Methodological evolutions of Raman spectroscopy in art and archaeology

During the last decades, Raman spectroscopy has grown from research laboratories to a well-established approach that is increasingly often used in archaeometry and conservation science. When looking at these research fields, some novel trends can be detected and therefore we would like to review the recent literature on the technical aspects and new evolutions of Raman spectroscopy applied to art analysis. This article reviews Raman instrumentation, with a special focus on the use of mobile and portable instruments, recent developments in the field of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and the introduction of spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) in the field of art and archaeology.