XRF mapping of painting reconstruction, inspired by Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring"

This dataset contains the XRF mapping of painting reconstruction, inspired by Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” produced in the Microchemistry and Microscopy Art Diagnostic Laboratory (M2ADL) of the University of Bologna (2018). The painting was obtained by applying pigments mixed with linseed oil on a commercial canvas. Pigments were selected considering their elemental signals detectable by XRF spectroscopy. In a more detail, azurite (Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2) was used for the creation of the veil, lead white ((PbCO3)2·Pb(OH)2) for the flesh tone and vermilion (HgS) for the lips. The XRF map was collected with the micro-XRF portable spectrometer (ELIO) produced by BRUKER. The XRF system is equipped with a rhodium-target X-ray tube. The voltage range is between 10 and 50 kV, and the anode current range is between 5 and 200 μA. The X-ray fluorescence is revealed by a Peltier-cooled silicon drift detector (SDD) with CUBE technology, with an active area of 50 mm2. The typical energy resolution for Mn-Kα radiation is <140 eV. A motorized XY stage is mounted on a tripod for mapping analysis with a total travel of 100 mm x 100 mm. The collimator used for the analysis was of 0.5 mm.