Rare colour in medieval China: Case study of yellow pigments on tomb mural paintings at Xi'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang dynasty

Guo, Rongwei; Feng, Ji; Liu, Ruiliang; Xia, Yingchong; Fu, Qianli; Nan, Xi; Wang, Z.

doi:10.1111/arcm.12739

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Many of the wall murals were missing at the time of their discovery, and the remaining murals have immense value as cultural heritage [ 44 ]. Although many other murals in tombs or ancient buildings in Asia may be small and not famous, they are still valuable resources for history researchers [ 45 ]. The most important murals found in Asia were discovered in the areas along the Silk Roads, and several famous murals sites are distributed from central Asian countries to China.…”

Section: Major Distribution Areas Of Muralsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current progress on murals: distribution, conservation and utilization

Wang

2023

Herit Sci

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As non-renewable cultural heritages, murals have important implications in historical customs, religions, and philosophy as well as their aesthetic values. Recently, many murals are threatened by natural factors and human activities. During the past decades, there are increasing interest in the investigation of murals. Here we review the current status of murals and provide an up-to-date summary of achievements related to murals. The murals that draw the most attention are distributed in Mexico, Ireland, China, and Spain. The aesthetics, history, cultural, educational, and economic values of murals are comprehensively analyzed. The main research technologies used to detect the chemical compositions and physical structures of murals are also summarized. The restoration of murals includes several procedures such as stabilization, repair, surface cleaning, and pigment reconversion. Emerging technologies such as computer science benefit the research and conservation of murals. We also propose that tourism management and climate change should be incorporated into the conservation of murals in the future.

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Section: Major Distribution Areas Of Muralsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current progress on murals: distribution, conservation and utilization

Wang

2023

Herit Sci

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“…Natural vanadinite is rare, and there are very few reports about its usage as pigment. In China, researchers reported vanadinite as the yellow pigment used on one pottery of the Terracotta Warriors of the Qin dynasty [28], in the tomb mural paintings of the Western Han dynasty [29], the Wei and Jin dynasty [30] and the Tang dynasty [31]. The descriptions of mimetite as a pigment are very scarce in the literature, and only one report can be found [30].…”

Section: Yellow Pigmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Inorganic mineral pigments with a variety of colours, including red, green, blue, white and black, were widely used by ancient Chinese artists to make mural paintings in tombs [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. However, yellow was rarely employed in most of the tomb mural paintings excavated in China.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is known that several kinds of yellow pigments, including yellow ochre (FeO•OH), orpiment (As 2 S 3 ), pyrite (FeS 2 ), massicot (PbO), pararealgar (As 4 S 4 ), chrome yellow (PbCrO 4 ) and sulfur, were used by ancient Chinese artists and craftsman in artworks. Hence, Guo [13] et al attributed the limited use of yellow in tomb mural paintings to religion and funeral culture. Even on a worldwide scale, yellow was scarce in mural paintings [17][18][19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Identification of the Pigments on the Mural Paintings from an Ancient Chinese Tomb of Tang Dynasty Using Micro-Raman and Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy Analysis

Liu,

Xu,

Zhang

et al. 2023

Minerals

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The tomb of Hanxiu, a prime minister of the Tang dynasty who died in 740 CE, was decorated with elaborate mural paintings. The pigments used in the mural paintings were collected from representative colours before a restoration process and analyzed using micro-Raman and scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) analysis to characterize the chemical compositions. The results reveal the chromatic palette and the painting technique used in the mural paintings. Most of the pigments are natural mineral pigments similar to those excavated in previous archaeological works, except the yellow pigment is unusual. A rare mineral pigment, vanadinite [Pb5(VO4)3Cl], was employed in a large amount as the yellow pigment. This phenomenon was analyzed and compared with tomb mural paintings from varied periods and locations in ancient China. Notably, the identification of vanadinite via Raman spectra has to be performed carefully and combined with an elemental analysis to avoid misidentification.

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“…Ancient Chinese painting, also known as "Danqing" art, shows the importance attached to color in early Chinese painting. Chinese painting has its characteristics in the application of color, among which "ink is divided into five colors" and "color is assigned according to class" is a summary and generalization of the color elements of traditional Chinese painting, which is rooted in the five elements of yin and yang and the philosophical ideas contained in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and has a strong sense of hierarchy and philosophy [5][6]. The colors in traditional Chinese painting are based on the five colors of "green, yellow, red, white and black," in which black and red are the main tones, which are concentrated in the early ancient ceramic paintings, petroglyphs, frescoes, and silk paintings [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Creative Presentation of Color Elements in Chinese Painting Art under the View of Information Technology

Lei

2024

Applied Mathematics and Nonlinear Sciences

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In this paper, Chinese paintings are scanned using a scanner under the same light conditions, and RGB format files are obtained. In order to ensure the accuracy of extracting the color elements of Chinese paintings through HSV color conversion of RGB format files and color-cutting processing based on fuzzy C-mean clustering on the premise of the extracted color elements, we explain in detail the application of the color elements of the art of Chinese paintings in the presentation of the creativity and the value of the Chinese painting art and carry out an example of analysis of the color elements of the art of Chinese paintings. The data shows that the highest choice of males for the perception of color elements in Chinese painting art is the “blue and yellow” option number of people accounting for 64.5% of the total. In contrast, the females in the color combination of the most choices with the same as the males, but accounted for a higher 71.5%, indicating that there is a difference between the perception of color elements in the art of Chinese painting for boys and girls, which sets out the differences in the perception of color elements in Chinese painting art for boys and girls. Boys and girls have different aesthetic views on the inventiveness of color elements in Chinese painting art, as evidenced by this. This study promotes the improvement of visual expression and creative presentation of color elements in Chinese painting art. Also, it has theoretical guidance value for the research and development of Chinese painting art information.

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Rare colour in medieval China: Case study of yellow pigments on tomb mural paintings at Xi'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang dynasty

Cited by 5 publications

References 16 publications

Current progress on murals: distribution, conservation and utilization

Current progress on murals: distribution, conservation and utilization

Identification of the Pigments on the Mural Paintings from an Ancient Chinese Tomb of Tang Dynasty Using Micro-Raman and Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy Analysis

The Creative Presentation of Color Elements in Chinese Painting Art under the View of Information Technology

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