Dye Identification in Mounting Textiles of Traditional Korean Paintings from the Late Joseon Dynasty

Abstract

In the framework of the ‘Amorepacific Project for the conservation of Korean pictorial art’ (2018–2023) at the British Museum, three traditional Korean paintings have been investigated with the aim of supporting their conservation and obtaining information about the dyes used in the mounting textiles and other mounting elements. The paintings include a rare example of late 18th-century traditional Korean portraiture (accession number 1996,0329,0.1); a late 19th-century two-panel screen silk painting of Pyeongsaeng-do-Scenes of life (accession number 2016,3028.1); and a late 19th-century twelve-panel screen silk painting representing the Five Confucian virtues (accession number 1957,1214,0.1). The mounting textiles were investigated non-invasively by using digital microscopy and fibre optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), and the results guided a minimally invasive sampling campaign. Fourteen samples were analysed by using high-pressure liquid chromatography coupled with diode array and tandem mass spectrometry detectors (HPLC-DAD-MS/MS), leading to the identification of the natural dyes indigo, sappanwood (Biancaea sappan, formerly Caesalpinia sappan), amur cork tree (Phellodendron amurense) and safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) in the mounting elements of the 18th-century portrait. These results confirmed some of the non-invasive observations and were in agreement with the production date of the painting. Both natural and synthetic dyes were identified in the mounting textiles of the panel screens. Among the synthetic dyes, fuchsin (C.I. 42510), methyl violet 3B (C.I. 42536), methyl blue (C.I. 42780) and benzopurpurin 4B (C.I. 23500) were identified. These are early synthetic dyes first synthesised between the 1860s and the 1880s, suggesting that the silk textiles are likely to have been dyed in the last part of the 19th century.

Dyes in History and Archaeology 41: Reflections on the Conference and Its Assembly of Articles

“…As expected, the earlier painting contained natural dyes, including indigo, sappanwood, amur cork tree and safflower. Sappanwood was also present in the later two-panel painting, along with indigo and a tannin in the twelve-panel screen, but Methyl Violet 3B, Methyl Blue, Fuchsin and Benzopurpurin 4B were also identified, an interesting result which helped to confirm the dating of the two later paintings [7].…”

An Introduction and Recent Advances in the Analytical Study of Early Synthetic Dyes and Organic Pigments in Cultural Heritage

“…Databases containing a wide range of FORS spectra of SOPs are available [29] and the Istituto di Fisica Applicata Nello Carrara of the Italian National Research Council (IFAC-CNR) created an online database of reflectance spectra of traditional and synthetic pigments [69]. FORS has been applied to identify ESDs and SOPs in powders and paint tubes belonging to Fernando Melani and Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) atelier materials [70,71], in oil paintings [72,73], prints [74,75] and historical textiles [25,32,[76][77][78][79]. The technique has limitations due to a relatively poor wavelength resolution (ca.…”

“…For example, in the early synthetic process of Fuchsine (C.I. 42510, Basic Violet 14), a mixture of aniline and toluidine was oxidised, thus producing a mixture of pararosaniline and its mono-, bis-and tri-C-methylated derivatives [79,214]. Therefore, although fuchsin is often described as trimethylpararosaniline, according to this early synthetic process, a mixture of molecules should be expected.…”

“…Therefore, although fuchsin is often described as trimethylpararosaniline, according to this early synthetic process, a mixture of molecules should be expected. In fact, the above-mentioned four molecular components are often detected in historical samples and usually exhibit a bell-shaped profile, probably reflecting the ratios of the starting materials used in the synthetic process [20,21,27,32,79,214]. However, in 1889, a different synthetic process for Fuchsine started being used, aiming to produce pure trimethylpararosaniline by condensing 4,4 ′ -methylene-di-o-toluidine and o-toluidine [20,214].…”

“…In most cases, the chromatographic and mass spectrometric systems are coupled by an electrospray ionisation source and HR-MS/MS is mostly obtained by Q-ToF [37,184] or, more recently, orbitrap mass analysers [185,186]. HPLC-MS/MS has been applied to artworks, including archive and reference paint materials [11,27,37,65,70,187], historical inks [168,181], 19th-20th century textiles [78,79,86,184], modern and contemporary paintings [188][189][190][191][192] and street art murals [193,194].…”