2 | Thursday, January 14, 2021 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY PAGE TWO

From left: A visitor copies a portrait of a woman from the Tang Dynasty (618­907) at The Treasures of Prosperity, an exhibition of murals from that era staged in Taiwan. The display has attracted many young people in traditional dress. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Murals: ‘Time capsules’ showcase era

From page 1 in the institution’s laboratory. he was responsible for relocating the Over the years, protecting murals has 1 “These murals, which are made from clay, murals, which involved a series of compli­ been a tough task in safeguarding cultural The collection at Shaanxi History Muse­ are quite fragile. To restore them, they first cated procedures. relics at home and abroad. um, housed in an area of more than 1,000 need removing from the walls they are on,” Based on his years of experience, Yang In the West, murals can be traced to pre­ square meters in the Treasure Hall of the he said, adding that the fragile coverings on said two factors play a key role in restor­ historic times, and during the Renaissance Tang Dynasty Mural Paintings, features the back of the artworks also need reinforc­ ing murals — minimum interference and in Italy, they demonstrated the era’s more than 600 artworks. ing. reversibility. immense prosperity. It is China’s first collection of Tang Dynas­ Before being moved, pieces of thin cloths “Reversibility means that when our Records show that murals were first pro­ ty tomb murals, and the exhibition hall is is stuck to the front of a mural with peach specialists want to restore the murals lat­ tected in Western countries hundreds of the country’s largest for such artworks. Both gum to protect the artwork. er on, the materials added for restoration years ago. the collection and the hall are the result of “The glue has to be dissolvable, as it needs work can be replaced with new ones at Zhou Weiqiang, a researcher in the cultur­ Sino­Italian efforts to preserve murals. to be wiped off after the murals are moved to any time,” he said. al relics protection technology department Before entering the hall, which officially our lab,” Yang said. Wang Jia, deputy director of the mural at Northwest University, said that during opened to the public on June 20, 2011, visi­ After being relocated, the murals are painting restoration department at Shaanxi the Renaissance, maintaining and repairing tors must wear shoe covers. ready for restoration. History Museum, said the pigments used in murals began immediately an artwork was The underground hall is luxuriously deco­ Yang said: “Scientifically restoring murals murals are “extremely precious”. completed. rated and features high­tech equipment is still a tricky problem worldwide. After Supervising 18 specialists working in the For example, such work was carried out such as temperature and humidity controls. thousands of years, these highly valuable mural restoration laboratory, Wang said on Genesis, the Michelangelo fresco on the Of the 97 wall paintings on display, 18 ancient wall paintings inevitably experience that before they enter the lab every day, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, murals in five sets have been listed as peeling and hollowing. Based on their con­ 2 technical staff members have to pass Zhou said. national treasures by the National Cultural dition, conservator­restorers need to work through a special machine that eliminates “Michelangelo created the most striking Heritage Administration. out a plan for each one.” bacteria. mural at that time. The fresco was so huge Most of the murals exhibited are from “The lab is kept ventilated and dry all year that once it was completed, his students three tombs in the Tang Dynasty, which Arduous business around. Each specialist uses unique skills to started maintenance work on the chapel were owned by relatives of Empress Wu Most of the time, restoring murals is an restore the murals, and this work includes ceiling,” he added. Zetian (690­705), the sole female ruler in onerous task. archaeological drawing, copying, collecting ancient China. In 2014, after the tomb of senior Tang information and treating mold. Joint cooperation Murals found in the tombs were first relo­ Dynasty official Han Xiu was unearthed in “We remind ourselves not to panic and to China began protecting murals in the cated for restoration work in the 1960s and the Chang’an district of Xi’an, Yang and his avoid rushing our work. Pigments and 1950s. In 1995, China and Italy started hold­ 1970s. colleagues spent three months painstaking­ brushes used for writing are our friends, as ing training classes in Xi’an and Beijing Yang Wenzong, deputy director of the ly dipping cotton swabs in ionized water to we use them widely each day in restoration aimed at conserving and restoring cultural museum’s mural collection base, who has clean dirt from the surface of murals found work,” Wang said. relics. These classes were also held in 2004 worked at the institution for more than 30 at the site. “It’s vital that we preserve the original pig­ and 2007. years, witnessed the murals being removed “We need to ensure that the cleaning ments on the murals while we clean any Zhou said this joint cooperation enabled from the tombs. He has also seen the rapid agent we use does not affect the murals’ col­ contamination.” conservator­restorers to better use tech­ advances made in restoration techniques or. Cultural relics can’t be used for testing, so After cleaning is completed, conservator­ niques to detect problems with murals, along over the years. the restoration work has to be infallible in restorers add a strengthening agent to fill in with new materials to protect the artworks. “When we speak about murals from order to gauge their historic, artistic and sci­ 1. Yang Wenzong from Shaanxi any loose areas on the back of the artworks. Tomb murals need to be relocated in graves, we often refer to them as Tang entific research value,” Yang said. History Museum in Xi’an protects Wang said that in recent years, honey­ order to protect them, Zhou said. Howev­ tomb murals,” Yang said. “We’ve excavated “Discovering these exquisite wall paint­ murals at the tomb of senior Tang comb aluminum, a new material, has helped er, in the near future, this work will be car­ many tomb murals dating to the Han ings in a tomb created a real stir in the Dynasty official Han Xiu. restorers with their work by providing addi­ ried out onsite, due to advances made in Dynasty (206 BC­AD 220) and such art­ archaeological academic world,” Yang said. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY tional support for the murals. technology. works reached their peak in the Tang “The tomb was initially found by grave 2-3. Staff members from the For Yang and Wang, their work not only China has its own standards for relocat­ Dynasty.” robbers, and after opening it, there was museum restore murals involves restoring murals, but also telling a ing and preserving murals, and has also The three tombs were owned by princes nothing left inside except these murals.” unearthed from the tomb of a story and showcasing features from a partic­ helped safeguard these artworks in Japan, and princesses from the imperial family dur­ Yang said experts and painting scholars Tang Dynasty princess. ular era to bring ancient art back to life in Zhou said. ing the Tang Dynasty, Yang added. Murals arrived at the site in droves at the time, and PHOTOS BY HUO YAN / CHINA DAILY modern times. In 1972, at the Takamatsuzuka Tomb in from these graves are rich in color, showcas­ Asuka village, Nara prefecture, a burial ing the skills of artisans at that time. 3 chamber was found, along with colorful fres­ “Interestingly, the owners of the three coes on the walls. tombs were either killed or committed sui­ In recent years, these paintings — desig­ cide by imperial order from Empress Wu nated as national treasures in Japan — have Zetian, and their mausoleums were later been removed from the tomb for protection rebuilt by the emperors who succeeded work to be carried out with the help of con­ her,” Yang said. servator­restorers from China. There are numerous Tang tomb murals in Zhou said particular attention needs to be Xi’an and central Shaanxi. paid in future to the digital preservation of Yang said there were three types of mural murals. He added that more museums are at the time — two of them found above being built near mausoleums to better carry ground and one below. The former was out preservation efforts. For example, Han­ found mainly at grottoes, temples, churches yangling Museum in Xianyang city, Shaanxi, and palaces, and the latter at graves. has performed well with onsite work for its cultural relics. Relocation work In Taiwan, The Treasures of Prosperity, Murals discovered in underground graves the exhibition of Tang Dynasty murals, is were often badly affected by moisture, mold due to end on Saturday. and bacteria. They needed to be restored Liu, from the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural and cared for before going on display. Relics Exchange Association, said, “For Yang, 57, a graduate from the School of young people in Taiwan unfamiliar with the Culture and Museology at Northwest Uni­ history of the Tang Dynasty, the exhibition versity in Xi’an, started work on restoring has resonated with them and played a key cultural relics immediately after joining role in promoting cultural exchanges.” Shaanxi History Museum in 1986. In the mid­1990s, Yang started to tackle Wang Mengnan in Xi’an contributed to this murals relocated from tombs, restoring them story. University research team members brainstorm idea to safeguard artworks

By XIN WEN in Xi’an These particles can be better applied to the “However, as Chinese murals differ from tional properties they are considered nov­ murals and the ability to resist ultraviolet murals in an effort to protect them. frescoes in Western countries, it can be irre­ el material for biological, optoelectronics, rays. A new type of nanomaterial developed by Nanotechnology is an advanced and rap­ sponsible to employ methods used in the energy and environmental applications. “The good news is that a rising number a university research team in Xi’an, capital idly developing field in which, for example, West to safeguard our murals,” he added. Due to the reinforcing effect of the dots, of collections, such as those in museums of Shaanxi province, has been used to pro­ materials about one 800th the thickness of a In 2016, Li and his team of doctoral stu­ calcium hydroxide nanomaterials were and temples in Shaanxi, want to use our tect murals. human hair are studied. dents began laboratory tests to develop a new completely carbonized, which is highly materials to protect their murals,” Li Li Xuanhua, a professor at the School of “Spraying calcium hydroxide on the front material to protect murals. important for work to protect murals, Li said. Materials Science and Engineering at North­ and back of murals to strengthen them was In just two years, the team came up with said. “We will continue to research and devel­ western Polytechnical University, said nano­ first proposed by Italian cultural relics the idea of using graphene quantum dots The study results indicated that the nano­ op more new materials to protect murals technology breaks down inorganic materials experts in 2000, but it was hard to apply this to fuse with calcium hydroxide. These dots particles had a uniform size of about 80 and extend the application of these mate­ in the murals into small particles. process,” Li said. are nanoparticles, and due to their excep­ nanometers, strong adhesion to pigments in rials.”