Alterations of materials and of meaning in an early 16th C. Upper Rhenish devotional manuscript

Abstract This early 16th C. devotional paper manuscript from Germany contains a pasted-in, hand colored image on parchment that presents the face of Christ in an unusual palette of black and dark gray. Quite unlike any of the other pasted-in illustrations in the manuscript, this small parchment icon raises questions about the original materials used and the intended meaning. Technical study revealed that the present dark appearance of Christ’s face and nimbus is a combination of material alteration (of silver leaf, now darkened) and intentional use of black and dark gray pigments to render the face. The main pigment of the face, moreover, has an unusual composition. Identifying the palette as intentional affects its interpretation, linking the pasted piece of painted parchment to traditions of pilgrimage and ‘spiritual pilgrimage’ in the context of private devotion. Mapping spectroscopy data, point analysis spectroscopy, optical microscopy, and micro-particle analysis each played a role in the integrated approach to this study.