Resumen de One small corner of the Viceroyalty in South Kensington: barniz de Pasto at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Nick Humphrey, Lucia Burgio, Dana Melchar
Since 2015 the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has been studying six wooden artefacts decorated with barniz de Pasto: a table cabinet, a small casket, three small gourds with silver fittings, and a platter. These represent the first identified pieces displaying this technique in a UK public collection. Barniz de Pasto was developed in the Viceroyalty of Peru and uses a plant resin known locally as mopa mopa, processed, dyed and skilfully handled, to decorate a wide range of object types made of wood. Various analytical techniques were used for material identification: microscopic wood identification, X-radiography, optical microscopy, Raman microscopy, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Py-GC-MS and micro-CT (X-ray micro computed tomography). Mercury chloride (calomel) was documented as an artists’ white pigment, a world-first. A non-original, discoloured natural varnish was successfully removed from a barniz surface
