Course: Reflectance Spectroscopy (RS)

In the analysis of polychrome artworks, among the techniques available in a portable version, Reflectance Spectroscopy (RS) has been established as a powerful one for the identification of pigments. The peculiar advantage of this method with respect to the other spectroscopies most commonly used, such as XRF and Raman, is that the RS equipment can be assembled with relatively low-cost components. Reflectance Spectroscopy shows, for each wavelength, the ratio between the intensity of the reflected light and the incident light, measured with respect to a standard white reference (reflectance). The reflectance spectra provide information useful for the identification of pigments.

This course will introduce Reflectance Spectroscopy, specifically for Art examination. We’ll use Gorgias, our Reflectance Spectrometer. Students, who purchased our Gorgias, can use this course as a step-by-step guide for its use.

Course Content

Video Lessons

Presentations

PDFs, Spectral Database, and software

Reflectance Spectroscopy – Equipment