Agathi Anthoula Kaminari

• Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art, PhD
• Adjunct Professor at University of West Attica

Giannoulis Halepas (1851-1938) is considered one of the most famous yet tragic sculptors in Greece. During his tumultuous life, he produced several masterpieces that are currently exhibited in galleries, museums and public places in Greece. After his death, his house in Tinos Island was declared a historic mon-ument and turned into a museum. The wa...

Today, imaging techniques are internationally on the cutting edge of non-destructive diagnostics of movable and immovable cultural heritage monuments and constitute a valuable research tool, at the service of expert scientists and professionals in the field. The aim of the book is to present, in a systematic and organized manner, the methodology of...

The Horologion of Andronikos Kyrristos, also known as The Tower of the Winds, is an astronomical, cultural and architectural masterpiece of the late Hellenistic period, located on the north side of the foot of the Acropolis hill, in Athens, Greece. Within the frame of the restoration project of the monument all the internal stone surfaces, as well...

Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) is well known for his keen interest in ancient Greece that led him in conducting major excavations such as Troy. Being a well-established tradesman, he was very meticulous in his correspondence and used the copy press procedure to maintain copies of his outbound mail. The majority of Schliemann’s copy-books are now k...

This academic textbook entitled Special Topics in 20th Century Art History, is addressed to students whose curriculum includes the course History of 20th Century Art. The textbook contains 12 chapters, which refer to artistic movements of the 20th century. Each art movement is described through a characteristic theme that engages with the artists a...

The study presents the preliminary results of the ongoing research within the European programme HORIZON-CL2-2021-HERITAGE-01: GREENART (GREen ENdeavor in Art ResToration). This program highlights the protection and conservation of the cultural heritage through a multidisciplinary approach gathering sciences and engineering by proposing new solutio...

This study examines in detail the Greek painters of the Munich School of Fine Arts (late 19th and early 20th century), with the aim of examining their painting techniques and choice of pigments, focusing on the connection between their training and their academic career. Umberto Argyros (1871-1960) stands out, influenced by his Munich studies, adop...

In this paper, a preliminary study of the painting technique of the Greek painter Thalia Flora-Karabia is presented through a non-invasive analysis of the painting "Paris". Thalia Flora-Karabia (1871-1960) was one of the most important female painters, with a significant contribution to the artistic life of Greece in the late 19th and early 20th ce...

Horologion of Andronikos Kyrristos, also known as the Tower of the Winds, is an octagonal marble building dating from the 1st century B.C., located on the Roman Agora in Athens, Greece. The monument is still in good condition today and as one of the most important masterpieces of late Hellenistic architecture. The present work refers to the applica...

The paper contributes new information about the Horologion of Andronikos Kyrristos of the Roman Agora of Athens, Greece and its continuous presence in Athens from antiquity until now. The monument is of cultural, historical and astronomical importance. It has undergone conservation work and non-destructive documentation which contribute to its sust...

Today, non-destructive testing includes diagnostic methods that provide significant information for art historians, conservators and researchers. The quick in situ application, the absence of expensive consumables, the inspection of entire surfaces and the ability for mapping make these methods attractive to users. Additionally, they provide the ad...

The Clock Tower of Andronicus Kyristos, also known as the Tower of the Winds (Aeres), is an octagonal marble building dating from the 1st century BC, located in the Roman Agora in Athens, Greece. The monument is still preserved today in good condition and as one of the most important masterpieces of late Hellenistic architecture. This paper reports...

The paper reports on the spectroscopic analysis of 105 ceramic fragments from the excavation site at Kastrouli, near Delphi, Greece. Kastrouli is a Mycenaean settlement where excavations are carried out every summer in order to promote archaeological and archaeometric expertise. Fiber Optic Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS) was used in order to study...

This paper refers to the study of the Voyatzis mansion, in the port of Aegina, Greece. The building complex consists of two discrete structures, which were built at different times (before 1830, 1880 and 1890) and have housed either the Voyatzis family home or its business and work premises. The present research is focused on the documentation of t...

The copying press method was the first widely-accepted reproduction technique for manuscripts used from the late 18th century until the early 20th century. It was based on imprinting the text written with an iron-gall copying ink on a moistened, thin, unsized tissue paper. Condition assessment of letterpress copying books is a complex matter, as va...

The aim of the present paper is to assess the effectiveness of different protocols for hyperspectral and multispectral imaging in cultural heritage studies. In particular, spectral cubes or monochromatic images in the visible and near infrared spectrum are captured, using either reflected or transmitted light, in normal or tangent illumination cond...

The question for discriminating iron gall inks is addressed by correlating their infrared (IR) spectra in liquid and dried states with the materials used in their formulations and considering their possible interactions. A series of laboratory inks were prepared according to historic recipes, mainly found in 19th-century documents, and were accordi...

In the rich bibliography related to the work of our popular painter Theophilos Hadjimichael, one can see the range of approaches concerning the historical context, the artist's personality and his life, the influences that contributed to the development of his subject matter, the integration and acceptance of his overall work in the artistic contex...

Certain types of damage and the deterioration of the paper supports have been associated with the absorption of the oil binders from the oil colours or traditional printing inks. Ultraviolet induced visible fluorescence colour photography and ultraviolet reflectance photography have for the first time been applied to artificially aged mock-ups to r...

Non-destructive documentation of artifacts is well established as a standard procedure of examination of objects before any conservation treatment and is regarded by many as a necessary burden since they urge for hands-on conservation. This can especially be the case for icons covered with dark brown varnish whose subject may be indiscernible and m...

This paper presents the physicochemical methodology, in particular the non-destructive testing and microanalysis applied to document the state of preservation of oil paintings and oil drawings on paper supports. The research focuses on the effect of the oil binder on the paper and the changes caused by the progression of deterioration, in order to...

Artists have used a vast variety of supports for painting. Among them, a range of types of papers supports have been used for oil painting techniques, even though paper and oil are considered to be an incompatible match. Evaluation of the condition of this type of works can prove to be challenging for conservators, because ageing of oil on paper is...

Apart from their use as writing inks, iron gall inks and their modifications as copy inks have widely been used until the 1920s. Copy inks were used to produce copies of outbound correspondence using the famous James Watt Copy Press method. As iron gall and copy inks are easy to produce, a wide variety of recipes exists, giving a headache to conser...

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the application of imaging techniques for the examination of oil paintings on paper. Many artists preferred to use paper not only for engravings but also for their preliminary sketches before the final version of oil paintings on a canvas. However, over time, paper has proved not to be the ideal substrate for...

The topic of this paper is the presentation of the applied methodology in the research project entitled “Oil paintings on paper support: Documentation of the state of preservation using multispectral imaging and chemical analysis. Determination of evaluation criteria - conservation treatment proposals”. The project is organised and conducted by the...

The present study refers to the non-destructive examination of the painted sides of an 18th century artoforion. Artoforion is used in the Greek Orthodox Church as a place to keep Holy Communion for emergency needs. It is placed on the Holy Altar and is also used for similar reasons by the Catholic Church under the name tabernaculum. The singulariti...

this paper outlines the evolution of non-destructive testing in the study of manuscripts. This overview starts with the time when manual SLR cameras, photographic films and huge infrared analogue tubes were the cutting edge. It arrives at current practice, in which extremely high-resolution DSLR cameras and other digital camera systems coupled with...

The present research focuses on the comparison of the quality of images taken by different digital cameras for the recording of ultraviolet fluorescence. The laboratory of Physical Chemical Methods for Diagnosis and Documentation, Department for Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art, TEI of Athens (TEI), in cooperation with the laboratory of...

This paper refers to the study of an ancient papyrus, dated ca. 420/430 BC, found in 1981 during an excavation at Daphne, Athens, Greece, using multispectral imaging combined with image processing analysis. It was assumed that the papyrus contained ancient Greek musical notation but the condition of the object hindered the drawing of any conclusion...

Abstract A selection of the findings of Tombs I and II was examined using non-invasive multispectral imaging in visible and near-infrared radiation. This led to increased legibility of the text for several fragments of papyrus including underlayers, better distinction of script on tablets and better visualization of the drawings and pigment differe...

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the substantial help that non-destructive methodology can provide in deciphering text and sketches no matter what the writing substrate is. The most important cases in the evolution of non-destructive testing are breefely presented to conclude in how multispectral imaging assisted by image processing helped in...

The copy press was used between 1780 and 1920 to provide copies mainly of handwritten documents. The method is based on iron gall ink penetrating a moist, light weight, semi-transparent paper after that paper is heavily pressed in contact with the original document. Copies would be expected to show the same deterioration as the original documents....

This paper deals with the non-destructive documentation of the copy letters of the Schliemann archive (outgoing correspondence from 1845 to1890) belonging to the Gennadious Library in the School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece. A selection of pages has been examined in ultraviolet reflection and fluorescence conditions, as well as in the nea...

The wooden canopic chest is an artefact that belongs to the collection of the Archaeological Museum of Samos. It was never part of the museum's exhibition, but instead was kept for a long time in the museum's storage area. Due to inappropriate preservation conditions, the wooden box suffered extensive damage, mainly related to the destruction cause...

This chapter documents the results of a recent study of the late fifteenth century icon of St.George by Angelos, which belongs to the Benaki Museum's collection. The research included information on the underdrawing, the pigments used and their mixtures, on ssuccessive paint layers, and indentifying special characteristics in the painting technique...

Research on commercially available coatings with Poligen ES 91009® wax and additional corrosion inhibitors (CI) to improve protective coatings is being tested using a systematic methodology on iron specimens. Tests include accelerated ageing of coated and uncoated specimens in a climate chamber, electrochemical measurements using polarization resis...

This article describes the evaluation of the performance of environmentally friendly coatings and coating systems (such as corrosion inhibitors additives) for the protection of museum objects made of copper and iron alloys. The protective performance of the six best performing systems was tested on corroded copper and iron alloy specimens. For thei...

Το παρόν άρθρο αφορά στην πειραματική εφαρμογή της μεθόδου αντιγραφής με πρέσσα του James Watt, με σκοπό την ερμηνεία των μορφολογικών χαρακτηριστικών των αυθεντικών αντιγράφων αλληλογραφίας τα οποία μελετήθηκαν με μη καταστρεπτικές τεχνικές. Το βασικό αντικείμενο των πειραμάτων ήταν η λήψη αντιγράφων με χρήση υλικών, εξοπλισμού και διαφορετικών με...

Το άρθρο αυτό αφορά στην τεκμηρίωση των αντιγράφων αλληλογραφίας του αρχέιου σλήμαν που ανήκει στη Γεννάδειο Βιβλιοθήκη, Αθήνα, Ελλάδα. Επιλεγμένες σελίδες μελετήθηκαν σε συνθήκες υπεριώδους ανάκλασης και φθορισμού και στην εγγύς υπέρυθρη περιοχή με χρήση τεχνικών υπέρυθρης ανακλαστογραφίας σε κανονική και μάκρο μορφή τόσο στην εμπρός (recto) όσο κ...

Το άρθρο αυτό συζητά την μέθοδο αντιγραφής του James Watt για τα χειρόγραφα και τα βιβλία αντιγραφής, βάσει της τρέχουσας βιβλιογραφίας και μιας έρευνας σε ιδιωτικά και δημόσια αρχεία της Ελλάδας. Τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας παρείχαν διαφωτιστικές πληροφορίες για τα βιβλία αντιγραφής, την έκταση της χρήσης τους, την κτήση και την κατασκευή τους. Η...

This is the first study on scalar properties of an aged resin film. The present work is concentrated in using the laser ablation as a means of studying the scalar characteristics of various spectral properties that are related to the degree of aging. It is shown that the observed trend has an exponential dependence on the distance from the surface,...

This is the first study on sclar properties of an aged resin film. the prsent work is concentrated in using the laser ablation as a means of studying the scalar characteristics of various spectral properties that are related to the degree of aging. It is shown that the observed trend has an exponential dependence on the distance from the surface, w...

Laser ablation of polymerized material, such as varnishes, with a near-ultraviolet pulse has attracted the attention of many researchers because of the potential that this technique can offer in the cleaning of artworks. In the last ten years, the parameters that affect the interaction of surfaces with laser pulsed light have been largely understoo...