Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T14:02:05.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Nondestructive analysis of a painting, a national treasure in Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2012

Yasuhiro Hayakawa
Affiliation:
National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, Japan
Seiji Shirono
Affiliation:
National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, Japan
Sadatoshi Miura
Affiliation:
National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, Japan
Tomohide Matsushima
Affiliation:
Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo, Japan
Tokugo Uchida
Affiliation:
MOA Museum of Art, Shizuoka, Japan

Abstract

The painting materials and drawing techniques of a pair of two-panel folding screens entitled Red and White Plum Blossoms by Ogata Korin, a national treasure in Japan, were investigated directly and nondestructively by XRF, X-ray radiography, and high resolution digital imaging. Several assumptions were made about the materials used in the red and white plum trees drawn on the right and left screens, respectively, and the river drawn at the center. By the present investigation, the materials used for the paintings were revealed, and some of them contradicted what have been previously believed.

Type
X-Ray Fluorescence
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ferrero, J. L., Roldán, C., Ardid, M., and Navarro, E. (1999). “X-ray fluorescence analysis of yellow pigments in altarpieces by Valencian artists of the XV and XVI centuries,” Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. ANIMAER10.1016/S0168-9002(98)01125-5 422, 868873.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayakawa, Y. (2004). “Portable XRF analysis of Japanese historical objects,” Adv. X-Ray Anal.AXRAAA 47, 3641.Google Scholar
Mantler, M., Screiner, M., Weber, F., Ebner, R., and Mairinger, F. (1992). “An X-ray spectrometer for pixel analysis of art objects,” Adv. X-Ray Anal.AXRAAA 35B, 987993.Google Scholar
Zarkadas, Ch. and Karydas, A. G. (2004). “A portable semi-micro-X-ray fluorescence spectrometer for archaeometrical studies,” Spectrochim. Acta, Part BSAASBH 59, 16111618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar