16. Painted Roman Wood Shields from Dura-Europos

On Friday, January 18, 1935, Clark Hopkins, field director of excavation at Dura-Europos, in present-day Syria, wrote in his notes: “Just after breakfast, three painted shields were found one right a top of the other…. Herb and I spent all morning removing them. Most of the wood was strong enough to move easily and much of the painting is visible.”

Now in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG), these three shields—dated to shortly before AD 256, when Dura-Europos was sacked by Sassanians and abandoned—were quickly recognized as rare examples of painting on wood from antiquity. They depict scenes of the Trojan War from the Iliad (fig. 16.1): the battle between the Greeks and the Amazons, and a warrior god.

Shield Painted with Two Scenes from the Iliad, Greco-Roman or Parthian, mid-third century AD. Dura-Europos, Syria. Pine planks and pigment. New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, 1935.551.
Figure 16.1
Shield Painted with Two Scenes from the Iliad, Greco-Roman or Parthian, mid-third century AD. Dura-Europos, Syria. Pine planks and pigment. New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, 1935.551. Image: Yale University Art Gallery

Constructed of multiple thin slats of wood joined along the long edges and painted, the oval shields—all approximately four feet high by three feet wide—were cleaned in the field after excavation and with polyvinyl acetate by the expedition artist Herbert (Herb) Gute. He also painted faithful watercolor reproductions (also now in YUAG’s collection; fig. 16.2) of the shields’ imagery. Enthusiasm for the discovery prompted an official press release from Yale University in 1935 and publications of Gute’s watercolors in the Illustrated London News in 1935 and Fortune in 1936.

Herbert J. Gute (American, 1908–1977), Wooden Shield Painted with Scenes from the Trojan War, commissioned by Yale University, 1935 or 1936. Watercolor on paper, 79.9 x 64.9 cm (31 7/16 x 25 9/16 in.). New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, 1936.127.26.
Figure 16.2
Herbert J. Gute (American, 1908–1977), Wooden Shield Painted with Scenes from the Trojan War, commissioned by Yale University, 1935 or 1936. Watercolor on paper, 79.9 x 64.9 cm (31 7/16 x 25 9/16 in.). New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, 1936.127.26. Image: Yale University Art Gallery

When the shields were brought to Yale University in 1935, conservator George Stout and scientist Rutherford Gettens from the Harvard University Fogg Art Museum analyzed them and produced a comprehensive report. Also at that time, Yale School of Forestry professor Samuel Record investigated the wood and identified it as pine. There was, however, little further comprehensive study or conservation treatment of the works until 2011, when the warrior god shield was conserved for display at YUAG.

The shields were fragile at the time of excavation and have only deteriorated in the eighty-five years since. The scenes are obscured by dirt and shiny, discolored polyvinyl acetate; the paint is lifting and tenting; and the wood substrate has buckled and warped. Though outliers in the APPEAR project in both place of origin and type of object, these shields serve as opportunities to examine similarities and differences in techniques and materials across regions. Since it was examined in 2011, the Trojan War shield has been the subject of an ongoing collaborative research project among conservators, conservation scientists, and curators at Yale.

Based on analysis with , , , , and , the painted surface appears to include ; calcium-based whites including and chalk; ; ; organic red (likely rose ); vermilion; ; and red and yellow .

A cross section (fig. 16.3) was taken from the edge of a plank and analyzed with FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, and SEM-EDS. The results are as follows:

4 – A thin reddish preparatory layer, composed of vermilion, small quantities of lead white, and rose madder on a gypsum substrate, in a matrix of aluminosilicates; likely rose madder, based on strong orange UVF.

3 – Pink layer, containing an organic red dye precipitated on a gypsum substrate, in a matrix of aluminosilicates.

2 – S-twist bast fiber, possibly .

1 – A layer of white , likely chalk, in a matrix of aluminosilicates with S-twist bast fibers mixed in.

Cross section removed from the edge of a wood slat: in visible light (above) and exhibiting UVF (below).
Figure 16.3
Cross section removed from the edge of a wood slat: in visible light (above) and exhibiting UVF (below). Image: Yale University Art Gallery

Of particular interest to our study is the identification of the paint’s . Visual analysis of the uppermost painted surface indicates the application of paint. Gettens and Stout analyzed flakes of the paint film in a microchemical study. Although they did not arrive at a definite conclusion, they observed the presence of nitrogen and phosphorous, indicating an organic medium of either egg or casein; they were inclined to believe that the substance was casein.

In our study, surface scrapings of paint layers and residual glue on the edge of the wood slats were analyzed with FTIR and . FTIR detected proteins in the glue sample, which indicates that was used to join the slats; however, both FTIR and GC/MS identified wax as the binding medium of the paint layers. Proteins were not detected in the paint samples.

Dr. Brandon Gassaway of the Rinehart Lab in the Department of Cellular & Molecular Physiology and the Systems Biology Institute at Yale analyzed surface scrapings of paint layers and glue from the edge of wood slats with mass spectrometry–based proteomics. In both samples, casein, β-lactoglobulin, and serum albumin were found, attesting to the presence of bovine milk.

Joy Mazurek at the Getty Conservation Institute also studied GC/MS scrapings of a blue paint layer and red preparation layer. Proteins, likely animal glue, as well as degraded were identified. Mazurek (see this volume) believes this finding suggests that animal glue was used in the preparation layer, and that the paint layer includes a beeswax binding medium.

Cleaning and stabilization of the shields has been a priority in our project. Treatment has focused on removing surface dirt and the polyvinyl acetate, which has been reduced with 1:1 acetone and ethanol, as well as consolidating lifting paint.

Acknowledgments

Some of the analysis using SEM-EDS was carried out by Anikó Bezur, Wallace S. Wilson Director of Scientific Research, Technical Studies Laboratory, at Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. We thank Carol Snow, deputy chief conservator and Alan J. Dworsky Senior Conservator of Objects, YUAG; Ian McClure, Susan Morse Hilles Chief Conservator, YUAG; Debora Mayer, head of the paper conservation laboratory at the Weissman Preservation Center, Harvard Library, Harvard University; Brandon Gassaway and Jesse Rinehart of the Rinehart Lab in the Yale Systems Biology Institute; and Joy Mazurek, assistant scientist at the Getty Conservation Institute.