CHEMISTRY FOR CONSERVATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE 1 MOD. 1

This course of lectures will provide basic chemical concepts related to art and architecture materials and artifacts, with refer to traditional art techniques. The main goal will be to provide scientific evaluation tools useful to correctly manage conservation of cultural heritage.

Attending lectures and self study of course contents (slides and lecture notes, reference texts) will allow students to reach the following goals:


1. knowledge and understanding

● to know production techniques of main historical and artistic artifacts.
● to know main materials, both organic and inorganic, of "mono-materic" historical and artistic artifacts: stone and related materials, ceramics, glass, wood, metal.
● to know basic chemical structures of such materials, also with reference to their transformation and degradation.
● to know related technical and scientific vocabulary.
● to understand the complexity of various chemical interactions between artifacts and their surrounding environment.


2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding

● to know how to perform a basic analysis of material composition of an artifact.
● to know how to perform a basic analysis of degradation of artifacts in relationship with their constituent materials and the surrounding environment.
● to know how to correctly apply technical and scientific vocabulary in all processes, including communication of acquired knowledge.


3. Judgment

● to know how to formulate and argue degradation of various materials and corresponding artifacts, developing also a critical approach to such evaluation


4. Communication skills

● to know how to communicate own considerations to other sector professionals with suitable terminology and properties of language.
● to know how to interact with other students and with the professor in a critical and educationally responsible manner.


5. Ability to learn

● to know how to correctly take notes and share them in a collaborative way.
● to know how to critically evaluate acquired knowledge learnt in class and from suggested texts.
● to know how to critically refer to suggested texts and their bibliography.

Basics of Chemistry and Physics are required.

- Description of main "mono-materic" historical and artistic artifacts (stone and related materials, painting materials, ceramics, paper, glass, wood, metal), their production techniques and related chemistry and physics.
- introduction to traditional cultural heritage techniques and their related chemistry and physics.
- Degradation processes of main historical and artistic materials and physico-chemical approaches to their conservation

- L. Campanella, A. Casoli, M. P. Colombini, et al. - Chimica per l'arte (Zanichelli Ed. 2007)
- M. Matteini, R. Mazzeo, A. Moles. Chemistry for restoration. Painting and restoration materials (Nardini Ed.)
- L. Lazzarini, M. L. Tabasso. Il restauro della pietra (CEDAM Ed.)
- G. Perusini. Il restauro dei dipinti e delle sculture lignee (Del Bianco Ed.)
- Selected papers from international and national scientific journals

Verification of learning will take place through an oral text (3 questions). Acquired knowledge about historical and artistic materials and their possible transformation, also in relation to their surrounding environment, will be verified. The student will have to clearly demonstrate to have correctly acquired information and basic concepts related to materials, as well as to their degradation and conservation.

Traditional (teacher up front) lessons in combination with slides

Language: Italian

Any modification to syllabus will be pointed out during the lectures.

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development