Abstract

This interdisciplinary study was realized with the participation of different scientists from various disciplines: chemistry, conservation, art history and archaeology. All the specialists contributed in different aspects related to the aim of the project which included the iconographic and stylistic analysis of the visual representation, its historical and cultural contextualization, and the microscopic and physical-chemical characterization of the materials in the wall paintings of four churches on the Ruta de la Plata, Bolivia. This comprehensive approach was realized for the irst time in the South Central Andean region with specialists from different countries: Bolivia, Chile and Argentina to exchange different experiences, but also knowledge of the painting practices during the colonial period. Materiality of visual art representation from the 16th-17th centuries exhibits a particular complexity related to the combination of practices and knowledge from the old world, mixed with European art traditions, including that from the local indigenous peoples of the Andean region. Bringing together all these different elements, obliges us to discuss, from an interdisciplinary approach, all physical-chemistry results obtained from the spectroscopic analysis to fully understand the original painting process employed inside the churches and possible later interventions, which were not always recorded, performed in the past.