Microanalytical identification of Pb-Sb-Sn yellow pigment in historical European paintings and its differentiation from lead tin and Naples yellows

Abstract The work is focused on identification of lead tin yellow types I and II, Naples yellow, and also on discrimination of a less common, distinct yellow pigment, the ternary Pb-Sb-Sn oxide. The knowledge about all those Pb-based yellows was in fact forgotten after introduction of modern synthetic yellows in 19th century. As late as in the last decade of the 20th century, the existence of Pb-Sb-Sn yellow and its production have been rediscovered, and only then it has been identified in colour layer of artworks. Pb-Sb-Sn yellow has recently been identified in colour layer of 17th century Italian paintings by Sandalinas and Ruiz-Moreno [C. Sandalinas, S. Ruiz-Moreno, Lead tin-antimony yellow, historical manufacture, molecular characterization and identification in seventeenth-century Italian paintings, Stud. Conserv. 49 (2003) 41–52], and here we report the finding of this pigment in Mid-European painting of the 18th and 19th centuries. Lead tin yellows, lead antimony yellow (Naples yellow), and lead antimony tin yellow were synthesized in laboratory following historical recipes, their colour was analyzed, and their structure was confirmed to provide a basis for their routine identification in microsamples of artworks by X-ray microdiffraction. Unequivocal identification of Pb-based yellows could help in authentication of traditional European paintings, because their use was temporally and also geographically specific. Combination of elemental microanalysis (X-ray fluorescence electron microanalysis) and X-ray powder microdiffraction were found very efficient in the microanalysis of colour layers of artworks with Pb-based yellows and their unequivocal identification.