Department of Conservation and Restoration, FCT-UNL

REQUIMTE - Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry

office 217, tel. +351 212 948 322, ext. 11307

email: van_otero@campus.fct.unl.pt

short CV / research interests:

Currently, I am a PhD student in Conservation Science at the Department of Conservation and Restoration of the Faculty of Sciences and Tecnology of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. The subject of my PhD thesis is the study of artists' materials used in the nineteenth century, in particular, by the Portuguese painter Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso. Artists' materials are synthesised with as much historical accuracy as possible and are studied by a multi-analytical approach, including x-ray fluorescence, x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, high-performance liquid chromatography, microspectrofluorimetry, UV-Vis, Raman and infrared spectroscopy. The scope of this work is to offer historically accurate reference materials that may be used on photodegradation studies contributing to a better knowledge of the artists' materials and also help to assess the original appearance of a painting. This work is integrated in the multidisciplinary project "Crossing-Borders: History, Materials and Techniques of Portuguese painters (1850-1918): Romanticism, Naturalism and Modernism” (PTDC/EAT-EAT/113612/2009).

In 2007, I got my bachelor degree in Technological Chemistry, a four years degree course, by the Faculty of Sciences of the Universidade de Lisboa) and in 2010, I got my master degree in Conservation Science, a two years degree course, by the Faculty of Sciences and Tecnology of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

5 selected publications:

Melo, M. J., Otero, V., Vitorino, T., Araújo, R., Murallha, V.S.F., Lemos, A. Picollo, M. A Spectroscopic Study of Brazilwood Paints in Medieval Books of Hours, App Spec. 2014, 68(4).

Frias, J. P. G. L., Otero, V., Sobral, P. Evidence of microplastics in samples of zooplankton fromPortuguese coastal waters. Mar Environ Res. 2014, 95, 89‑95. 

Otero, V., Carlyle, L., Vilarigues, M., Melo, M. J. Chrome yellow in nineteenth century art: historical reconstructions of an artists' pigment. RSC Adv. 2012, 2(5), 1798-1805.

Carlyle, L., Alves, P., Otero, V., Melo, M. J., Vilarigues, M. A question of scale and terminology, extrapolating from past practices in commercial manufacture to current laboratory experience: The Winsor & Newton 19th century artists' materials archive database. Preprints from the 16^th ICOM-CC Triennial Conference, Lisbon, 2011, ed. Bridgland J. et al. Paper 0102.

Chiavari, G., Montalbani, S., Otero V. Characterisation of varnishes used in violins by pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom. 2008, 22, 3711–3718.