ON THE ARTISTIC MATERIALS OF TWO 19th CENTURY WOODEN ICONS FROM "ANNUNCIATION" CHURCH IN GALATI, ROMANIA

This paper studies two 19th century wooden icons from the "Annunciation" church in Galati, Romania. The artistic materials of the paintings, investigated through optical microscopy, XRF, LIBS, and FTIR, comprised shellac varnish, metallic and earth pigments in oil binder in the pictorial layers, and calcite, lipid binder, gypsum, zinc and lead whites in the preparation layers. One of the icons had golden embellishment attached to the ground through lead-enriched adhesive of protein and resin. These findings shed light on the painting techniques used in Eastern Orthodox art in the 19(th) century and also support the restoration process of both icons.