Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1429: Don’t be superstitious about science

Dragons in the Song Dynasty are also very distinctive. The dragon's head is three-dimensional, with spiny gills, thick beards but no hair. The dragon's body has no twists and turns. The four legs are fat, the claws are divided into four fingers, no elbow hair, no tail mane, and the tail is a snake's tail. shape.

In the center of the painting, above the waves, is a poem inscribed by Emperor Qianlong and stamped with a large seal.

Chen Rong's own poems and water-honey seals fell to the end of the painting, and were overtaken by Qianlong.

Behind the center of the painting, there is another section of water, followed by the "deputy tail". Like the deputy head, the deputy tail is also a place for sealing, with eight seals on it.

Then there is the secondary water barrier, and then a long "positive tail".

The "tail" is made of rice paper and is left for the appreciator to write an inscription. It is generally very long and often requires three pieces of rice paper to be glued together.

On the front and tail of "Six Dragons" are the respectful poems written by Yu Minzhong, Liang Guozhi, Wang Jie, Dong Gao, Jin Shisong, and Chen Xiaoyong, who were great scholars of Qianlong.

After that, the silk brocade forms the ground axis and the chicken wing wood, and the hand-scroll is not complete until this point.

Therefore, although the height of hand scrolls is generally only thirty or forty centimeters, they are very long when unfolded. The length of "Six Dragons" is actually more than 440 centimeters, which is very long.

Therefore, the method of appreciating hand scrolls is different from other paintings, and the perspective relationship is also different from ordinary paintings. Scattered perspective is used to create the feeling of "one scene per step" and "one scene at a glance".

The heart part of "Six Dragons" is from the Southern Song Dynasty. It dates back a long time. The last time it was framed was during the Qianlong Dynasty. The same year is not new. Moreover, the mounting method and materials used in the hand scroll are also the most complicated among all the mountings. Damask, silk, Paper and brocade are all used. For example, "Six Dragons Picture" is a standard "Xuanhe decoration", with a hand-rolled head, water barrier, secondary water barrier, and multiple silk lenses. The head is made of brocade, the heart is made of paper, and the tail is made of silk.

Compared with other forms of mounting, hand scrolls are more vulnerable to damage because they are often placed on the desk for appreciation. Due to the complexity of mounting materials and the storage environment, they are more likely to be damaged by oxidation, hydrolysis, etc. They are also more likely to be exposed to factors that cause fiber pathology, such as temperature and humidity, light, dust and gas pollution, and microorganisms.

Because the paintings and calligraphy were afraid of getting damp, the Fujiwara Art Museum adopted a "scientific" method, which was to wrap them in their original packaging, vacuum wrap them in fresh-keeping bags, and put them in a constant-temperature cabinet.

However, this not only failed to protect the paintings and calligraphy well, but also caused damage to the collection.

After careful analysis, there are many reasons for the damage to these hand rolls, but the sealed preservation method is definitely the biggest reason.

The sealed preservation method is not impossible, but there is a prerequisite, that is, before sealing, the humidity and cleanliness of the collection need to meet standards.

In addition, in order to maintain the flexibility of the fiber, it is also a problem to store it rolled up for a long time. It needs to be stretched out regularly to release the "stress".

Although it is protected from light and cool, there is no ventilation. Dust, oil, sweat, and the most terrifying thing on the previous paintings are microorganisms and molds, which can easily lead to disease.

There is also a large amount of silk fabrics on the hand rolls. It is very easy for these things to be retained in the gaps created by weaving, and then be involved in the painting. Even if the vacuum is drawn, there is not completely no oxygen. The air remaining in the gaps between the fabrics is enough for them to work. .

After the action is completed, the remaining anaerobic bacteria can start to act again, and long-term absolutely consistent humidity will also cause a big problem for the hand roll. Once the hand roll is untied, the hand roll will be rapidly destroyed due to sudden environmental changes. Many murals in ancient tombs, paintings on the Terracotta Warriors and Horses in Xi'an, and bamboo slips that have been soaked in water for a long time will be destroyed for this reason.

Therefore, the ancients' method of preserving calligraphy and paintings was actually the most ideal.

The first thing is to pay attention to cleanliness. Before appreciating treasures, ancient people often burned incense and bathed, fasted and washed their hands. In addition to the sense of ritual, it cannot be said that there is no such reason.

In modern times, when viewing hand-scroll works, you should wear masks and gloves. Because no matter how clean your hands are, they still contain contaminants such as grease, sweat, dust, and mold, and nails can scratch collections.

When viewing, keep a distance of about one and a half meters from the calligraphy and painting. It is best to have a physical separation between the two to prevent saliva from splashing on the calligraphy and painting when speaking.

The ancients used letter covers and picture boxes for daily collection. The material of the painting box is also very particular. Oily wood such as pine needs to be treated to prevent oil from contaminating the paper.

The exquisite painting boxes in ancient times were usually made of multiple layers of materials. The outer layer was made of insect-proof camphor wood, and the middle layer was fine and dense nanmu. The innermost layer was lined with fine silk, and the hand scroll itself was wrapped with brocade.

The traditional mounting adhesive material is paste. The raw materials of paste are flour and water, so preventing mildew and insect infestation is the key. When collecting, you need to put the works in a box or cabinet with good sealing performance to prevent insects from entering. At the same time, put insect-repelling camphor and other medicinal fragrance products at the corners of the box to prevent insects from being eaten, and then put in dried soil with good water absorption properties. paper to adjust the relative humidity of the small environment.

Even so, books, calligraphy and paintings should be dried regularly, preferably in the cool autumn season.

The ancients often took out their collections of paintings, calligraphy, and books at this time, dusted them, and aired them to let the absorbed moisture evaporate before storing them again.

This is often a large-scale event in key book collection areas, such as the royal family. At this time, the emperor will come forward and bring important cultural figures in the court to appreciate and study calligraphy and paintings, recite poems and compose poems, and hold grand literary gatherings outside the library pavilion.

The Fujita Museum of Art is somewhat superstitious about modern science and does not believe in the "cocktail therapy" in the preservation of cultural relics. In other words, it does not pay attention to the six-hand scroll. It believes that the preservation method of constant temperature and light-proof vacuum is the best, and the consequences are somewhat serious.

Fortunately, it is not impossible to recover. What may seem like a very serious loss to outsiders, in the eyes of an expert like Zhou Zhi, is just partial contamination, plus later dehydration, layer separation and other relatively easy-to-solve problems.

"Six Dragons Picture" is the longest volume, and its problems can be solved. Wang Mian's "Snow Plum Picture" and Li Gonglin's "Bridge Alliance Picture" are both easy to solve.

However, Zhao Lingran's "Picture of Geese", Zhao Mengfu's "Picture of Washing Horses", and Han Qian's "Picture of Horse Nature" are all on silk. Silk is much more troublesome to process than paper. Although the careful mounting technology is already very sophisticated, On silk, I am not as confident as on paper.

"You should ask Mr. Xu for this matter." Ma Ye reminded Zhou Zhi: "He has been making imitations in the Forbidden City for a long time to deceive the audience. Every detail of the ancient paintings has to be treated with pain, and even the painting can cause disease." Counterfeiting it, those old people... their skills are really beyond imagination!"

"Then I'll ask him for more advice when I go back." Zhou Zhi nodded and repaired the work of the old Samsung Chairman. At that time, Mr. Xu was quite recognized, and the friendship was also forged. In addition to calligraphy, one Zhong Su and one Zhong Huang, a little Apart from not being compatible, everything else is easy to talk about.

(End of this chapter)