Stories of the life of Saint George that originally decorated the presbytery of the parish church of Casaletto Vaprio (Cremona, Italy) was performed, combining non-invasive techniques with the characterisation of selected micro samples. Results show that Barbelli used a very limited number of inorganic pigments, often mixing them together to create different colours and shades. Remains of caseinate and degradation products (i.e. weddellite and whewellite) related to the strappo intervention were also highlighted. The study helped to decipher the materials and technique of this painting, providing data that can be used as a reference to study his extensive production.

KEYWORDS:

• Mural paintings
• Barbelli
• strappo
• fresco technique
• multi-analytical study

Acknowledgements

Since 2019, the municipality of Casaletto Vaprio in partnership with the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio (ABAP) of the provinces of Cremona, Lodi, and Mantua has launched a project to acquire and relocate all the detached artworks. Prior to relocating the artworks, the state of conservation of each strappo was characterised. We thank the colleagues of ABAP for involving us in the study of these artworks and providing us with the samples. The authors would like to thank the Patto per lo Sviluppo della Città di Venezia (Comune di Venezia) for support for the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the FWO agency under the call ‘FWO Medium Size Research Infrastructure' (funded project: High resolution Raman spectroscopy and imaging, ref. I010320N). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement ID 101058973 (DOI 10.3030/101058973).