The Research and Conservation of the Icon St. Josaphat, Bishop of Belgorod with a Reconstruction of Gilding and Puncturing

Abstract

The scientific objective of the research task was the  conservation, with full reconstruction, of the icon St. Josaphat, Bishop of Belgorod, and to carry out interdisciplinary research into the iconographer’s workshop. The technological layers were determined, the technique and technology of painting were analyzed, and the reconstruction of the missing elements of the work was documented. Thanks to examinations under the microscope and an analysis of a sample of wood taken from the base, we know that the base is of alder (Alnus). Organoleptic tests and tests with instruments permit the conclusion that the icon was painted using the tempera technique on a chalk-plaster ground (lefkas), on which gilding
was made (a silver-gold flake called a bipedal used in iconic painting since the 14th century) on a red bolus background.
The flesh-coloured and red layers of paint contain: lead white with the addition of barite white (?), iron red, organic red, cinnabar and umbrae. The blues were painted by using ultramarine, Prussian blue, organic blue (?), green chromate (a mixture of Prussian blue and yellow chromate – lead chromate). Dr. Katarzyna Wantuch-Jarkiewicz and Dr. Mirosław Wachowiak tested the elemental composition of the paint layers, the composition of the ground and the type of yellows, using the non-invasive XRF method. An analysis based on samples taken from the icon: the stratigraphic structure, the pigments used, the fillers in the plaster and the type of wood in the base, was carried out at the Chair of Specialist Examinations and Documentation Techniques of the Department of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. The tests were performed by Dr. Anna Nowicka, Dr. Elżbieta Jeżewska and Marek Wróbel. By establishing the icon’s content and the manner of presenting it, we obtain valuable information about the workshop and about the period in which the work was created. The results of our research enhance our knowledge of the iconographer’s workshop and are helpful in attributing similar artworks to a specific workshop and dating them.