The 'Treu Head' - British Museum

GIOVANNI VERRI, THORSTEN OPPER AND THIBAUT DEVIESE
figure 6. Sample M01: (a) micrograph of the surface of the marble
showing the flesh tones from which the sample was taken (marked
with an arrow); (b) polished cross-section imaged under dark field
illumination at �200 showing white calcite highlights applied on top
of the mixture of calcite, hematite, goethite, carbon black and Egyptian
blue used for the flesh tones; and (c) the corresponding UIL image of
the polished cross-section
Although the paint used for the flesh tones of the sculpture
was described at the time of its discovery as ‘oily’, no organic
constituents could be detected by GC-MS above background
levels found in laboratory blanks. Lactic, acetic and succinic
acids were the only constituents seen and these only at an
intensity comparable to that of contamination. No constitu-
46
ents that could be linked to a binding medium of proteinaceous,
lipid or resin types were detected and gum-based
media would not have been detected by the analytical
method used. Although the use of gum cannot be excluded,
the absence of binding medium may be due to poor preservation
or, very likely, the minute sample size available for
analysis.
Mouth, nostrils and lachrymal ducts
Certain recesses and anatomical features, such as the inner
part of the mouth, the nostrils and the lachrymal ducts,
were coloured using a bright pink organic colourant,
presumed to be present in the form of a lake pigment (see
below). The lake was used as a highly translucent layer (c.5–
20 μm thick) on top of the flesh tones. Under excitation from
ultraviolet or visible radiation with a shorter wavelength,
the areas painted with this pink lake show a strong pink–
orange fluorescence with an emission centred at c.608 nm.
The distribution of the fluorescence emission was mapped
using excitation radiation with a wavelength of 365 nm to
produce the UIL image in Figure 4b. This pattern of use
on the inside of the mouth and nostrils was also reported
in the case of a marble bust of the emperor Caligula in the
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen [20]. Figures 8a
and 8b show the mouth of the sculpture in visible and UIL
images respectively. The scattered surviving traces of the
organic lake pigment can be observed along the length of
the opening. Figures 8c and 8d show micrographs (×20
and ×100 respectively) of a detail at the extreme left of the
mouth. A sample (M02) was taken from the particle of pink
lake seen at the bottom right of Figure 8d and indicated by
an arrow on Figure 8c.
Sample M02 is seen as an unmounted fragment in Figure
9a, while Figures 9b and 9c illustrate the visible and UIL
images of the polished cross-section of the same sample and
suggest that the strongly fluorescent pink outermost layer
was painted using the organic lake. The same cross-section
is seen in Figure 9d as a backscattered electron image in the
SEM and Figures 9e–9i show the element maps for calcium,
iron, silicon, aluminium and magnesium respectively. The
lake layer is seen to consist mainly of aluminium-, silicon-
and magnesium-containing particles.
HPLC-PDA analyses showed that the pink pigment
contained pseudopurpurin and some purpurin, suggesting
that a pigment prepared from an organic dyestuff had been
used. The colourant contained no alizarin and, by comparison
with published results [21, 22], the dyestuff composition
is consistent with that prepared from Rubia peregrina
L. However, the identification of the dyestuff source is not
unequivocal and madder from another Rubia species may
be present [23].
To prepare a pigment, the colourant would have been
extracted from the plant source and combined with an
inorganic substrate to form an insoluble lake pigment
[24]. There is a homogeneous distribution of aluminium