Experimental confirmation by Raman spectroscopy of a PbSnSb triple oxide yellow pigment in sixteenth‐century Italian pottery

The sixteenth and seventeenth‐century Venetian manuscripts on glassmaking contain a number of recipes on yellow pigment production, later named ‘ anime ’, based on PbSn and/or PbSb oxides. Since antiquity, these oxides have been employed intermittently as opacifying and colouring agents to obtain coloured glasses, enamels and pigments. In 1998, different laboratories provided evidence of the existence of a ‘non‐standardized’ yellow pigment (PbSnSb triple oxide) very close in composition and structure to both the PbSn type II (silicoestannate) and PbSb (antimonate) oxides. This PbSnSb yellow pigment was identified by SEM‐EDX in seventeenth‐century Italian paintings. In previous studies, the authors of the present work have investigated with Raman spectroscopy the presence of PbSnSb oxide (pyrochlore structure) in some Italian paintings of the seventeenth century, using as standard a synthesized pyrochloric triple oxide (Pb 2 SnSbO 6.5 ). In this paper, we provide evidence for the first molecular identification with Raman spectroscopy of said pigment in Italian pottery from the sixteenth century. We have identified this pigment in two pieces of decorated pottery: a ‘plate’ manufactured in Casteldurante and attributed to Andrea Negroponte style (c 1550), and a Venetian ‘albarello’ (pharmacy jar) attributed to Domenego (c 1570–1580). We have synthesized the reference compound in accordance with the theoretical formula of the pyrochloric triple oxide (Pb 2 SnSbO 6.5 ). The Raman spectra obtained with this material provided molecular information identical to the yellow pigment measured in the two Italian ceramics. To conclude, the experimental results presented here indicate one simple fact: Pb–Sn–Sb triple oxide yellow pigment has been used during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries without distinction both in Italian ceramics and paintings. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.