The figure statuettes in the terracotta of this restoration and study consist of a collection of around 120 artifacts in the exposition of room VII of the Gregorian Egyptian Museum.

Most of these artifacts preserve important traces of polychrome decoration. For this reason, in recent months, the Cabinet of Scientific Research of the Vatican Museums has begun an appropriate campaign aimed at the characteristics of the preparatory layers of the color white (laid on the surface of the ceramic body) and of the polychrome pigments, found as color variations in the shades of the ochre, red, pink, black and green. In particular, restorers found pigments based on Egyptian figurative details from the use of lacquer. 

Research has been deepened in the current study of the ceramic body, which is a composition of clays. Fundamental data will identify the areas of manufacture and production of these artifacts from ancient Egypt and the Near East. The study will be carried by collecting analysis and data. Once appropriately selected and verified, the artifacts will be subject to treatment. The conservative restoration has not started yet because restorers are waiting for the results of the technical-scientific investigation campaign. Only a few specimens had a delicate removal of the superficial dust, which restorers carried out to optimize the investigation operations. For each statuette, detailed cards are being compiled to collect and compare all the data and observations obtained during the research and restoration work. Specifically, to date, this documentation includes the in-depth study of the techniques used to create the statuette, the preparatory layers of color, the type of polychromy, and the results of the first diagnostic investigations. In collaboration with the Scientific Laboratory and addressing the conservation of the artifacts, the identification or innovative formulation of a product that can be safely used on the statuettes is being studied. 

The restoration work involved a group of figurative terracotta figurines, preserved in the Gregorian Egyptian Museum of the Vatican Museums and dated from the Ptolemaic and Coptic periods (III B.C. - VI A.D.). The state of preservation of these artifacts was very diverse, mainly due to the presence or absence of polychrome decorations and the inadequate reconstructions from recent times. For every specimen, even those that appear without color traces, the restoration intervention included monitoring of he operations by observation under an optical microscope. The principal objective was to remove the materials of previous conservative interventions, such as works of modern damaging materials (pins, adhesives, and stuccos), to treat the forms of alteration of the colors and earthenware mixtures, to clean and consolidate the traces of decoration, and to document and study the construction technique and painting technique together with the identification of the pigments. Among the peculiarities of this collection, a great number of examples belonging to the category of the “Grottesche” revealed the use of colors including lacquer-based colors, used mostly for the preparation of the pink tonality in the complexions. In addition, there are numerous figurines with traces of white for preparing the terracotta surfaces for pictorial decoration, which have been lost in many specimens. In collaboration with the Scientific Research Laboratory, restorers analyzed the pigments used for the pictorial decoration. They detected most of the colors, although present in traces and imperceptible to the naked eye, have been documented and analyzed for their recognition.