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Article

Color Paintings of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Royal Residence: An Analytical Study

by
Gele Teri
1,
Peng Fu
2,
Kezhu Han
1,
Jiaxin Li
1,
Yanli Li
1,
Zhihui Jia
1,*,
Yongjin Wang
2,* and
Yuhu Li
1,*
1
Engineering Research Center of Historical Cultural Heritage Conservation, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China
2
Shaanxi Institute for the Preservation of Culture Heritage, Xi’an 710004, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Coatings 2022, 12(12), 1880; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings12121880
Submission received: 24 October 2022 / Revised: 29 November 2022 / Accepted: 29 November 2022 / Published: 3 December 2022
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Abstract

:
Color paintings have much aesthetic value and historical importance. This study examined the color paintings of the east pillar of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s Great Hall. The pillars in interiors of ancient buildings were painted with a layer of red lacquer. The painted pillars are valuable because they symbolize the highest rank of a building’s hierarchy and the esteemed status of the owner. In this study, we investigated pigments, inorganic fillers, and adhesives used in the color paintings of the royal residence. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, polarized light microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy were used to investigate the pigments of the paintings. Pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (Py–GC/MS) was used to classify the composition of adhesives. The results showed that the painted pigments included vermilion (HgS), graphite (C), white lead (2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2), and lead red (Pb3O4). The Py–GC/MS showed possible presence of tung oil and flour in the mortar. The X-ray diffraction demonstrated the presence of limewater and brick dust (gismondine, dolomite). The analyses of pigment, inorganic fillers, and adhesives of the Taiping royal palace paintings provide information on the long-standing preservation of the paintings.

1. Introduction

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Palace, located in Yixing City, Jiangsu Province, was declared as a provincial unit of protection of cultural relics by the Central People’s Government in March 1982. The Yixing Taiping Royal Palace was originally the residence of a scholar of the surname Shi during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty. In 1860, when the Taiping army captured Yixing, the old residence of Shi surname was used to convert it into a royal residence of Yang Fuqing, the king of the Taiping Dynasty. Twelve murals were saved in the royal residence of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Each mural reflects some of the social events of the time. With regard to the Taiping murals, Yu Jianhua stated in his book History of Chinese Mural Painting that “(by) the end of the Qing dynasty, the decline of Chinese painting had reached its peak”.
The Yixing Taiping murals and color paintings are also of great scientific value. The differences and similarities between Qing dynasty folk color painting and official style color painting, from the craft practices to the materials used, are key topics of research. The present analytical study provides a deeper understanding of Qing dynasty color paintings. Color painting in ancient architecture involved three main components: the wood body support material, mortar layer, and pigments [1,2,3]. Mineral pigments were the most popular for use in paint in the past due to their availability, wide variety of colors, and physical and chemical properties. In color painting in ancient architecture, the red mineral pigments included vermilion (HgS), lead red (Pb3O4), and hematite (Fe2O3). Yellow pigments, such as realgar (As4S4), orpiment (As2S3), yellow ochre (FeO·OH/Fe2O3·XH2O), massicot (β-PbO), lead antimony yellow (Pb(SbO3)2), pyrite (FeS2), sulfur (S), malachite (CuCO3·Cu(OH)2), botallackite (Cu2(OH)3Cl), and emerald green (Cu(C2H3O2)2·3Cu(AsO2)2), were commonly used to produce green pigments. Blue pigments included ultramarine blue (Na6Al4Si6S4O20), covellite (CuS), and Chinese blue (BaCuSi4O10). White pigments included chalk (CaCO3) and lead white (2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2). Black pigments included iron black (Fe3O4), graphite (C), and lead dioxide (PbO2) [4,5].
Several studies have been conducted on the pigment composition and production process of frescoes, with testing methods comparable to those used for architectural paintings. To date, various methods have been used to analyze and identify pigments used in artefacts, including visible light microscopy, polarized light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) [6,7,8], energy dispersive X-ray detector (EDX) [9,10], X-ray fluorescence (XRF) [11], and micro-Raman spectroscopy (m-RS) [12,13,14,15,16]. For example, m-RS was used to identify pigments in the wall paintings of the Arshai caves [12] and the wall painting of Santa María de Lemoniz [17].
The mortar was composed of brick dust (albite gismondine), drying oil (tung oil), flour, limewater, and blood [1,18,19]. Artists in antiquity used a variety of natural organic materials, such as oils, lipids, proteins, polysaccharides, waxes, resins, and varnishes. The most common natural organic material used in polychromatic artworks in East-Asian and Western countries was drying oil, which served as a binding medium [20,21,22]. In addition, Western artists predominantly used linseed oil, poppy oil, or walnut oil, whereas East-Asian artists predominantly used tung oil [23]. The desiccation of drying oils is accompanied by chemical ageing reactions, which typically include photooxidation, the cleavage or decomposition reactions of cross-linked materials, and the hydrolysis of triacylglycerol bonds [24]. Drying oil films are chemically rich and their chemical composition changes over time. Studies have used gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS) [24,25,26,27], capillary electrophoresis (CE) [28], nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) [29], infrared spectroscopy (IR) [30,31], Raman spectroscopy (RS) [22,32,33], and micro-fluorimetry [34] to analyze drying oils. However, these methods are typically accompanied by complex pre-cracking reactions [35] or are unable to yield results on specific oil substances. Nonetheless, these methods can effectively distinguish drying oil from other binding media [32,33,34]. Researchers generally use Py–GC/MS to analyze the materials in mortar [36]. Compared with the aforementioned methods, Py–GC/MS is more efficient at identifying different types of binder mixtures [5,35,37,38].
To explore the materials used, samples were analyzed for structural thickness and pigment particles by using polarized light microscopy. A multi-analysis of the pigments was conducted by using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometer and m-RS. XRD was used to analyze the inorganic filler materials in the mortar. Py–GC/MS was used to identify the binding materials in the mortar.

2. Materials and Experiment

2.1. Pigment Sample Information

The samples of red-1, white, black, and red-2 pigments from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Palace (YiXing, China) were taken from the east pillar of the Great Hall of the Palace, The pigment samples were taken from the damaged places (Table 1).

2.2. Cross-Section Preparation

A small number of samples, including red, white, black, and red-2 pigments, were embedded with resin, cooled, and solidified at room temperature. After cutting the samples with cutter bar to get the flakes, we ground the surface with mesh sandpaper beginning with 4000 grit and ending with 12,000 grit until it was smooth. Finally, the cross-section of the pigments was observed by using an optical microscope (Olympus BX53M, Shinjuku, Japan).

2.3. Analysis of Pigment

ED-XRF: The primary application of the Tokyo, Japan-based Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy EDX-7000 is for the elemental detection of pigments. ED-XRF has a high-performance silicon drift detector and X-ray tube (Rh target) installed. All tests were conducted at 25 kV; under air test conditions; at a range of 11 Na to 92 U; over 300 s; and with collimators of sizes 1, 3, 5, and 10 mm.
m-RS: The Renishaw InVia Reflex spectroscope (in Via Reflex, Renishaw Co., Wotton-under-Edge, UK) is equipped with Leica microscopes, an argon ion laser, a charge-coupled detector, and a 50× objective, with 400 lines/mm, a spot size of 2 mm, a scan range of 100–4000 cm−1 and an exposure time of 30 s, an accumulation of 1–3, and a laser power of 1–2 mW. Red and black pigments were analyzed with the 532-nm laser, white pigments were analyzed with the 785-nm laser.
POM: Polarized light microscopy (PLM, Olympus BX53M, Shinjuku, Japan) was used to visualize cross sections. The scraped pigment particles were soaked in ethanol and then dripped onto the glass slide. After ethanol evaporation, a cover glass was placed over the pigment particles, and resin was melted through the cover glass. Finally, PLM was used to examine the crystal characteristics of pigment particles (PLM; Olympus BX53M; Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan). The PLM has an achromatic polarized light module acquisition lens to visualize cross sections. Horizontal and perpendicular polarized light was used to investigate the crystal properties of the pigment particles.

2.4. Analysis of the Mortar Layer Material

After grinding the red pigment into powder, we used the XDR assay to analyze the sample. The inorganic filler composition in the ointment was measured using XRD (Rigaku D/max-Rc, Tokyo, Japan) with Cu Kα radiation at a wavelength of 1.54059 A, a 2θ range of 10° to 80°; a tube voltage and tube current of 45 kV and 200 mA, respectively; and a discrete scan step of 0.01°.
Approximately 50 μg of the remaining sample was taken into a thermal laser with 3 μL of 20% tetramethylammonium hydroxide for pretreatment. The sample was placed in an autosampler and pyrolyzed at 600 °C after resting for 30 min. After the pyrolysis, the product was identified by using GC-MS. Py–GC/MS comprises two pieces of equipment, the first was used for pyrolysis (EGA/PY-3030D, Frontier Labs, Koriyama, Japan) at a thermal cracking temperature, thermal cracking time, syringe temperature, and interface temperature of the syringe and chromatograph at 600 °C, 10 s, 250 °C, and 320 °C, respectively. The other was used for GC/MS (QP2010Ultra, Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan) and features a SLB-5MS chromatography column (5% diphenyl–95% dimethylsiloxane). The initial temperature of the oven containing the column was set to 50 °C and then held for 5 min. The temperature was then increased at a rate of 3 °C/min to a final temperature of 292 °C that was held for 3 min. The pre-column pressure, the flow rate, and the separation ratio were adjusted to 15.4 kPa, 0.6 mL/min, and 1:100, respectively. In addition, the ionization voltage, scan rate, and mass-to-charge ratio (M/Z) of the mass spectrometer were set to 70 eV, 0.5 s, and 50 to 750, respectively.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Cross-Section

The samples black, red-1, red-2, and white and base layers were selected for cross-sectional analysis. According to the cross sections in Table 2, the red-1 sample had three main layers: layer ‘a’ is a painting layer, layer ‘b’ is a base color, and layer ‘c’ is a ground layer with the thickness of approximately 55, 46, and 302 μm, respectively. The structure of the sample red-2 was comparable to that of the red-1. The thickness of the red-2 sample’s layers a, b, and c were approximately 35, 74, and 173 μm, respectively. The black sample mainly contained black pigment with the thickness of 67 μm and ground layer with the thickness of >1000 μm. In addition to white pigment and ground layer, the white sample contained two layers of the base color (b1 and b2), with the layers’ thickness of 25, 7, 57, and 302 μm, respectively. The red-1 and red-2 samples had the same cross-sectional composition and had three layers (pigment layer, base layer, and ground layer), which was common in painting in ancient Chinese architecture, with the black pigment being painted directly onto the ground layer but with the white pigment having two base layers with a possibility of subsequent repainting. Additional studies are needed to investigate the black and white pigments.

3.2. Pigment

3.2.1. Red-1 Pigment

The Raman spectra of the red pigment revealed distinct peaks at 253, 284, and 342 cm−1 (Figure 1a), was assigned to vermilion (HgS) [12,17,39,40,41,42,43,44]. The ED-XRF analysis revealed that the red pigment had main elements, such as Hg, S, Ca, Fe, Si, Pb, Hg, and S, which were the components of vermilion. The pigment particles of the red sample in Figure 2a are shown as long strips or fractured rocks, and those in Figure 2b are shown as fiery red and pale yellow under vertically polarized light. Consistent with the polarized character of the vermilion, vermilion red, an important and common red pigment, was used extensively in many ancient Chinese architectural paintings, frescoes, silk paintings, and paintings on silk and paper, and appeared in its own form as vermilion painting [45,46,47,48].

3.2.2. Black Pigment

Black pigment samples were analyzed by ED-XRF (Table 3). The ED-XRF analysis revealed a red pigment with main elements of Ca, Fe, S, K, and Si, with a high content of Fe (22.52%). Therefore, we propose that the black paint is iron black. The ED-XRF did not give provide definitive data on the components. We propose that the black pigment is carbon black. Figure 1b is the Raman spectrum of black pigment with two wide crests at approximately 1380 and 1590 cm−1, which were each attributed to the v(C–C) and v(C=C) D-band and G-band [41,42,43,49,50,51].
The black sample pigment particles were small, agglomerated, and irregular (Figure 2c) with full extinction under perpendicular polarized light (Figure 2d). This is comparable to the polarized character of the graphite. The high content of Fe might be caused by the partial shedding of pigment particles in the color painting sample and the detected the mortar layer material.

3.2.3. White Pigment

The ED-XRF results in Table 3 indicate white pigments with high amounts of lead elements. We speculate that the white pigment is a lead-based mineral pigment. The Raman spectrum of white pigment had two peaks at 417 and 1052 cm−1, indicating the presence of lead white (2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2) [12,41,43,52,53,54,55]. These peaks approximately at 165, 417 and 1052 cm−1 could be attributed to the band vibration of the Pb–O. The white sample pigment particles were flat crystals with black well-defined edges in Figure 2e that disappeared under perpendicular polarized light in Figure 2f. This was comparable to that of the polarized character of the lead white.

3.2.4. Red-2 Pigment

Figure 1 shows the Raman spectrum of the red-2 pigment peaks at 120 cm−1, which is consistent with those of previous studies, where the Raman spectrum of lead red (Pb3O4) peaked at 120 and 548 cm−1 [12,41,43,52,53,56]. The red-2 sample pigment particles were red-2-red in color, without good crystal edges, with a rough surface (Figure 2g), and with anomalous blue-green extinction under perpendicular polarized light in Figure 2h. At the same time, a small number of pigment particles showed the characteristics of cinnabar under vertical polarized light. The red-2 pigment is lead red (Pb3O4) with a bit of vermilion, which is consistent with the polarized feature of lead red and with the results of m-RS and ED-XRF elemental analysis. In order to adjust the color, the doping application of several pigments is a common painting process.

3.3. Analysis of the Mortar Layer Material

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, mortar was generally composed of brick ash, limewater, fiber, blood, and tung oil [19]. Because the cross-section analysis showed that the plastic did not contain hemp fibers, we ground the mortar part of the sample into a powder for XRD imaging.
The XRD spectra of the gypsum showed in the Figure 3 that many peaks were at 2θ values of 21°, 26°, 36°, 39°, 41°, 42°, 45°, 50°, 55°, 60°, and 68°, which was attributed to the mineral gismondine (CaAl2Si2O8-4H2O) based on JCPDS 20-0452 [57,58]. The peak at 28° was the same as the typical peak for dolomite. The diffraction peak at 30° differed from that of the calcite phase (CaCO3) according to JCPDS 43-0697 caused by limewater. This may be ascribed to the reaction between limewater and carbon dioxide in air [59]. The carbonization of cross-linked tung oil caused the diffraction peaks at 22°, 24°, 31°, and 35°, which could be assigned to graphitized coke. The formation of crystalline was different from that of the mineral elements in the biomass, which were formed during the pyrolysis process. During the formation of biochar by charring, a large amount of crystalline cellulose, amorphous carbon, and carbonates were formed [60,61].
Figure 4 illustrates the total ion chromatogram of the samples by using Py–GC/MS, with the pyrolysis byproducts shown in Table 4. Table 4 shows the results of the heated products containing mainly oxidation products of unsaturated fatty acids [62], including glycerol (peak 1), methyl 6-heptenoic acid (peak 2), octanoic acid (peak 3), heptanedioic acid (peak 6), 1-tetradecene (peak 5), 9-oxonononanoic acid (peak 6), octanedioic acid (peak 7), and azelaic acid (peak 8). Palmitic acid (peaks 9/10/11), bicyclo [3.1.1] hept-2-ene-2-ethanol,6,6-dimethyl-acetate (peak 12) and methyl arachidate (peak 13) are saturated fatty acids in the oil. The high content of azelaic acid (peak 8), an α-eleostearic acid, was formed by the autoxidation process of tung oil after boiling [36,62,63]. In addition, 9,10-dihydroxyoctadecanoic acid was not noted to be among the pyrolysis products. We speculate that 9,10-dihydroxyoctadecanoic acid was only present in poppy oil, wax oil, and hemp seed oil [64] but not tung oil. In conclusion, the mortar contained drying oil (tung oil) and, possibly, flour.

4. Conclusions

This study examined the pigments and the mortar layer material used in the painting of the royal residence of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The analysis of cross sections of the painted samples showed that the red-1 and red-2 samples had a three-layer structure (the ground layer, base color layer, and pigment layer). The black sample primarily contained a black pigment and a ground layer. The white sample had four layers with an additional base color layer compared with those of the other three pigment samples. Additional studies are needed to investigate the causes of that phenomenon. We used ED-XRF, PLM, and m-RS spectroscopy to analyze the pigments of the Taiping royal palace color paintings. The results were as follows: the red pigments were vermilion, the black pigments were graphite, the white pigments were lead white, and the red-2 pigments were lead red and vermilion. The Py–GC/MS analysis indicated the possible presence of tung oil in the mortar. The XRD demonstrated the limewater and brick dust in the mortar. These results could be used as a reference for subsequent conservation and restoration of artwork. On the basis of these findings, samples can be made to simulate and validate the restoration process of colored paintings, which is crucial for the conservation of murals.

Author Contributions

Y.L. (Yuhu Li); Data curation, G.T., P.F., K.H. and J.L.; Formal analysis, G.T. and Z.J.; Funding acquisition, Z.J.; Investigation, Y.L. (Yanli Li) and Y.W.; Methodology, Y.L. (Yuhu Li); Project administration, Y.L. (Yuhu Li); Writing—original draft, G.T. and Z.J.; Writing—review & editing, Z.J. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 22002080), Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province, China (Grant No. 2021GY-172), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. GK 202103060).

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Abbreviations

ED-XRF: energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy; PLM: polarized light microscopy; XRD: X-ray diffraction; Py-GC/MS: pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. m-RS: micro-Raman spectroscopy.

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Coatings 12 01880 g001 550
Figure 1. Raman spectra of (a) the red-1 pigment (vermilion; HgS); (b) the black pigment (carbon black; C); (c) the white pigment (lead-white; 2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2); (d) the red-2 pigment (lead red; Pb3O4).
Figure 1. Raman spectra of (a) the red-1 pigment (vermilion; HgS); (b) the black pigment (carbon black; C); (c) the white pigment (lead-white; 2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2); (d) the red-2 pigment (lead red; Pb3O4).
Coatings 12 01880 g001
Coatings 12 01880 g002 550
Figure 2. Pictures of horizontal polarized light (a,c,e,g) and perpendicular polarized light (b,d,f,h). PLM image of red pigment (M1), black pigment (M2), white pigment (M3) and red-2 pigment (M4).
Figure 2. Pictures of horizontal polarized light (a,c,e,g) and perpendicular polarized light (b,d,f,h). PLM image of red pigment (M1), black pigment (M2), white pigment (M3) and red-2 pigment (M4).
Coatings 12 01880 g002
Coatings 12 01880 g003 550
Figure 3. XRD spectra of the inorganic fillers in sample mortar.
Figure 3. XRD spectra of the inorganic fillers in sample mortar.
Coatings 12 01880 g003
Coatings 12 01880 g004 550
Figure 4. Total ion chromatography of mortar samples.
Figure 4. Total ion chromatography of mortar samples.
Coatings 12 01880 g004
Table
Table 1. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Palace sampling location.
Table 1. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Palace sampling location.
Sampling LocationSample PositonMicrographies of
Samples.		Color
Coatings 12 01880 i001Coatings 12 01880 i002Coatings 12 01880 i003Red-1
Coatings 12 01880 i004Coatings 12 01880 i005White
Coatings 12 01880 i006Coatings 12 01880 i007Red-2
Coatings 12 01880 i008Coatings 12 01880 i009Black
Table
Table 2. Cross-section of a sample acquired by using ultra-depth three-dimensional microscopy.
Table 2. Cross-section of a sample acquired by using ultra-depth three-dimensional microscopy.
SampleCross-Section MicrographCompositionThicknessTotal Number of Layers
Red-1Coatings 12 01880 i010a-red pigment
b-base color
c-ground layer		55 μm
46 μm
302 μm		3
Red-2Coatings 12 01880 i011a-red-2 pigment
b-base color
c-ground layer		35 μm
74 μm
173 μm		3
BlackCoatings 12 01880 i012a-black pigment
b-ground layer		67 μm
>1000 μm		2
WhiteCoatings 12 01880 i013a-white pigment
b-base color
c-base color
d-ground layer		25 μm
7 μm
57 μm
119 μm		4
Table
Table 3. Information on sample and elemental composition of the sample.
Table 3. Information on sample and elemental composition of the sample.
SampleAnalysis
Methods		Main Elements (wt%)Composition of Pigments
Red-1 PigmentED-XRF, m-RS and PLMHg(40.27), S(30.64), Ca(12.79),
Fe(5.29), Si(5.21)		HgS
Black PigmentED-XRF, m-RS and PLMCa(39.30), Fe(22.52), S(19.89),
K(7.04), Si(6.476)		Iron black (Fe3O4) or C(graphite)
White PigmentED-XRF, m-RS and PLMPb(78.77), Ca(9.72), Si(5.99),
K(2.95), Fe(2.14)		2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2
Red-2 PigmentED-XRF, m-RS and PLMPb(76.64), Hg(9.22), Si(7.89),
Ca(4.47), Fe(0.90)		Pb3O4 and HgS
Table
Table 4. Composition of compound of mortar samples.
Table 4. Composition of compound of mortar samples.
Peak
Number		Retention Time
(min)		Pear Area (%)Compound
17.3391.7Glycerol
210.550.91Methyl 6-heptenoic acid
312.5120.64Octanoic acid
415.2170.87Heptane dioic acid
515.6330.371-Tetradecene
616.0961.589-Oxo-nonanoic acid
716.1763.21Octane dioic acid
817.04918.37Dimethyl azelate (azelaic acid)
919.87519.95Palmitic acid
1021.0397.75Palmitic acid
1121.18317.11Stearic acid
1221.3791.43Bicyclo [3.1.1] hept-2-ene-2-ethanol,6,6-dimethyl-acetate
1322.3811.48Methyl arachidate
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Teri, G.; Fu, P.; Han, K.; Li, J.; Li, Y.; Jia, Z.; Wang, Y.; Li, Y. Color Paintings of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Royal Residence: An Analytical Study. Coatings 2022, 12, 1880. https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings12121880

AMA Style

Teri G, Fu P, Han K, Li J, Li Y, Jia Z, Wang Y, Li Y. Color Paintings of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Royal Residence: An Analytical Study. Coatings. 2022; 12(12):1880. https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings12121880

Chicago/Turabian Style

Teri, Gele, Peng Fu, Kezhu Han, Jiaxin Li, Yanli Li, Zhihui Jia, Yongjin Wang, and Yuhu Li. 2022. "Color Paintings of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Royal Residence: An Analytical Study" Coatings 12, no. 12: 1880. https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings12121880

APA Style

Teri, G., Fu, P., Han, K., Li, J., Li, Y., Jia, Z., Wang, Y., & Li, Y. (2022). Color Paintings of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Royal Residence: An Analytical Study. Coatings, 12(12), 1880. https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings12121880

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