Do you know what the people in the pictures are doing?
Is it planing? What's in the soil?
Heritage restoration experts in the restoration of murals. Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum
In fact, these seemingly worthless remnants come from the tomb of Han Xiuzhi, the famous prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, more than a thousand years ago, and they were originally a colorful and exquisitely painted mural, the "Xuanwu Tu".
During the epidemic period, the virtual exhibition of the restoration of Han Xiu's tomb mural "Xuanwu Tu" continued to be displayed on the official website of the Shaanxi Museum, so that the audience could appreciate the delicate and flexible "Xuanwu Tu" mural on the north wall of the tomb of Tang Dynasty Prime Minister Han Xiu without leaving home. However, few people know that this precious cultural relic was destroyed by the stolen tombists. The cultural relics restorer collected information from the picture through high-definition scanning equipment and hyperspectral, spliced the fragments of the murals picked up at the scene, and after nearly a year of restoration, the restorative restoration of the murals was finally completed, and thousands of fragments were restored to a beautiful mural.
Local condition on the back of the fresco. Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum
In the photo, restoration experts are carefully preparing to move the excavated fragments of the murals to the laboratory for restoration.
Han Xiu's tomb is located in Guozhuang Village, Dazhao Street, Chang'an District, Xi'an, and the burial chamber is roughly square with a side length of about 4 meters, except for the entrance, the other three sides are painted with exquisite murals. Xuanwu tu is a common theme of Tang tomb murals, and the protagonist Xuanwu is a mythical spiritual object composed of turtles and snakes.
According to the calculations of archaeologists, this Basalt map is 180 cm wide and 195 cm high, which is the largest and most colorful one in the Mural Paintings of Tang Tombs in Shaanxi Province so far, and has high historical and artistic value.
But when it was found, the mural was not only damaged by time, but also maliciously infringed by tomb robbers, a large part of which was chiseled out of a large hole, and the main picture was destroyed into more than a thousand fragments, which was painful.
In order to revitalize this precious cultural relic, the cultural relics restoration experts overcame various difficulties and used advanced technical means to complete the restoration of the murals through a full year, and the "Xuanwu Tu" of Han Xiu's tomb was able to reproduce the day.
The restored appearance of the fresco. Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum
Does it look very different from the beginning after the repair, or even dare not recognize it? How exactly do antiquities experts do it?
Yang Wenzong, a research librarian of the Shaanxi History Museum and deputy director of the key scientific research base of the State Administration of Cultural Relics for the protection and restoration of murals and materials science research, introduced that after a simple cleaning of the surface diseases of the murals, the cultural relics restoration experts unveiled the murals little by little and packed them back to the laboratory for restoration.
It is a very brain-burning task to piece together thousands of pieces of murals of different sizes, uneven thicknesses and degrees of damage into a complete mural.
Cultural relics restoration experts first perform computer image restoration of the mural, determine the scope of the missing area of the picture, and then use a pencil to outline the outline of the fragments on the mural supplemental material, and then wet the area with cleaning agent to soften, and then use a scalpel to remove the improper repair in the middle, and restore the damaged picture little by little.
Fragments of frescoes are inlaid with parts. Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum
Restoration experts clean the grass mud layer on the back of the mural. Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum
After the line restoration, the restoration specialist uses a handheld X-fluorescence detection analyzer to detect and analyze the composition information of the paint on the surface of the mural to determine the color composition of the mural surface and restore it.
Conservatory experts use a handheld X-fluorescence detector to detect the pigment composition of murals. Courtesy of Shaanxi History Museum
"The main colors of the basalt murals are yellow and orange-red, and there is a small amount of sky blue in the auspicious cloud part. In the test results, it was inferred that the yellow pigment was mainly lead yellow, orange red was ochre, and sky blue was mixed pigment. Yang Wenzong said that according to the results of the detection analyzer, the restoration experts strictly selected the corresponding mineral pigments for debugging to ensure that the colors of the newly restored part of the mural were harmonious with other parts.
From the final restoration mural, it can be seen that this basalt drawing has natural lines, bright colors, skillful painting techniques, and vivid facial expressions and realistic postures of turtles and snakes in the picture.
Yang Wenzong said that the restoration of the Xuanwu map highlights the new concept of mural restoration in China in recent years, that is, to distinguish between the initial state of the original cultural relics and the damage of the day after tomorrow in the restoration, which reflects both archaeological value and artistic value. "Reborn cultural relics through sophisticated scientific and technological means is the mission of cultural relics protection workers, and it is also a challenging task, which highlights the craftsmanship spirit of cultural relics protection and restoration workers."
◎ Science and Technology Daily reporter Shi Junbin Fu Xiaobo
Source: Science and Technology Daily