To gild Middle Ages sculptures, artists frequently applied extremely thin gold foil supported by a silver base layer.
As specified in a Phys.org report, for the first time, scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have managed to create nanoscale 3D images of this material called "Zwischgold."
Nanomaterial from the Middle Ages https://t.co/wGrTx2eRCW #nanotechnology pic.twitter.com/X53cMhqic2
— Nanowerk (@Nanowerk) October 10, 2022
The pictures reveal this was a highly sophisticated medieval production approach and revealed the reason restoring such precious gilded artifacts is quite hard.
The samples studied at the Swiss Light Source SLS using one of the most advanced microscopy approaches were extraordinary, even for the highly experienced PSI team.
Small samples of materials taken from wooden statues and alter originate from the 15th Century. Essentially, the altar is believed to have been made around 1420 in Southern Germany and stood for a long time in a mountain chapel on Alp Leiggern in the Swiss canton Valais.
