Development of Highly Sensitive Techniques of Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopy and Their Application for Cultural Heritage Studies

Techniques developed at the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus for increasing the sensitivity of atomic and molecular spectroscopy in studies of microsamples taken from paintings (more than 200 artworks) are reviewed. A microscopic sample of a paint layer from the painting "The Birth of Venus" studied using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and surface enhanced Raman scattering is presented as an example of the multi-analytical approach. The results of the study allow one to conclude that the work was created in the glue tempera technique. Chrome orange, lithopone, and iron oxide pigments (like red or yellow ochers, for example) were identified. This determined that the artwork could have been created no earlier than the last quarter of the 19th century.