Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T13:57:58.512Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Chinese Budhi ST Brconzes in the Freer Gallery of Art: Physical Features and Elemental Composition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2011

Paul J Eit  and
Janet G. Douglas
Paul J Eit
Affiliation:
Freer Gallery of Art/Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Department of Conservation and Scientific Research Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560
Janet G. Douglas
Affiliation:
Freer Gallery of Art/Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Department of Conservation and Scientific Research Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560
Get access

Abstract

Technical studies were performed on one hundred and seven Chinese copper-alloy sculptures dating from the fifth to the nineteenth centuries A. D. in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art. X-radiography, stereomicroscopy and metallography were used to determine various physical features; atomic absorption spectroscopy was used to characterize the metal composition. All sculptures were determined to be cast by the lost wax method, and details were tooled by engraving and chasing. Metallographic examination and microprobe analysis showed that the gilding technique used was mercury gilding. Bronzes from the Northern Wei to the Song dynasty are similar in their physical characteristics and alloy type, leaded tin bronze. Beginning in the Ming dynasty, an increase in the amount of zinc is found, both as an impurity in tin bronzes and as a brass alloy constituent.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 267: Symposium J – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology III , 1992 , 205
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1992

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

Referenes

1. Soper, Alexander, Literary Evidence for Early Buddhist Artin China, (Ascona, Switzerland, 1959).Google Scholar
2. Seiichi, Mizuno, Chinese Sculpture, (Nihon keizai shimbunsha, Tokyo, 1960), p.7.Google Scholar
3. Beguin, G. and Liszak-Hours, J., Annales du Laboratoire de Recherche des Musees de France, 28–82 (1982).Google Scholar
4. Craddock, P. T., in Application of Science in Examination of Works of Art, edited by England, Pamela and vanZelst, Lambertus, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1985) pp. 59–67.Google Scholar
5. Dubrovin, A. F., Kinzoku Hakubutsukan Kiyo, (Bulletin of the Metals Museum) 13, 22–30 (1988).Google Scholar
6. Uhlig, H., Das bild des Buddha, (Safari Verlag, Berlin, 1979).Google Scholar
7. Bowman, S. G. E., Cowell, M. R., and Cribb, J., Historical Metallurgy 23, (1), 25–30 (1987).Google Scholar
8. Cowell, M. R., Cribb, J., Bowman, S. G. E., and Shashoua, Y., in Proceedings: Techniques of Coin Production, (Royal Numismatic Society, London, 1988).Google Scholar
9. Fabrizi, M., Report on Later Chinese Copper Alloys, Ms. onfile, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1988 (unpublished).Google Scholar
10. Dwun-Ping, Yu, in Recent Advances in Conservation, edited by Black, J., (Sumner School Press, London, 1987) pp. 119–124.Google Scholar
11. Munsterberg, Hugo, Chinese Buddhist Bronzes, (Charles E. Tuttle, Rutland, Vermont, 1967).Google Scholar
12. Jett, Paul, Archives of Asian Art, XLIII, 59–60 (1990).Google Scholar
13. Jett, Paul, in The History of Metal Plating and Patination,edited by Niece, S. La and Craddock, P.T., (Butterworth,London, 1993, forthcoming).Google Scholar
14. Asai, Kazuharu (personal conmmunication).Google Scholar
15. Hughes, M. J., Cowell, M. R., and Craddock, P. T.,Archaeometry, 18, 19–26 (1976).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16. Jett, Paul, in Der Goldschatz der Drei Pagoden, edited by Lutz, Albert, (Gebunden, Zurich, 1991) pp. 68–74.Google Scholar
17. Seiichi, Mizuno, op. cit. pl. 117.Google Scholar
18. Soper, Alexander, Chinese. Korean. and Japanese Bronzes, (Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Rome, 1966), Figs. 27 a-d.Google Scholar
19. Sayre, Edward V. (personal communication).Google Scholar