Novel application of liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry for the characterization of drying oils in art: Elucidation on the composition of original paint materials used by Edvard Munch (1863-1944)

Jacopo La Nasa; Marco Zanaboni; Daniele Uldanck; Ilaria Degano; Francesca Modugno; Hartmut Kutzke; Eva Storevik Tveit; Biljana Topalova-Casadiego; Maria Perla Colombini

doi:10.1016/j.aca.2015.09.023

Novel application of liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry for the characterization of drying oils in art: Elucidation on the composition of original paint materials used by Edvard Munch (1863-1944)

Anal Chim Acta. 2015 Oct 8:896:177-89. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2015.09.023. Epub 2015 Sep 21.

Authors

Jacopo La Nasa¹, Marco Zanaboni², Daniele Uldanck³, Ilaria Degano⁴, Francesca Modugno⁵, Hartmut Kutzke⁶, Eva Storevik Tveit⁷, Biljana Topalova-Casadiego⁸, Maria Perla Colombini⁹

Affiliations

¹ University of Pisa, Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, Via Moruzzi, 13, I-56124 Pisa, Italy. Electronic address: jacopo.lanasa@for.unipi.it.
² University of Pisa, Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, Via Moruzzi, 13, I-56124 Pisa, Italy. Electronic address: chimcoz@gmail.com.
³ University of Pisa, Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, Via Moruzzi, 13, I-56124 Pisa, Italy. Electronic address: sagantana@hotmail.com.
⁴ University of Pisa, Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, Via Moruzzi, 13, I-56124 Pisa, Italy. Electronic address: ilaria.degano@unipi.it.
⁵ University of Pisa, Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, Via Moruzzi, 13, I-56124 Pisa, Italy. Electronic address: francesca.modugno@unipi.it.
⁶ Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 6762 St. Olavs plass, 0130 Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: hartmut.kutzke@khm.uio.no.
⁷ The Munch Museum, Tøyen, Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: estveit@munchmuseet.no.
⁸ The Munch Museum, Tøyen, Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: biljana.casadiego@munch.museum.no.
⁹ Institute for the Conservation and Promotion of Cultural Heritage, National Research Council of Italy, Via Madonna del Piano, 10, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy. Electronic address: maria.perla.colombini@unipi.it.

PMID: 26482002
DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2015.09.023

Abstract

Modern oil paints, introduced at the beginning of the 20th century, differ from those classically used in antiquity in their chemical and compositional features. The main ingredients were still traditional drying oils, often used in mixtures with less expensive oils and added with several classes of additives. Consequently, detailed lipid profiling, together with the study of lipid degradation processes, is essential for the knowledge and the conservation of paint materials used in modern and contemporary art. A multi-analytical approach based on mass spectrometry was used for the study of original paint materials from Munch's atelier, owned by the Munch Museum in Oslo. The results obtained in the analysis of paint tubes were compared with those obtained by characterizing a paint sample collected from one of the artist's sketches for the decoration of the Festival Hall of the University of Oslo (1909-1916). Py-GC/MS was used as screening method to evaluate the presence of lipid, proteic or polysaccaridic materials. GC/MS after hydrolysis and derivatization allowed us to determine the fatty acid profile of the paint tubes, and to evaluate the molecular changes associated to curing and ageing. The determination of the fatty acid profile is not conclusive for the characterization of complex mixtures of lipid materials, thus the characterization of the triglyceride profiles was performed using an analytical procedure based on HPLC-ESI-Q-ToF. This paper describes the first application of HPLC-ESI-Q-ToF for the acquisition of the triglyceride profile in a modern paint sample, showing the potentialities of liquid chromatography in the field of lipid characterization in modern paint materials. Moreover, our results highlighted that the application of this approach can contribute to address dating, authenticity and conservation issues relative to modern and contemporary artworks.

Keywords: Edvard Munch; Fatty acids; Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry; High performance liquid chromatography-Electrospray ionization-quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry; Modern paint; Triglycerides.