PRIMERS OF MODERN RUSSIAN ARTISTS: COMPOSITION, STRUCTURE AND DATING.

The article presents an overview of the results of a study of primers of more than 200 paintings by modern Russian artists who worked at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. To identify the composition, microsamples of the primers were examined by means of analytical methods, such as polarizing microscopy (PLM), scanning electron microscopy with energydispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and μ-FTIR spectroscopy. Also, cross-sections were prepared for the investigation of the paint layer structure. Both commercial primers and primers made by the artists are considered with an emphasis on their technological characteristics. The study revealed some unique features that can be used as a reliable sign in the determinination of the time of paintings creation. The study revealed that the presence of a mixture of chalk and gypsum/plaster of Paris in the ground is a significant sign that a painting was executed in the first third of the 20th century. Another type of ground that is characteristic of modern Russian artists is commercially prepared two-layer white primers with various compositions of the bottom and upper layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]