Analytical and Experimental Approach for Assessing Deterioration of the Organic Painting Media in Egyptian Wall Paintings, with Application of Modern Methods of Treatment on a Selected Object

Abstract

Paints almost always consist of pigments, which provide the color, and an adhesive material that binds the pigment particles together and joins them to the substrate to which they are applied. Rarely, one material could serve as both pigment and binder. For example, Paleolithic cave paintings (Figure 3.1) at least in some cases were probably done with clay-containing earth pigments; the clay component, when moistened, would have given the earth pigments enough stickiness to adhere to the cave walls. But in most instances, even in the earliest times, the adhesive or binder was a separate material that had to be mixed with the pigments. Animal fat has been identified as a binder in other Paleolithic cave paintings. Traditional binding materials are all natural substances produced by living things (plants or animals). Some require no processing, while others have to be extracted from their source by some means. In modern times, naturally occurring materials have been supplemented by compounds synthesized in the laboratory, such as the resins used to bind modern acrylic paints and latex house paints (Taft, W. S., and Mayer, J. W., 2001, p.39). In this chapter only the natural organic binders will be discussed.