This study aims to examine the pigment and painting technique of portraits, documentary and decorative paintings whose production time is known relatively accurate among the paintings after the mid-Joseon Dynasty, and to analyze the pattern change fr...
This study aims to examine the pigment and painting technique of portraits, documentary and decorative paintings whose production time is known relatively accurate among the paintings after the mid-Joseon Dynasty, and to analyze the pattern change from 17th century to 20th century.
A total of 17 portraits possessed by the Seoul Museum of History including 6 portraits, 6 documentary paintings, 5 decorative paintings were analyzed using Portable µ-XRF spectrometer (Rontec, ArtTAX) by classifying the pigment color into black, white, yellow, red, green and blue. Digital microscope (Scalar, DG-3) was used to analyze the pigment particles and coloration condition, and X-rays was taken using Digital real time X-ray inspection system (Yxlon, MG226) for <Portrait of Lee Ha-eung>.
The followings are the result of the examination on the 17 paintings along with the already reported 30 portraits after the mid-Joseon Dynasty.
The pigments mainly used during the 17th~18th century are chinese ink stick for black, lead white for white, litharge and orpiment (or massicot) for yellow, cinnabar, minium and red ocher for red, malachite for green, azurite and smalt for blue, and organic pigments of yellow, red, green, blue and violet were also used. In addition, shell white, kaolin, yellow ocher, gold and silver were found in part. In the late 19th century, western pigments were imported from emerald green, titanium white, prussian blue and ultramarine blue, followed by western green mixed with baryte in the early 20th century. Such a change was conspicuous in portraits and decorative paintings where western green mixed with baryte was found in the 20th century painting.
Smalt pigment started to be used from the 18th century until the late 19th century, which was Western smalt. Also, gold and silver were found in portraits and decorative paintings whereas not found in documentary paintings. The reasons are that the use of decorative pigments was restricted in documentary works since documentary works aim to record and distribute incidents.
In most paintings, a single pigment was used whereas mixed pigments were also used in case of red and yellow, and green and violet. A mixed pigment (estimated as vermilion) of cinnabar and minium was found in red.
According to 『Chubongchakbonguigwe』, the only painting whose production records still remain among the study objects, the recorded pigment and the actually used pigment were found different, which requires re-examination after more information are collected in the future.
Painting technique can be divided by back-painting, ground-painting, shading, and multi-layered painting. Back-painting, as a basic painting technique of portraits, is used in face and attire. For face in portraits, lead white mixed with a small amount of red ocher, cinnabar, or organic pigment is used for back-painting, and yellow or red organic pigment is used for shading. In most cases, the whole eyes or the white part of the eyes are painted with lead white, but in some portraits, face color or chinese ink stick or gold are used. Only some parts of the hats including Samo are found to have the back-painting with gold leaf or lead white, and in case of costume, back-painting with lead white are found in collar. The study shows that back-painting is the most frequently used technique regardless of production times, except the pigment used for face contour where cinnabar and chinese ink stick found in 17th century, replaced with red ocher in 18th and 19th century. Such back-painting is found in a documentary painting <Kyungsuyeondo> whereas not found in decorative paintings.
Meanwhile, ground-painting is found in the whole documentary paintings of the 17th century in which a mixture of lead white · orpiment · malachite (or azurite) · yellow ocher or shell white was used.
With respect to color shading, lead white or chinese ink stick are used, which is found throughout the whole period following the mid-Joseon Dynasty. Multi-layered paintings are often found in decorative paintings where yellow, red or violet organic pigment are applied on top of lead white or kaolin, or gold leaf on orpiment, whose purpose seems good color development. An analysis of the 19th century work along with the already reported analysis results of the 17th and 18th century blue-green landscape painting technique shows that azurite was used on top of malachite in 17th century, and smalt started to be used from 18th century replacing azurite and in the 19th century, smalt was used widely.