Special Session 16

A challenging but decisive task for researchers in the field of Cultural Heritage is often the study of coated surfaces of historical manufactured products. Most artworks, such as paintings, frescoes, statues, and musical instruments, present a complex multi-layered overlapped structure and a different multi-material composition made by original and restoration materials in a unique coating system, such as protectives, adhesives, consolidants, and dirt deposits. The development of diagnostic techniques and new non- and micro-invasive analytical approaches has allowed researchers to obtain a more precise characterization of the materials and their distribution in a stratigraphic sequence, with the main aim to recognize the presence of both original and conservation layers variously spread and overlapped on the surface.
A special issue of Coatings Journal (www.mdpi.com) could be linked to this special session to allow researchers to publish the works presented at Metroarchaeo 2022 congress with discounts. The deadline is currently scheduled for November 30 but will be postponed until late February 2023.

Giacomo Fiocco, is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Research Coordinator at the Arvedi Laboratory of Non-invasive Diagnostics of the University of Pavia. He graduated in 2015 in Science and Technology for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage at the University of Turin, and he completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Materials Sciences at the same university in 2021. He specializes in non- and micro-invasive spectroscopic techniques for the study of cultural heritage materials, with a particular focus on the characterization of the materials of musical instruments. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the Associazione Nazionale degli Esperti di Diagnostica e di Tecnologie applicate ai Beni Culturali (ANEDbc) and an ordinary member of the Società di Chimica Italiana (SCI) and Associazione Italiana di Archeometria (AIAr).

Marco Malagodi, who graduated in Chemistry, is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Pavia in the Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage and Scientific Head of the Arvedi Laboratory of Non-invasive Diagnostics for historical musical instruments. The main areas of research focus are the characterization of wood artworks, cleaning procedures, consolidation and protection products, and the use of the main micro-invasive and non-invasive techniques for materials characterization. He is a permanent member of the Scientific Commitment of the Museum of Violin in Cremona. The main research activities are related to the chemical area and concern the study of natural and synthetic products, normally used during the restoration of cultural heritage. He has carried out different campaigns of microclimatic conditions for the proper conservation of works of art, such as wood, paper, and stone.