Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1763 Li Zhaoqing is also powerful

A large pot and an electric kettle were placed in a corner of the courtyard hall, and the water temperature was kept at 85 degrees at all times.

At the same time, there were paste blocks made by my fourth cousin and Zhou Zhi. The paste blocks were like konjac, floating in the cold water in large pieces and refrigerated in the refrigerator.

When you need to use it, take a ball, add warm water and stir it, and you can easily get the paste of different required concentrations.

In addition, a cloth wall needs to be stretched out. This is used to dry the painting core. It must meet the length requirements of the scroll, so it also needs to be made on the spot.

Only after completing all these preliminary work did the project enter the formal stage.

In the process, various problems that would cause the work to stop would occur at any time. As the backing paper on the mounting box was peeled off, the center of the painting and the brocade edge would lose their support, and the fragments would begin to shift. These would all need to be quickly replaced with new paper, brushed with glue and water to stick them together, and then moved to a new workbench for processing.

The first phase of the work took more than thirty hours. After the work was completed, the mounting stage was completed, and the next step was to enter the restoration stage.

Cover the brocade left on the original workbench with new silk and spray water to keep it moist. Then Fourth Aunt can finally take a break. Zhou Zhi and Fourth Cousin need to hurry up and continue working to complete the cutting of the text content in the painting core, postscript, inscription, and tail, and cover them with paper and soak them in water for protection.

After finishing all this, a thin layer of water accumulated on the surface of the workbench. The painting under the water was divided into eight parts. Judging from the cracks in the joints, each character was actually originally a separate painting.

In addition, there is a narrow inscription, which is the place where Li Zhaoqing left his words, and there is also a separate silk strip there.

There are three postscripts on paper at the end, one written by Cai Xiang, one by Chen Shidao, and one by Xu Qin.

Cai Xiang was a famous calligrapher and painter in the Song Dynasty, a contemporary of Su Dongpo. Chen Shidao was one of Su's six disciples, but he had bad luck in the imperial examinations and spent most of his life serving as a retainer of conservative bigwigs.

These two articles echo each other. In Cai Xiang's article, he explained how he obtained the painting at a grand ceremony at Daxiangguo Temple, and his tone was full of pride.

The date of Chen Shidao's postscript was twenty years later than Cai Xiang's, which shows that the painting was highly valued in the Cai family. After twenty years of collection, it was finally allowed to be viewed by Chen Shidao again.

Xu Qin, courtesy name Yegong, lived in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, with a great overlap in his years of activity with Gao Shiqi. He was a famous researcher of painting history and author of an ancient book, Records of Ming Paintings, which is very unfamiliar to outsiders.

"Famous Paintings Record" is divided into eight volumes. It follows the style of painting history since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, first dividing by categories and then listing the eras. It lists the biographies of more than 870 painters of the Ming Dynasty one by one, and also gives a general introduction to the origin and development of each painting genre.

However, his views have always been relatively moderate. In the postscript of this painting, he also expressed the bad habit of Ming people in imitating ancient styles and making fake works.

This is actually a subtle indication that he is not optimistic about this work and believes it is an imitation by a Ming Dynasty master.

However, this is also because Xu Qin had never seen the brick and stone portraits in the four major tombs of the Southern Qi Dynasty. Now the evidence has proved that his inference was actually wrong.

By the time they had protected all the scrolls and inscriptions that needed to be restored, Zhou Zhi and his fourth cousin could no longer bear it, so they hurried to rest and conserve their energy for the next stage of the most demanding restoration work.

However, the most intense work phase was over, and he could sleep very relaxedly. When Zhou Zhi woke up, he found that he had slept for twelve hours. After eating something, Zhou Zhi came to the restoration room and found that only his fourth aunt was there.

However, the postscripts by Cai Xiang, Chen Shidao and Xu Qin have been turned over on the restoration table, and have been cleaned to remove dust and stains, so they can now be seen clearly.

"Su, Huang, Mi, and Cai, many people say that this ranking is reversed. At least in the Northern Song Dynasty, Cai Xiang's writing was known as the best in the world, and there were many notes and records." Fourth Aunt pointed to the repaired part and said, "This postscript alone is worth a lot of money."

"Everyone is no stranger to Chen Shidao. Among the six Su disciples, he left the least records. Now it seems that he still has something." Although Zhou Zhi did not have the original texts of Cai Xiang, his works were indispensable in various calligraphy prints. He had seen too many texts, and now he was more concerned about Chen Shidao's articles and calligraphy, which he had never seen.

"The calligraphy of the Song people, like Wang Anshi's reform, also had the intention of 'reform'." Fourth Aunt laughed and said, "They also created many new styles of calligraphy. However, they were too unrestrained and lacked rules. They also set a precedent for the 'ugly calligraphy' of later generations."

In fact, the definition of "ugly calligraphy" in the calligraphy world does not mean that the characters are really ugly, but that the writer has deviated from tradition and overturned the Chinese character composition and stroke writing methods that people have been accustomed to for thousands of years. In other words, there is more innovation but less tradition.

There is no strict distinction between "innovation" and "scribbling". If the writer himself cannot form a structural logical system in the text, it cannot be called innovation but only scribbles.

Therefore, this is why many people cannot accept the calligraphy of Jin Nong and Zheng Banqiao, but the calligraphy world still praises them as calligraphy innovations, because their logical system of character composition is clear and obvious.

"Chen Shidao's calligraphy is similar to his personality, more conservative than innovative." Zhou Zhi nodded: "In his dynasty, everyone would say that he lacked spirit and breakthroughs, and was not considered a good calligrapher. But if he were in the Ming and Qing dynasties, he would have been a great calligrapher."

"Yes, I was born in the wrong era," said the fourth aunt, "but you can also say that I have my own persistence. I get what I want."

"Is Fourth Cousin resting again?"

"Well, this job doesn't take long, so you have to follow a strict schedule. I'll help you turn over a few paintings, and I have to take a rest."

Zhou Zhi looked at his fourth aunt's workbench. The silk brocade had also been divided into strips, and many of them had been turned over and repaired. In fact, they could already be hung on the wall.

"Then I'll hurry up and do the cleaning first." Zhou Zhi said.

The most important task in removing stains from calligraphy and paintings is to pour hot water on the center of the painting, then roll a towel on it to squeeze out the dirt along with the hot water. Repeat this process to achieve the cleaning effect.

Of course, for some redox chemical stains caused by acids and alkalis, this simple method will not work. You need to use chemicals. Sometimes you need to use red medicine first, then blue medicine. First use reduction or oxidation methods to remove the stains, and then adjust the local pH value of the scroll back.

Fortunately, alum was not used in Song Dynasty silk paintings, so the silk paintings can be preserved much longer than those of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Although the paintings are seriously blackened in some places due to stains and aging, Zhou Zhi is still very confident in the restoration.

Sure enough, after carefully rolling the towel roll back and forth a few times, the black color on the portrait of Wang Rong faded a lot, and the places where ink was left on the scroll were fully revealed. The hairline drawing method and the convex and concave rendering method that the Six Dynasties painters were good at could finally be clearly seen on the scroll.

"Although it's a copy, the spirit has been passed down." Fourth Aunt had stopped her work to watch since Zhou Zhi started working, and now she finally commented: "Lu Tanwei is indeed a great man to look up to, but Li Zhaoqing, as a court painter of the Southern Tang and Northern Song dynasties, is equally amazing!"