Scientific investigations into the marble sculptural group

As part of a collaboration between the Bargello Museums and the National Research Council of Florence, traces of colour found on Francesco da Sangallo’s sculptural group have been analysed. It may be that some of the sixteenth–century gilding was removed during later cleaning. A completely non–invasive approach was used, involving complementary elemental (XRF) and molecular (Raman) spectroscopy techniques. Traces of gold leaf came to light, applied to a preparation of materials in use during the sixteenth century, such as cinnabar, red ochre, white lead, and chalk. No evidence for the use of modern pigments was found.