Scientific analysis of tie luo, a Qing Dynasty calligraphy artifact in the Palace Museum, Beijing, China

Abstract

Tie luo (affixed hanging) was an expressive form of traditional Chinese calligraphy or paintings, and popular in the imperial palaces for interior decorations in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 C.E.). A piece of calligraphic tie luo, written by an eminent calligrapher Gu Gao (1763-1832 C.E.), was restored recently in the Palace Museum, Beijing, China. The paper with pigment coating specially made for this calligraphic piece was named as fenjian. This article presented results from materials identification prior to the restoration. Multianalysis with scientific approaches revealed how tie luo was manufactured. It could be concluded that the investigated tie luo used a paper made from bast fibers of mulberry trees. And the decorative ground layer for the piece was also studied, which indicated that a type of organic red pigments were used for the masterpiece. White lead was considered as the main pigment, mixed with a red dye extracted from sappanwood. Meanwhile, animal glue, drying oils and beeswax were confirmed as the organic binding media. In dye analysis, protosappanin B and brazilin as well as brazilein were identified, which implied that sappanwood was used for the organic manufacture of pigments. In addition, both Nowik type A and C were found in the research, which were characteristic of sappanwood for identification.

Recent advances and applications to cultural heritage using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy and ATR-FTIR spectroscopic imaging

“…6f. Fen Jian , another example of Chinese paper artefact that was commonly used in calligraphy, was examined in a project, 122 as shown in Fig. 7a.…”

Research on Intelligent Scoring and Style of Calligraphy Post Based on Machine Vision

“…Enjoy the highest pursuit in aesthetic concept, which makes it not only have the universality of the subject but also have the creativity of the subject. Influenced by Chinese classical philosophy, the artistic style of calligraphy post can become an important part of calligraphy post, showing masculine beauty, feminine beauty, and neutral beauty, which is supported by the theory of calligraphy history and calligraphy aesthetic history [8]. In order to improve the effect of calligraphy works, this paper combines intelligent machine learning and reader scoring standard factors to build an intelligent evaluation model and proposes a related algorithm based on machine vision.…”

Applying micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and Raman spectroscopy for non-invasive characterization of coating and coating pigments on ancient Chinese papers

“…145-146]. Not until very recently did technical and experimental studies start to shed light on the manufacture of Lajian in the Qing Dynasty, confirming a variety and complexity in the manufacturing techniques utilized [46,47,52,53]. Lengjinjian manufacture used many of the same techniques (dyeing, coating, and waxing) employed in the production of Lajian; to an extent, Lengjinjian was a variant of Lajian.…”