Caterina did her undergraduate studies in Technology for Conservation and Restoration, at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, focusing on the chemical analysis of cultural heritage materials. She then completed her Master’s in Science for the Conservation-Restoration of Cultural Heritage at the University of Bologna. For her thesis project, she used optical coherence tomography to evaluate the feasibility of a new green nanogel for the removal of damaged terpenic varnishes on easel paintings, at the Physics Department of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland.
Currently Caterina is a PhD student in Archaeological Science at the University of Cambridge University (UK), working under the supervision of professors Marcos Martinon-Torres and Matthew Collins at the Department of Archaeology, with Helen Strudwick and Julie Dawson from the Fitzwilliam Museum as advisors.
Her PhD project is focussed on the analysis of true plasters and other pastes on ancient Egyptian coffins, taking advantage of the collections at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and building on previous research carried out as part of the Fitzwilliam’s Egyptian Coffins Project. The core aim is to chart the evolution of techniques from the Old Kingdom until the Roman Period, and compare the information from coffins to that from plaster used elsewhere, prioritising the use of non-invasive or micro-invasive techniques such as XRF, SEM-EDS and µCT scanning.
The Fitzwilliam Museum
