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The paper presents the results of the latest technological research on Lucas Cranach the Elder’s painting Adam and Eve from the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw. The tests were conducted using non-destructive or micro-invasive physical and chemical methods. The painting was analysed under analytical radiation within ultraviolet (UV), visible (VIS), infrared (IR) and X-ray (X-ray, CT) wavelength ranges. To examine the composition of the paint layers, the authors employed X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), reflectance Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Fourier transform infrared-attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR), gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS), liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC/MS), Raman microscopy, as well as microchemical and stratigraphic analyses. These tests enabled a highly detailed identification of the painting technique, facilitated a comparison with Lucas Cranach the Elder’s other works and provided a solid basis for a more in-depth argument regarding the painting’s creation date.
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Gierczak et al. (2025) studied this question.