Fulvio Pennacchi's fresco at the chapel of the Hospital das Clínicas da FMUSP: scientific studies for the characterization of materials and execution

Abstract

This paper is part of a research project oriented toward archeometrical studies on characteristic and artistic coats and materials employed in mural paintings, using the fresco technique and applied to buildings in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, dating from the 1940s and 1950s. Special emphasis was given to the works of artist Fulvio Pennacchi (1896- 1992). It is a multidisciplinary and interdepartmental study involving researchers from the Centro de Preservação Cultural (CPC) and the Instituto de Geociências (IGc) of the Universidade de São Paulo. To outline the methodology to be used in future analytical procedures, it was chosen as reference case study, one of Pennacchi's frescoes at the chapel of the Instituto Central of the Hospital das Clínicas of the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP) in 1946. It is called "The Annunciation of Virgin " (2,32m x 2,65m). These studies make use of documentary historical research, in situ observations and use of scientific tools of analysis for materials characterization and for identifying the different ways of making a work of art: petrographic microscopy, scanning electronic microscopy with EDS, X- ray diffraction, electronic microprobe, and the process of obtaining an ultraviolet radiation image.