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Raman microscopy has identified several pigments in specific South American colonial sculptures: four black materials in wooden figures from Paraguay, the mineral green atacamite in a Bolivian sculpture’s veil, and vermilion, massicot, and azurite in a Brazilian sculpture. These are findings from particular paint samples—not a comprehensive palette for the region.
What pigments did researchers identify?
The studies cover three distinct colonial works and sampled areas. Their results show how Raman evidence can help identify materials, while microscopy and other analytical methods add context about paint layers and composition.
| Object and context | Sampled area | Reported pigment findings | Analytical context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Four 17th–18th-century polychrome wooden sculptures associated with the Jesuit Mission of Trinidad, Paraguay | Black paint areas | Wood charcoal, lampblack, bistre, and a humic earth pigment | Raman microscopy compared samples with reference pigments; FT-IR and SEM–EDS provided complementary support. Tomasini et al., 2015 |
| Our Lady of Copacabana, a late-16th-century gilded polychrome sculpture venerated in Bolivia | Green veil layer | Atacamite | Micro-Raman identified the green pigment; optical microscopy and SEM–EDS helped characterize the sample and its layers. Tomasini et al., 2013 |
| Early-18th-century Brazilian sculpture of Our Lady of Sorrows | Painted sculpture, including the mantle | Vermilion, massicot, and azurite; the authors attributed the green mantle to a massicot–azurite mixture | Raman and FT-IR were considered alongside microscopy and EDS. The proposed production error is the authors’ interpretation. Brazilian sculpture study, 2015 |
How does Raman help distinguish pigments?
Raman spectroscopy records how a material scatters laser light, producing a spectrum that can be compared with known materials. In the Paraguay study, researchers used the broad D and G bands associated with carbon-based blacks. These bands occur around 1,350 and 1,550 cm⁻¹; their positions, widths, and relative intensities helped distinguish the sampled blacks when compared with reference pigments.
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The spectrum is evidence about the analyzed material, not a standalone account of an artwork’s full history or the source of its pigments. The Paraguay researchers paired Raman comparisons with infrared spectroscopy and SEM–EDS. The method mix matters because different analyses can provide complementary information about composition and sample characteristics.
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What did the sample layers reveal in Bolivia?
In the Our Lady of Copacabana study, optical microscopy showed green crystals over a white layer, with gold leaf and red bole beneath. SEM–EDS detected copper and chlorine in the green layer, and micro-Raman identified atacamite. The authors interpreted atacamite in this particular sample as a mineral green pigment, rather than assuming it was a degradation product simply because the compound can occur that way in other contexts. The study’s report ties the identification to the sampled veil area.
What does the Brazilian mantle finding mean?
Analysis of the early-18th-century Our Lady of Sorrows identified vermilion, massicot, and azurite. The authors proposed that massicot and azurite together produced the mantle’s green appearance. Because the literature describes the mantle as blue, they suggested the mixture might reflect a production error. That is an interpretation of the evidence, not a settled conclusion about the sculptor’s intent.
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How far can these findings be generalized?
They cannot be treated as a representative pigment inventory for South American sculpture. The studies concern selected colonial objects, colors, and small samples. They do not establish what pigments were used across other countries, periods, artistic traditions, or pre-Columbian works.
Related regional studies illustrate why context and combined methods matter, but they concern wall paintings rather than the sculptures described above. Research on colonial church paintings in Bolivia used micro-Raman and reported synthetic colorants in some areas, suggesting later interventions or restoration. At San Andrés de Pachama church in Chile, researchers combined micro-Raman with SEM–EDS, FTIR-ATR, XRD, GC–MS, and HPLC-DAD; preliminary handheld XRF measurements helped guide microsample selection. The Bolivian church study and the Pachama study are examples of analytical practice, not direct evidence for the sculpture pigments.
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