Identification of the materials and pigments used in the rooms of the Dormiani- home (from the Qajar dynasty)

During the Qajar period, due to the influence of European artists, the method of oil painting became very popular in Iran, where this trend was common not only on cloth canvases but also on decoration of the walls of buildings. The western art influenced not only the use of materials, but also the method of execution and even the type of designs, and led to the blending of Western artistic methods with Iranian ones. During the Qajar period, various designs were used to decorate the walls, and traditional and western colors were used, sometimes in combination or separately, to paint the designs. According to the researches, the most used colors in the Qajar period are: lead white, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, huntite, barium sulfate, zinc oxide, ochre, amber, arsenic, orpiment, vermilion, lead chromate, green Silo, azurite, ultramarine, Prussian blue, malachite, chrome, cerulean, carmine, brass (copper & zinc), silver, gold, ivory for black Etc. Sadat-i-Dormianichr('39')s house is one of the unknown traditional buildings belongs to Qajar era located in the Bid-Abad neighborhood of the Mosque of Isfahan Masjid Seyyed. This building has been registered as one of the national monuments of Iran on August 22, 2005, by No. 13013. The total area of this house is about 900 square meters, where it has now been converted to a hotel, called Sohrevardi. This traditional hotel contains beautiful decorations such as stucco decoration, mirror work, and murals. In this research, the importance of the some principles utilized in order to performing the walls like drawn patterns, the techniques and materials have been considered and finally, the obtained results was compared with the materials used in other Qajar paintings. Due to the fact that most of the colors applied in these decorations are gold, red, blue, and green, and considering the principle of the minimum interference, a very small amount of material containing the above-mentioned colors were sampled. The samples were named with codes like B1 (golden color), B2 (red color), B3 (blue color), and B4 (green color). Laboratory analysis methods have been utilized to identify the color of substrate, the pigments, the coating, and the protective coating. The characterization have been fulfilled by, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) for detecting organic matter, scanning electron microscope equipped with X-ray diffraction (SEM-EDS) to detect mineral elements and compounds and finally, the optical microscopy (OM) to realize and analyze materials and pigments. Based on the obtained results, the combination of huntite (Mg3Ca(CO3)4) and gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) has been utilized as the substrate of paints. Huntit has been used from the past to the present both as a white color and as a substrate for paintings. The applied colors were inorganic and the motifs were executed with an oil technique. The pigments used in the decoration of the building are golden powdered brass (copper and zinc), red lead with the chemical formula (Pb3O4), Prussian blue with the chemical formula (Fe4(Fe⦋CN⦌6)3), and green which was a combination of Prussian blue and green-earth (silo) with chemical formula (K⦋Al3+, Fe3+) (Fe2+, Mg2+)⦌(AlSi3, Si4)O10(OH)2). White lead with the chemical formula (2PbCO3.Pb(OH)2) has also been used to create color tones. Moreover, it was identified that a kind of protein applied to the pigment composition. It should be noted that all materials and pigments identified in this study are consistent with the materials applied in other murals of the Qajar-related buildings and architectures (in Iran).