Analytical investigation into the materiality and degradation of Japanese art materials

My PhD thesis reports on the research I conducted over the past three years, spanning different branches of heritage science. The thesis is divided into two main parts. The first focuses on the works of characterization of cultural heritage objects from diverse collections, predominantly of Japanese art. This section is designed to be cumulative, i.e. based on published manuscripts integrated in a suitable framework with contextualization. The papers were mainly devoted to the study of textiles by means of FTIR spectroscopy and SEM-EDX, with the notable exception of the characterization work performed on an American lacquered object. The second part of the thesis is a monograph on my experimental study of the light-induced degradation of silk. The ageing of the fibre was obtained using a custom-made accelerated ageing protocol, and its behaviour was assessed through a specifically designed analytical method. The protocol of analyses included FTIR spectroscopy, TGA-DSC, UV-Vis spectroscopy, colorimetry, allowing to define some indicators of the extent of the degradation. The results of the work clearly indicated which combinations of dye and mordant accelerate or slow down the rate of the light-induced degradation of the fibre.