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Student restores Chinese figure created centuries ago
Katherine Allen
Staff Reporter
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If you go to the Cleveland Museum of Art and wander through its various exhibits, you’ll probably be impressed by the array of artwork. But if you look close – really close – at some of the pieces, you might be even more impressed to know that some of the artwork there hasn’t always been so clean and whole; much time and effort has gone into its restoration.
Sayaka Fujioka, a senior at Case, reconstructed the ceramic head of a Chinese guardian figure for her senior project.
The piece, called “Head of a Lohan,” was created during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Fujioka started her project with several broken pieces of this 42-centimeter-high, heavy, earthenware head. She then evaluated them, made assumptions about the methods and intentions of the artist, and figured out how to put them back together without harming or changing them permanently in any way.
Fujioka said that art conservation appeals to her because “it’s hands-on and intimate.” The investigation of a work of art involves meticulous physical observation, a thorough understanding of art history, and a bit of imagination.
First, Fujioka closely evaluated the pieces of the figure. She noted the type of clay and estimated that it had been fired at about 1,000 degrees Celsius. The glaze was “pooled” – it was not smooth and uniform but a bit patchy and blobby. This occurs, she explained, when the glaze is heated, and the surface tension of the glaze is greater than its attraction to the clay.
Then she made assumptions about how the head was created. Inside, it was hollow, and marked with long, thin indentations. She believes these show that the clay of the head was formed around a bundle of grass and twigs, which were removed later.
When fitting the pieces together, she noticed that there was an extra one which didn’t fit, probably indicating that originally, the “Head of a Lohan” had a body, too.
“This [kind of analysis] is important to understand what the artist had to go through,” Fujioka said.
The actual assembly was a complex process, involving adhesives, filling material, glazes, sanding, molding, and a lot of patience. She was careful to use materials that could easily be removed by acetone, so it could be returned to the state in which it was found. She also worked to recreate the head so it appeared as the artist intended.
“It’s important not to add things of your own, but to form an educated guess of the artist’s goals when he or she was painting or creating,” Fujioka said.
She used acryloid B72 adhesive mixed with glass microballoons to reassemble the pieces and fill in large cracks. She then used a smooth filler, called Modostuc, to match the texture of the clay, and Liquitex, an acrylic paint, to match the glaze.
A piece of the jaw was missing, so she molded, sandpapered and filed a piece to fill it.
Fujioka also had to get her new paint to look like the head’s original glaze. Because the thermodynamic properties of the original glaze were different than the clay, it had hardened in a crackly manner, called “craquelure.” First she tried to imitate the cracks with a thin paintbrush, but found that it wasn’t an ideal approach, so instead she used a needle to scratch little imitation-cracks, and filled them in with black paint.
In the end, a casual observer would never guess that her “Head of a Lohan” was once several separate pieces.
Fujioka believes it’s important to preserve a piece of art as the artist intended it to appear, but also said that sometimes the history of a piece of art includes how it has changed physically during its life.
“The artist probably didn’t intend for his or her painting to become dark and caked with dust, but some people consider that to be part of the piece of art. In Italy, they often do a partial cleaning, so the painting is preserved, but the age still shows,” she said.
“I think you really have to look at each work of art as an individual, because every one is different.”
After graduation, Fujioka plans to get some more experience at a museum or continue on to graduate school before she pursues a career in art conservation.
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