Fig 1.
The apse mosaic of the Transfiguration scene from St. Catherine monastery in Sinai.
This very well preserved composition of the Transfiguration, shows all its motives. Note the rays of light that emerge from Christ to the other figures. Reprinted from: George H. Forsyth and Kurt Weitzmann, The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai: The Church and Fortress of Justinian; plate CIII. Under a CC BY license, with permission from: The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1973.
Fig 2.
Location map of Shivta and view of the apses of the southern church.
General view of the three apses of the southern church at Shivta (2a) (Photo: R. Linn, 2016). Map of the area of Shivta (2b).
Fig 3.
The southern apse of the southern church at Shivta.
The painting survived in the upper part of the apse. Note its fragmentary condition and its hardly visible colors and iconography (Photo: R. Linn, 2016). Details of the painting include: 3a: The figure on the left of Christ. 3b: The face of Christ. 3c: The upper head of Peter. 3d: The entire figure of John (note the white star that indicates where sample no. Sh-3 was taken from).
Fig 4.
Instrumental analysis results.
a: Micrograph of a cross-section of sample Sh-3 that was taken from the back of John, showing the Egyptian blue particles as a lower paint layer below two other paint layers–yellow in the middle and pink as the upper paint layer. This area looks pink to the observer (see Fig 3D) (Photo: R. Linn, 2016). b: Raman spectrum of Egyptian blue with peaks at 431, 573, 788 and 1089 cm-1.
Fig 5.
VIL image of the lower right part of the Transfiguration wall painting.
The image shows the intense emission of areas painted with Egyptian blue, which appear in very bright white (Photo: R. Linn, 2016).
Fig 6.
VIL image of the southern apse and the painted area.
The VIL imaging of the upper part of the apse reveals very substantial details that are invisible to the naked eye and have never been detected before. The numbers indicate the rays of light. The stone blocks contour was added in order to give a better orientation where the rays and figures are located in the apse (Photo: R. Linn, 2016).
Table 1.
Description of the rays of light.
Fig 7.
Superimposed VIL images and regular photographs of Peter (a) and John (b). Significant elements which were revealed for the first time by the VIL imaging are combined together with the lines and colors of the regular photography, showing their actual location in each figure. Note the use of Egyptian blue to depict Peter's hair and the complete light ray that enters John's body (Photo: R. Linn, 2016).
Fig 8.
Superimposed image of the southern apse.
This image shows a photograph of the entire painting combined with the VIL image with emphasized digital reconstruction of the outlines of the figures and the motifs. This combined image shows for the first time the invisible and visible details together and reveals the original composition of the scene (Photo: R. Linn, 2016).
Table 2.
Location of Egyptian blue in the figures of the Transfiguration at Shivta and its significance.