MORTAR ANALYSIS OF WALL PAINTING AT AMFISSA CATHEDRAL FOR CONSERVATION – RESTORATION PURPOSES

Contemporary artist Spyros Papaloukas in 1932 undertook a major artistic venture, the painting of the interior murals of the Amfissa Cathedral (Church of the Annunciation) a cross-domed church built in 1868 on the ruins of an early Christian basilica. In this 1000 sq monumental work, Papaloukas, even though he follows the strictly established rules of Byzantine ecclesiastical art, he dares to attempt a new approach to the aesthetic merits of Byzantine iconography by introducing elements of the post- Impressionists, the Fauves and the Nabis. Following our earlier work of spectroscopy of mural paintings in this Cathedral, here we present the analysis of ten mortar wall samples regarding granulometry and mineralogy, by XRD, SEM, as well as, a study of resistance-breaking and the level of mechanical strength was determined by comparing the diagrams of power – displacement, where the compressive strength of mortars ranged between 0.5-0.8MPa.