Three dimensional survey of paint layer profile measurements

The quantitative morphological analysis of a painting surface allows to evidence form defects and thus to study their influence on the stability of the paint and preparatory layers, as well as on the support. Therefore a three-dimensional survey can be very useful in planning the restoration intervention of a painting. In this work we present the results of the surface analysis carried out on the painting "Ultima Cena" by Giorgio Vasari. This panel painting is severely affected by paint film wrinkling produced as a consequence of the flood that occurred in Florence in 1966. Our analysis, accomplished to quantify the lengthening of the paint layer with respect to the one of the support, was made in order to plan the restoration intervention, which was performed on 25 profiles separated each by 10 cm to cover the whole painting surface. A data analysis, based on morphological filtering named "Rolling Ball" transformation, was used to evaluate the length difference between the paint layer and the panel support along each profile