EN
New analytical methods, especially in the field of physics and chemistry, can be applied successfully for the needs of the conservation of artworks. Neutron autoradiography, spectral emission analysis or gas chromatography, combined with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), proved to be very useful in examining the structure of paintings. Yet another interesting issue are the new methods of studying the binder of the painted stratum and the priming ground. The identification of the binders is essential, since it is precisely they which are decisive for the painting technique and exert an impact on the manner of painting, the plastic expression of the entire work and often its state of preservation. Their identification is of great help while making decisions concerning conservation. The conservation of the Victorious Madonna from Mariampol — Bolognese school from the sixteenth /seventeenth century — entailed the use of gas chromatography with gas spectrometry (GC-MS) — the first such occasion in Poland. The results of the identification of the binders, illustrated on an enclosed map, proved to be very interesting and highly untypical. The emulsion is composed of a wheat germ and nut oil mixture. The filling is chalk with a small addition of plaster, lead white, and orange and yellow iron compounds. The variety of the binders is the consequence of an evolutionary transformation of tempera painting into oil painting. The untypical binder of the priming ground comprises probably the legacy of old traditions adapted from Oriental art, that could have been cultivated in particular painting studios associated with Venice, which in its past had close contacts with Byzantium. This was the type of binder used by artists in Greece, Serbia and Russia. The presented sketch draws attention to the role of the new analysis, especially the GC-MS techniques, which guarantee great precision of the obtained results, at the same time compelling the conservators-researchers to continue expanding their technological knowledge.