The binding media of the polychromy of Qin Shihuang's Terracotta Army

The "Terracotta Army" is a worldwide known archaeological finding in China. It is a part of the burial complex of the emperor Qin Shihuangdi (259-210 BC), which is still under excavation and study. The fact that the sculptures, chariots and weapons of the First Chinese Emperor's Terracotta Army were originally all painted in bright colours is still not widely known. The chemical characterisation of the paint medium was performed through an analytical procedure based on GC-MS. The proteinaceous binder was identified for the first time through a desalting procedure used in proteomics. The identification of egg as a paint binder is extremely interesting in terms of the historical significance of the work of art itself and important in terms of the method of conservation. Moreover it represents one of the first steps towards an understanding of the painting technique used on ancient sculptures in China, of which - despite their fame - nothing is yet known. (c) 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved

Untersuchungen zur Erhaltung chinesischer Polychromien der Qin- und Han-Zeit mittels elektronenmikroskopischer, videoholographischer sowie ausgewaehlter biologischer und chemischer Methoden Schlussbericht

SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F01B897 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

Historical aircraft paints: Analytical pyrolysis for the identification of paint binders used on two Messerschmitt Bf 109 planes

Historical airplanes have entered museum collections to show the development of aviation and are part of our technical heritage. The period between the 1920′s and 1945 is characterized by giant progressions in the chemical industry. During these years a wide increase in the production of new materials and solvents was observed, that replaced the natural materials used in the aircraft industries due to their improved properties. In Germany this industrial development was counteracted by preparations for the war that aimed at a self-sufficiency based on German products and thus an independency of the international market. This work presents the analyses of the organic binders of painted layers of a Messerschmitt Bf 109 model E-3 used until the 1955 and repainted several times until the 1974 and a cabin roof from a Bf 109 model B built in the 1937–1938 lost during the flight and never repainted. The microscopic analyses performed on the samples from the two planes allowed us to characterize the presence of a high and variable number of paint layers. These layers adhere extremely well on each other and are very brittle. For this reason, it was almost impossible to separate them for analytical purposes by mechanical means. In this study we applied for the first time analytical pyrolysis coupled with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry for the characterization of the painted layers from the two planes. The combination of the versatility of analytical pyrolysis together with the high selectivity of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry allowed us to fully characterize and discriminate the synthetic and natural materials used in both airplanes, and to characterize the original paint binders as being composed of alkyd resin, phenol formaldehyde resin and nitrocellulose

The organic materials in the Five Northern Provinces’ Assembly Hall: disclosing the painting technique of the Qing dynasty painters in civil buildings

The beiwusheng huiguan (‘Meeting hall of the Five Northern Dynasties’) is a building complex from the Qing dynasty (1636–1912 ad) located in Wafangdian, near Ziyang, in the south of the Chinese Province of Shaanxi. Two of the preserved halls are richly decorated with wall paintings dated probably in 1848 ad and representing scenes of the ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ and Confucian moral tales. They are a rare example of well-preserved mural paintings of high artistic value inside civil buildings. The aims of this paper are the chemical characterization and localization of organic materials used as binders and colorants in the wall paintings. A multi-analytical approach, consisting in the combined use of gas chromatographic–mass spectrometric techniques (GC/MS and Py-GC/MS) and high-pressure liquid chromatography with diode array detector (HPLC–DAD), was chosen for these purposes. Proteinaceous materials (animal glue and egg), saccharide material (fruit tree gum) and a siccative oil were identified in different paint layers supplying invaluable information about the painting technique used. Moreover, the analyses of organic dyes allowed identifying indigo and gallic acid in more than one sample adding fundamental information about Chinese artists’ techniques in mural paintings, missing from the previous studies. To shed light on the gilding technique, the distribution of the painting materials was achieved by means of synchrotron radiation Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (SR micro-FTIR) and X-ray fluorescence (SR micro-XRF). The results obtained from the multi-analytical approach enabled us to determine the organic materials both binders and organic colorants used by Chinese artisans, highlighting the high technical level achieved in nineteenth century. The binding media and the organic colorants identified, as well as their distribution, allowed the discussion on the painting technique used by the artists of the Qing dynasty giving information for the first time about the decoration of Chinese civil buildings