China News Service, Beijing, March 29 (Reporter Ying Ni) 4.4 meters in vertical and 2.8 meters in horizontal.
Such a huge picture of "Jiang Maode's Painting of Landscapes Pasted" was "almost difficult to open" when it appeared, and it was rejuvenated by the restoration of the cultural relics of the Palace Museum.
What is different from the past is that this time, the disease analysis was carried out through modern scientific and technological detection methods such as "non-damage survey technology" and "pigment detection analysis", combined with ancient paintings and calligraphy mounting and repairing techniques for careful restoration.
The entire restoration process was called by the Vice President of the Palace Museum Zhao Guoying as "a classic example of modern cultural relics protection and display."
On the 29th, the reporter saw this post-repair post at the Forbidden City and learned about the various restoration processes.
Why is it difficult to put down protection?
Pasting is a common form of decoration in the painting and calligraphy of the inner eaves of the palace in the Qing Dynasty.
It uses paper, silk and other materials as media, and is created by famous calligraphy officials or Ruyiguan painters. The content is mainly classical poems, admonitions for governing the world, and auspicious landscapes.
When mounting, its four sides are inlaid with silk edges, directly pasted on the walls or partitions of the palace, and can be replaced at any time, so it is called pasting.
Part of the repaired "Jiang Maode's Painting of Landscapes and Pasting" Leaks Part Photographed by Sheng Jiapeng
Compared with scroll painting and calligraphy, the size of the paste is larger, the form is colorful, and the content implies auspiciousness.
It is now a distinctive display element in the original display of the Palace Museum.
Yang Zehua, head of the Painting and Calligraphy Restoration Group of the Ministry of Culture, Protection, Science and Technology of the Palace Museum, said that the restoration and protection of pasting is difficult.
One is that it is not easy to operate due to the large size of the sticker, and it tests the endurance of the repairer to reveal the heart and full color.
Moreover, the damage to the stickers is high and the injury conditions are complex, so the technical requirements for repair personnel are relatively high.
Specific to the present "Jiang Maode's Painting of Landscapes Pasted".
The cultural relic was painted by a painter of the Qing Dynasty for the decoration of the inner eaves of Fuwang Pavilion on a huge scale, with green and green color on silk, 446cm in length and 282cm in width.
Even when it was attached to the court, the size of the work is extremely impressive, but its preservation is extremely poor: before being repaired, the painting was stretched and spread in the original environment of the ancient building for a long time. After being folded several times in the longitudinal direction, it was crimped in the transverse direction, and diseases such as breakage, hollowing, warping and missing appeared.
"In a word, it can hardly be opened," Yang Zehua said.
After careful inspection, Yang Zehua and his colleagues found that the pasted spun silk had serious embrittlement, fracture, and fragmentation and displacement. This is the correct picture, spun silk reinforcement, flattening, back covering and full-color work belt during the repair Come to challenge.
The virtual restoration scene of "Jiang Maode's Painting of Landscape Painting" in Fuwang Pavilion, the left is the virtual restoration scene of the pasting, and the right is the scene without the pasting. Photo courtesy of the Palace Museum
At the same time, they also found three inscriptions on the backing. One: "A large sticker is posted on the inner south wall of the west room in the north of Fuwang, your floor"; the second: "South of the north gate of Fuwang Palace." Draw a strip on the wall to the north"; the third is "Southwest Wall of Fuwang Pavilion North Gate".
A detailed comparison of the three inscription calligraphy, the structure and the characteristics of the pen are all different, and they are not written by one person.
Judging from the paper-layer relationship, the backing layer of the three captions is the closest to the center of the painting, and the original paper pattern is infiltrated on the surface, which should be the earliest caption.
It is speculated that the painting was removed from the wall and stored for many years in the late Qing Dynasty, causing serious diseases such as fractures in the painting.
In-depth involvement of modern technology
While painting and calligraphy restoration experts use traditional methods to conduct inspections, technological means are also following up simultaneously.
Lei Yong, deputy director of the Department of Cultural Protection and Technology of the Palace Museum, introduced that disease identification was first carried out, through light transmission photography, disease identification maps, and multi-angle photography technology to establish a three-dimensional disease model.
Then analyze the hierarchical structure of silk and paper materials and mounting.
"We used three non-invasive surface distribution information extraction methods, namely transillumination photography, multispectral imaging, and X-ray fluorescence surface scanning imaging."
Lei Yong explained that light-transmitting photography uses optical fibers to distribute light from the back of cultural relics that can be penetrated by visible light, such as paper and textiles, and to shoot on the front of the cultural relics.
The light is irradiated from the back of the cultural relic, so as to collect the deeper state and disease information inside the cultural relic.
Specific to this cultural relic, he said that through light-transmitting photography, the rough distribution of creases on the surface of the cultural relic can be shown, the specific location of the splicing paper can be seen, the folding strips on the back of the drawing heart can be seen, and the analysis can be made. Pigment thickness and pigment shedding.
Multispectral imaging utilizes the properties of different light wavelengths and is a non-destructive analysis technique for obtaining target spectral characteristics and image information.
Researchers have found that using this technology to observe the details of cultural relics, in the image at a certain wavelength, you can see the effect of different shades of leaves, but at longer wavelengths, you can’t see light-colored leaves. This is because indigo is in the near infrared. The absorption is relatively weak under the wave band. From this, it can be analyzed that light-colored leaves are mainly painted with indigo, and dark-colored leaves are mainly painted with ink.
In addition, if infrared imaging technology is used, the distribution of carbon ink lines in the pasted painting can be clearly observed in the near-infrared band.
The results of X-ray fluorescence surface scanning imaging technology can clearly and intuitively display the distribution image of each target element. After corresponding to the image in the area to be analyzed, it can better analyze the materials and techniques used in various colors. .
Specific to this cultural relic, it can be analyzed that azurite and stone green are mainly copper elements, and ocher colors are mainly iron elements.
Various scientific and technological methods have revealed the difference in the distribution and thickness of the mineral raw materials. Yang Zehua thinks that it is very meaningful. "From this, we can see a lot of information about the artist's technique, pen and ink, and brushstrokes. The ink line diagram obtained under infrared technology is helpful. We study the painter's draft, coloring, and a lot of information hidden under the paint layer."
Using technology to identify diseases of cultural relics. Photo courtesy of the Palace Museum
According to Lei Yong, the National Key Research and Development Program "Research on Value Perception and Key Technologies of Organic Movable Cultural Relics" hosted by the Palace Museum has a topic "Research on Value Perception and Key Technologies of Paper-based Removable Cultural Relics", which is based on the Palace Museum’s collections. Advantages, carry out scientific research on the paper cultural relics of the Qing Dynasty in the Academy, explore the traditional craft information contained in these cultural relics, and reveal how the high-level paper cultural relics were made a hundred years ago.
"Culture + Technology" is in perfect harmony
After matching and replying, cleaning and flattening, reinforcing the silk, turning over and revealing the back, revealing the heart of the painting, patching the missing parts of the painting heart, selecting the backing, turning over again, flattening and full-color and other traditional mounting and repairing techniques, The painting and calligraphy restoration team finally completed the restoration.
Panchromatic is a professional painter in the painting and calligraphy copying group, based on full reference to the analysis of pigments and the study of infrared draft ink line images.
Yang Zehua, who has been engaged in painting and calligraphy mounting for nearly 40 years, said frankly that for the restoration of large-scale pasted paintings, scientific and technological means must be used to collect data from the external environment and the stability of its own materials before the restoration, so as to fully understand the disease mechanism of the cultural relics.
In the restoration, the inspection data should be followed up throughout the entire process to conduct comparative tests, to effectively strengthen the fit between scientific and technological testing and clinical restoration, and to further improve the scientificity and rigor of the painting and calligraphy restoration work.
Types and distribution of pigments under scientific and technological instruments. Photo courtesy of the Palace Museum
Zhao Guoying, deputy director of the Palace Museum, said that this is the first time that the Palace Museum has taken such a large-scale and seriously diseased cultural relic to be damaged by modern scientific and technological means such as "non-damage survey technology" and "pigment detection analysis". Analysis and meticulous restoration combined with ancient painting and calligraphy mounting and restoration techniques.
The entire restoration work is a concrete manifestation of the cultural preservation concept of "culture + science and technology", and is also a classic example of modern cultural relics protection and display work.
In 2021, the scientific and technological protection of cultural relics of the Forbidden City will give full play to the leading role of the research platform of the Belt and Road Joint Laboratory of the Palace Museum, the key laboratory of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the key scientific research base of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, focusing on the development of related scientific research projects.
Photo by Zhao Guoying, Vice President of the Palace Museum, Sheng Jiapeng
Zhao Guoying explained that currently, the Forbidden City is actively preparing for the establishment of the "China-Greek Cultural Relics Conservation Technology Belt and Road Joint Laboratory", and steadily promotes the national key research and development plan "China-Greece Cultural Relics Conservation Technology "Belt and Road" Joint Laboratory Construction and Joint Research" project research .
On March 14, the Palace Museum, Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Beijing University of Science and Technology officially signed a scientific research cooperation agreement.
In recent years, the three parties have gradually deepened their exchanges and cooperation in cultural relic value recognition and protection and restoration, and jointly carried out a lot of scientific analysis and protection research on the cultural relics unearthed from the Cuban Shu cultural sites such as Sanxingdui, Luojiaba, and Chengba.
It is reported that on the upcoming 2021 International Museum Day, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage will host the "China Collection of Cultural Relics Conservation Achievements Exhibition" at the Capital Museum. The restoration process of this calligraphy and painting cultural relic will be shown in the exhibition.
In order to restore its display place in the exhibition, the Ministry of Information and Information also used digital technology to digitally restore the Fuwang Pavilion area, which embodies the organic combination of the Digital Forbidden City and the Academic Forbidden City.
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