Surface characterisation techniques in the study and conservation of art and archaeological artefacts: A review

The science of colour characterisation and measurement, i.e. colorimetry, had a notable growth in the last ten years in CH behaviour. Nowadays quite every museum or restoration lab, has his own colorimeter or portable spectrophotometer to measure colour objectively. This is mainly due to an increase of scientific analysis in the field of conservation and exhibition and also to the development of portable instruments at low prices. Unfortunately there is a lack in measurement methodologies, measurement uncertainty evaluation and set-up. Due to the wide range of application and materials to define the best color measurement system and methodology for all CH applications is not possible, but for every single application and wanted accuracy is possible to identify the best ones and what is better to avoid. In this paper we consider different applications based on different measurement methodologies and instrumentations.