Study and treatment of a chasuble from the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

Abstract

A chasuble from the textile collection of the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga underwent a laboratorial study prior to the conservation treatment.The analyses gave vegetable fibres for the support layers used in the embroidered strips (orphreys), in the applied embroidered figures, in the volume in-filling threads of those applied embroidered figures, and the intermediate linning support layer. The patterned silk, the back linning, and the embroidery threads of the orphreys are made of ungummed silk. Through X-ray fluorescence spectrometry the main component of the metallic embroidery threads was found to be silver, although other metals were also detected. These results together with the observations made using a metallographic microscope and a scanning electron microscope suggest that the golden threads should be gold plated silver, which was commonly used between the 15th and 17th Centuries. This paper also presents a description of the condition survey and treatment intervention, which includes the application of a nylon support as a consolidation method on the embroidered figures, opposed to the traditional method, which was thought to be inadequate for the present case.

Keywords

• Textiles
• Conservation
• Chasuble
• Vestments
• Metallic threads
• X-ray fluorescence spectrometry
• Scanning electron microscopy