Painting and Mortars from Villa Adriana, Tivoli (Rome, Italy)

Villa Adriana is a Roman building dating back to 117-138 AD. The emperor Hadrian built this construction which is characterised by numerous buildings of different uses: pavilions, gardens and nymphaeums. In our work we aimed to identify the materials used both in pigments and in mortars (binders and aggregates). Attenuated Total Reflection (ATR) infrared spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) have been used to study the pigments, which have been classified as inorganic. Expensive pigments, such as Egyptian blue and cinnabar have been used. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), observations by polarizing microscopy and ATR-FTIR analyses have been used to study mortars, which have been divided in two fractions: binder and aggregate, after an acidic digestion. The material used to prepare the fresco preparation layers is a local aggregate of volcanic origin coming from the Alban Hills, while the carbonatic binders come from a different area in Abruzzese.