Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

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Figure 5. Detail IR-reflectogram from Shakyamuni and the Eighteen Arhats, showing a color code written in Chinese on an Arhat's back. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (M. 83. 105. 18}. Shakyamuni and the Eighteen Arhats, owned by LACMA and thought to be an eighteenth-century work from the Kham region, has color codes on the ground layer written in Chinese. Unlike the brilliant white magnesite ground found in the Shambhala paintings, this ground is buff-colored and composed of hydrocerussite and kaolinite. Two color-code systems are employed. The first is numerical: numbers represent specific colors. The second uses Chinese color names or idioms. Under the dark blue pigment of a begging bowl, IRR revealed the Chinese character for the number seven. The pigment was identified by PLM and FTIR as azurite. On an Arhat's back, IRR revealed the Chinese character for hulled rice (Fig. 5). Examination of a dispersed pigment slide revealed orpiment mixed with a small amount of red lead. A character not yet translated was uncovered on several deep red colored areas. Examination of a dispersed pigment slide revealed vermilion mixed with a small amount of red lead. Another LACMA painting with Chinese color codes is Palden Remati and Her Retinue, accepted as originating from the Gelukpa monastery in Central Tibet, 1800-1850 C.E. This painting employs the two color-code systems described earlier with similar notations. The Chinese numbers for three and seven were used to denote a light blue color. This color has yet to be sampled. Presumably "seven" represents azurite and "three" represents the second addition of a white pigment. Two BMFA paintings displaying Chinese color codes come from a set of five entitled Stories from the Life of Buddha. The set is thought to be eighteenthcentury Tibetan. Again, evidence of the two color-code systems described earlier as well as notations fo r derivative colors were found on these paintings. The Chinese numbers for two and six are used to denote a light green. This color has yet to be sampled. Presumably "six" represents malachite and "two" the first addition of a white pigment. Conclusion Since thangka painting is a tradition passed on from master to apprentice, determining palette and deciphering color-code systems may prove to be helpful in the identification of specific workshops or painting lineages. The color-code system used on the BMFA Shambhala paintings has several distinctive traits. These include an additional character kya (skya) for whitish tints (Fig. 3) and the additional characters na ga (nag) for darker tints. The artist of the painting A Mahasiddha and Taklungpa Lamas indicated whitish tints with a kya subjoined to the root notation (Fig. 4). This system for distinguishing derivative colors is similar to one still practiced by some modern Tibetan thangka painters. The paintings with color codes in Chinese script pose many questions which are beyond the scope of this paper. In terms of the ethnic background of the creators of these works, one can only speculate. Perhaps the painters were Chinese, since a native Tibetan speaker would be unlikely to write such "private" communications in a fo reign script. On the other hand, a bilingual Tibetan might use Chinese characters to communicate with Chinese apprentices or coworkers. Likewise, one can only speculate on whether such paintings were produced in Tibet or China. In order to answer these questions, more infrared data and pigment analyses need to be compiled from thangkas of known Tibetan as well as Chinese origin. Acknowledgments The authors are indebted to the following people at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Rhona MacBeth, John Robbe, Darielle Mason, Anne Morse, Wu Tung, Arthur Beale, and John Elwood. The authors wish to thank the staff at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for their generous support, particularly Victoria Blyth-Hill and John Twilley. For his analytical contributions, the authors are grateful to Arie Wallert of the Getty Conservation Institute. The authors wish to thank the following Lamas and thangka painters for their help in deciphering color codes: Archung Lama and Gega Lama of Kathmandu, Nepal; Megmar, Alexander Kocharov, and Chating Jamyang Lama of Dharamsala, India. For his enthusiasm, support and analytical con- Duffy and Elgar 83
tributions, the authors would like to acknowledge Richard Newman at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Notes 1. Ross, D. W 1904. The purchase of twenty-six Tibetan paintings from Mme. Tangeveil, Paris. Unpublished typed letter to M. S. Prichard. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts. 2. An infrared TV camera equipped with a Hamamatsu No. 2606-06 vidicon was used at the BMFA. 3. Jackson, D., and J. Jackson. 1984. Tibetan Thangka Painting: Methods & Materials. London: Serindia Publications, 15-23. 4. Palache, c., H. Berman, and C. Frondel. 1951. Dana's System of Mineralogy. Vol. II. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 165. 5. Shaftel, A. 1986. Notes on the technique of Tibetan thangkas. Joumal of the American Institute for Conservation 25 (2):98. 6. Jackson, op. cit., 174. 7. Ibid., 175. 8. Ibid., 75. 9. Kocharov, A., and ChatingJamyang Lama. 1993. Personal communication. Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works & Archives. 10. Ibid. 11. Archumg Lama and Gega Lama. 1993. Personal conmumication. Kathmandu, Nepal. 12. Jackson, op. cit., 177. 13. Ibid. 14. Palache, op. cit., 543. 15. Jackson, op. cit., 78. 16. Ibid., 176. 17. Gettens, R. J., and G. L. Stout. 1966. Painting Materials: A Short Encyclopaedia. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 120. 18. Kocharov, op. cit. 19. Megmar. 1993. Personal communication. Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works & Archives. 20. Jackson, op. cit., 82. 21. Palache et aI., op. cit., 268. 22. FitzHugh, E. W n.d. Orpiment and realgar. In Artist's Pigments: A Handbook of their History and Characteristics, Vol. III. Forthcoming. 23. Jackson, op. cit., 176. 24. Ibid., 80. 25. Ibid., 174 26. Makaras are mythological sea creatures. Garudas are guardians of the sky (part bird and part human). 27. Jackson, op. cit., 92. 28. Kocharov, op. cit. 29. Wallert, A. 1986. Fluorescent assay of quinone, lichen, and redwood dyestuffs. Studies in Conservation 31 (4):145-55. 30. Jackson, op. cit., 113. 31. Ibid., 93. 32. Ibid., 81. 33. Ibid., 82. 34. Paintings at LACMA were surveyed with an infrared TV camera, Quantex QVC 2500, equipped with a bandpass interference filter (1.6 micron wavelength) to eliminate chromatic aberrations of the lenses. 35. Kossolapov, A. J. 1993. An improved vidicon TV camera for IR-reflectography. ICOM Committee fo r Conservation Preprints, 25-31. 84 Histon:cal Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice
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Historical Painting Techniques, Mat
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Contents vii viii Foreword Preface
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Foreword One of the first events or
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The discussions in this volume pres
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Plate 2a, above right. Attributed t
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Plate 4a, above. Jacques Louis Da
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Plate 7a, above. Valerio Mariana da
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Plate 9. Marco Palmezzano, Mystic M
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Plate 13, right. Surya in his Chari
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Plate 16. The Fifth King of Shambha
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Plate 20. Cross section oj Sample 3
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Plate 26, top. Titian, Venus and Ad
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Plate 29. Cross sections of the St.
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Plate 33. Paul Delaroehe, The Execu
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Plate 35, right. Detail Jrom the lo
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Abstract This paper argues for an i
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we find a description of the affini
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2. A Practical Treatise on Painting
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knowledge and understanding of the
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Table 1. Scientific methods used Jo
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the painting together, share backgr
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y distance with "the aid of the air
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ected, shadows would appear matte a
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The differences in saturation, clea
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19. White, R. Personal communicatio
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occupation agreable pour charmer l'
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DE PEJN'FURE PRATIQUE. Par demit::
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In spite of the laments of certain
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While cooking their eggs, two young
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some used for painting (i.e., amber
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ange of artists' materials, books o
Page 66 and 67: Figure 3. Personal account book, 18
Page 68 and 69: paper resulted in a volume of corre
Page 70 and 71: 4. HKI MS 865-1993, 497. The move i
Page 72 and 73: [1] How to make a gold ground. Take
Page 74 and 75: into a glass, and put in a bit of w
Page 76 and 77: [37] To make crude verzino for writ
Page 78 and 79: it on what you are working, with a
Page 80 and 81: 28. On these "clothlet colors," see
Page 82 and 83: it also includes instructions fo r
Page 84 and 85: Ricordi di belli colori Initially i
Page 86 and 87: Figure 4. Gherardo Cibo, "Fusaina [
Page 88 and 89: The treatise is typical for the lat
Page 90 and 91: Filza CXLIII, fols. 1122r, 1125v, 1
Page 92 and 93: that is, plaster of Paris, which ha
Page 94 and 95: 100 80 60 40 a 3500 30.00 2500 2000
Page 96 and 97: process described by Cennini for ge
Page 98 and 99: Abstract The frequent use of verdig
Page 100 and 101: strating that spreading this glaze
Page 102 and 103: 10. Thompson, op. cit., 61. 11. Ber
Page 104 and 105: Tingry, in 1830, gives a recipe for
Page 106 and 107: elonged to William Mallord Turner (
Page 108 and 109: 500 450 As Ph As 400 350 Fe Co 300
Page 110 and 111: 19. Merrifield, op. cit., 745-6. 20
Page 112 and 113: Table 1. Tibetan color names, trans
Page 114 and 115: J Figure 3. Three-dimensional spect
Page 118 and 119: Abstract Icons preserved in the Nil
Page 120 and 121: I )--------------------------1 I i
Page 122 and 123: The understanding of an icon and it
Page 124 and 125: Abstract As part of a five-year sys
Page 126 and 127: later transferred to an artificial
Page 128 and 129: Winchester Cathedral Holy Sepulchre
Page 130 and 131: Gilding. Gold leaf was applied for
Page 132 and 133: Winchester Cathedral Holy Sepulchre
Page 134 and 135: scanning electron microscopy I ener
Page 136 and 137: Notes 1. Park, D. 1983. The wall pa
Page 138 and 139: Abstract It is rare for ancient ext
Page 140 and 141: Sa. Location : Salisbury west front
Page 142 and 143: sheltered eye on the southernmost c
Page 144 and 145: Abstract Extensive examination of A
Page 146 and 147: create surface gloss and could be v
Page 148 and 149: Figure 3. Andrea Mantegl1a, The Pre
Page 150 and 151: Abstract In September 1992 the J Pa
Page 152 and 153: arrow in Adonis's right hand ends a
Page 154 and 155: For the early works are executed wi
Page 156 and 157: J Figure 3. Fluorescence spectrul1'
Page 158 and 159: This property was deliberately used
Page 160 and 161: Abstract The St. Anne Altarpiece (N
Page 162 and 163: Figure 3. Infrared reJlectogram ass
Page 164 and 165: Figure 5. Irifrared niflectogram as
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followed by modeling layers and gla
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Abstract Based on extensive informa
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o . (Vv..-.< 1 2. underdrawing, and
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The key position of Lamentation in
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Figure 1. Workshop of Jan Bruegel,
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Figure 3. Camelis Vroom, Landscape
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Figure 5. Infrared photograph of Es
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at the beginning of the seventeenth
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artist like Vermeer had to use all
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Figure 1. Perspective drawing of Ve
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Hague, 1996). The author is also gr
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Abstract The paper presents some re
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Summary We can conclude after this
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the product, a salesman motivated b
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complaints, have been strictly adhe
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F(gure 8. Illfrared rriflectograph
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13. Hunt, W. H. 1905-1 906. Pre-Rap
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Figure 1. The Execution of Lady Jan
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Figure 3. The Execution of Lady Jan
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Figure 5. Detail of Lady Jal1e Grey
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Figure 6. Paul Delaroche, The Execu
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38. Merimee,J.-F.-L. 1830. De la pe
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F(gure 1. J. M. W. Turner, Goring M
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Figl/re 3. Detail if lower left, s/
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Figure 5. J. M. W. Tumer's The Dawn
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TabLe 1. Dates of manufa cture of i
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Kennedy of the Ulster Museum, Viola
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Figure 2. James Whistler, Nocturne
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5). There are many such examples of
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Abstract This paper discusses aspec
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1960s in North America. Requiring b
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2. Eder, ]. M. 1945. History of Pho
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Figure 1. Jan Baptiste Collaert, Co
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sudden increase in the dimensions o
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lacks. Passages painted with mixtur
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8. It is not clear when people firs
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Errata for Historical Painting Tech
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PAGE 159 Figure 2. Image source: Pe
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