Indoor environmental monitoring of colour changes of tempera-painted dosimeters

The monitoring and control of environmental parameters play an important role in minimising the decay of works of art. The use of sensors that reproduce the pictorial structure of paintings as closely as possible can help in evaluating the effect induced on works of art by the "global" indoor environment. These sensors, which are made with specific pigments and dyes, were aged under different conditions in ageing chambers. Subsequently, a reduced set of the most sensitive sensors was used to prepare a dosimeter panel thath was placed in the Uffizi Gallery. The comparison between the natural and artificial ageing sensors provided information on the alteration processes induced by environmental factors