Reports on the observations made on samples from five Italian paintings (13th to 6th century) using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Previous studies of paint samples using differential thermal analysis (DTA) have demonstrated that the resulting curves are sensitive to the age of the sample, its chemical composition, and the type of white pigment used. DSC provides a direct measure of the heat evolved during an exothermic reaction and so it can be used to quantify the effects previously observed using DTA.