2025 Poster Session

The Monastery of Saint George for Nuns in Old Cairo is a historic Coptic Christian monastery located in the heart of Old Cairo, Egypt. The monastery houses numerous ancient artifacts and religious relics that offer invaluable insights into Coptic art and culture. One of the monastery's most valuable possessions is the Icon, a diptych depicting the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ in the upper panel and the martyr Saint George in the lower panel. A comprehensive analytical study has been conducted on a 19th-century icon (Anastasius Roman School). The icon's structure comprises four layers: a wooden panel, a gesso layer, a single paint layer, remnants of a gilding layer, and a varnish layer. Notably, a canvas layer was absent.

An optical microscope (OM) was used to determine, the wood panel and to elucidate the icon's layered structure, the media of pigments and protective varnish was determined by (FTIR) analysis, (and XRD) was employed to identify the pigments, paint, and preparation layer. As well as (SEM-EDX) analysis provided information about the elemental composition of the various materials. The analysis revealed that the pigments used in this icon comprise. Green pigments are a Mixture of yellow and blue, and red color is a mix of (Pb3O4) and vermilion (HgS), yellow ochre (Fe2O3·H2O), Ultramarine blue, white lead (2PbCO3·Pb (OH)2). The white ground layer comprises calcium sulfate dihydrate admixed with animal glue, lamp black (C), The wooden panel was found to be made of spruce. The protective varnish applied is found to be shellac resin. Environmental factors and the absence of canvas contributed to accelerated oxidation, manifested as paint film cracking, delamination, and varnish yellowing. This study underscores the importance of environmental control and proper substrate selection for icon preservation

Key Words: paint layer -  Pigments- varnish- wooden panel -yellowing- environmental control- Degradation.