Doria repository: new data and technical details in the lighr of the actual conservation project

Abstract

In this paper, the preliminary results of a wide multidisciplinary research on the Doria repository will be presented. Careful study of the artefact was possible thanks to the conservation work, still in progress. Doria repository is an important artistical and historical testimony of the 16th century sacred jewellery. The object clearly shows insertions and modifications made during the centuries but not documented. Religious jewellery was often restored by removing or substituting parts without documenting such interventions. In order to reconstruct the original appearance of the repository and to understand the chronology of the interventions on it, a technological and scientific investigation was performed by close observation during the disassembly and by analysis methods such as X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.