APPLICATIONS OF NON INVASIVE ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES TO ARTEFACTS

This course of lectures will provide basic knowledge about available non invasive and non destructive diagnostic techniques for the investigation of art and architecture artefacts and materials, and of related traditional art techniques, and about their onsite application.
This course of lectures aims to support students in developing also practical skills in the employment of related instrumentation and a correct approach in the interaction with other sector professionals (restorers, superintendents, art historians, etc.).

Attending lectures and self study of course contents (slides and lecture notes, reference texts) will allow students to reach the following goals:

1. knowledge and understanding
● to know main non invasive and non destructive diagnostic techniques currently available
● to understand physical and chemical principles of described techniques
● to understand, also through practical onsite sessions ,advantages and limitations, and applicability of employed techniques to art and architecture materials and artefacts
● to know related technical and scientific vocabulary

2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
● to know how to perform a basic analysis of issues related to diagnostic investigation of artefacts and relationships with constituent materials and applicable techniques
● to know how to correctly apply technical and scientific vocabulary in all processes, including communication of acquired knowledge

3. Judgement
● to know how to evaluate potentially applicable techniques to artefacts under examination according to their analytical capabilities and to required queries
● to know how to critically evaluate and compare obtained diagnostic results from artefacts under examination according to analytical capabilities of applied techniques
● to know how to formulate and argue basic hypothesis of diagnostic investigation of an artefact, also developing a critical approach to the protocol to apply

4. Communication skills
● to know how to interact with other students and with the professor in a critical and educationally responsible manner
● to know how to communicate own evaluations to other conservation sector professionals with suitable terminology


5. Ability to learn
● to know how to correctly take notes, critically evaluate and share them in a collaborative way
● to know how to critically examine suggested texts and bibliography

Basics of Chemistry, Physics and Biology are required.

- Description of available non invasive and non destructive diagnostic techniques for the investigation of art and architecture materials and artefacts
- Examples of practical applications of available non invasive diagnostic techniques for the investigation of art and architecture artefacts
- onsite diagnostic sessions with non invasive diagnostic instrumentation on representative artefacts and materials (according to availability of host institutions and instrumentation)

(optional)

- M. Martini, A. Castellano, E. Sibilia. Elementi di Archeometria - Metodi fisici per i Beni Culturali (Egea Ed. 2004)
- A. Napoli, C. Pelosi, V. Vinciguerra. Principi di analisi spettroscopica con applicazioni ai beni culturali (Aracne Ed. 2010)
- O. Piccolo, E. Puppin, Tecniche diagnostiche per i beni culturali (Maggioli Ed. 2008)
- P. A. M. Triolo. Manuale pratico di documentazione e diagnostic per imagine per i BB.CC (Il Prato Ed. 2019)

- Selected papers from national and international scientific journals

The oral examination, based on 3 questions, will be focused on specific arguments discussed during the lectures and onsite sessions, with the aim to verify acquired knowledge and capability in the interpretation of results obtained through applied techniques according to investigated artefacts and related materials. The student must demonstrate to have critically understood scientific and technical issues related to the application of non invasive diagnostic techniques to artefacts, and to discuss acquired knowledge and competences with adequate language skills

Teacher up-front lessons in combination with slides; onsite diagnostic investigations on representative artefacts

Italian

Modification to syllabus will be pointed out during the lectures.

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