Controlling daylight illumination in cultural heritage buildings by using thin-film and thermographic technologies

摘要

There are many master pieces of the cultural heritage which can't be correctly contemplated if daylight is not part of the exhibition environment, since they were made with the sun light as essential element of them. The Portico de la Gloria and the Cloister and paintings of Santa Maria de El Paular monastery are ones of these cases. The Portico de la Gloria (Gate of the Glory) is probably the most relevant masterpiece of the Santiago de Compostela cathedral. It is located at the narthex of the west gate. It is a masterwork of Romanesque sculpture built between 1168 and 1188 by Master Mateo. During the ⅩⅧ century a new Baroque facade was placed in front of it replacing the middle ages wall. Daylight entering through the windows of the facade makes possible to see the art work but the sun can generate serious problems since it heats the stone and evaporates the humidity. Thermal imagers have been used to test the thermal performance of the antireflection treatment located in the windows in the actual temperature of the stone sculptures. The cloister of the monastery of Santa Maria de El Paular, housed until the confiscation of 1835 a collection of 54 paintings of Vincente Carducho called Carthusian series. When in 2006 the restoration of the 52 still preserved paintings was completed, began a refurbishment of the cloister to return the paintings to their original place. We conducted a study of the incidence of the Sun in the cloister and how to avoid direct sunlight on Carducho's paintings.