Fragments of lacquerware excavated from the Lu'an Shuangdun No. 1 Han Tomb can be seen in its ornamentation technique
Song Jiajia Yao Regime Xu Jing Yang Juan Li Huaqing
(Anhui Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Hefei 230000, Anhui, China)
Abstract: Most of the lacquerware excavated from the Lu'an Shuangdun No. 1 Han Tomb are fragments, and most of them cannot be restored to their original appearance through restoration. By sorting out these residual lacquer pieces, it can be seen that the lacquerware buried at that time used painting, cone painting, pile paint, gold and silver appliqués, inlays and other decorative techniques, and a variety of techniques were comprehensively used and exquisitely worked.
Keywords: Shuangdun No. 1 Han Tomb; Lacquerware; Skull Decoration Technique
Lu'an Shuangdun No. 1 Han Tomb is the mausoleum of Liu Qing, the first generation of the Western Han Dynasty Liu'an Kingdom, and more than 500 pieces (sets) of burial items (sets) such as pottery, bronze, jade, lacquerware, woodware, boneware, carriage and horse ware, weapons, gold and silver foil, and sealing mud were unearthed during archaeological excavations in 2006. Most of the lacquerware in this tomb was excavated in the mud of the cloister robbery cave, and only a few of the utensils were relatively intact, and most of the artifacts had been broken into fragments. Most of these pieces of paint can no longer be restored through restoration, but it can be seen that the lacquerware buried at that time was varied and the ornamentation was complex, providing us with informative experimental materials for studying the lacquerware production process of the Han Dynasty. This article will discuss the decorative process used in this batch of lacquerware fragments from the perspective of decoration techniques.
1 Painted
Painting is the most basic and important decorative means of lacquerware. At present, the earliest surviving lacquerware object in the world is the lacquer bow excavated from the site of the Cross-lake Bridge in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang (about 8,000 years ago), and the paint used is unprocessed or only roughed lacquer. The vermilion lacquer wooden bowl excavated from the Hemudu site in Zhejiang (about 6500 years ago) shows that the painter has been able to transfer pigments into the paint liquid, which is a historic breakthrough in the color preparation technology of lacquerware raw materials. By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the lacquer technology had undergone great development, and the lacquer workers had been able to mix various mineral pigments and vegetable oils into the paint liquid to make various color paints, which greatly enriched the color of lacquerware. Various colors of lacquer are applied to the plain lacquer surface, and the bright and vivid patterns and the elegant and deep lacquer surface seem to move and static, forming a visual effect with strong contrast.
The color of the paint fragments containing paint is mainly red and black, with one color as the ground and the other depicting ornamentation. The subject matter of the paintings include cloud patterns, cloud patterns, divine beast patterns and geometric patterns. The cloud pattern is a pattern composed of smooth swirling lines, which appears in large quantities here as a primary or auxiliary ornament. The cloud pattern is a kind of lacquer ornament recorded in the Book of later Han, which refers to the painting of various sacred beasts, sacred birds and gods in the cloud pattern. In addition to birds, sheep, and deer, there is also a dragon-headed monster interspersed in the cloud pattern (Figure 1). The use of cloud patterns and cloud void patterns reflects people's beautiful yearning for ascension to heaven after death. The pattern of the sacred beasts appears in the center of the inner sole of the lacquerware, and there are phoenix birds and various four-legged sacred beasts (Figure 2). The composition of the divine beast pattern is independent pattern (Figure 2A, Figure 2B), dichotomy symmetry (Figure 2C) and three-point swivel (Figure 2D). The geometric pattern is named after the geometric figures of points, lines and surfaces composed of a variety of regular patterns, which are mostly used for auxiliary ornamentation, which plays the role of highlighting the main ornaments or separating ornaments.
Fig. 1 Cloud pattern
Fig. 2 Fragments of lacquerware painted with the pattern of the divine beast
Fig. 3 Fragments of lacquerware using the flat coating technique
Fig. 4 Fragments of lacquerware using the dot color technique
The painting techniques seen mainly include line drawing, flat painting and pointillism. Line drawing is when a painter uses a brush dipped in lacquer to outline various patterns. The cloud pattern basically adopts this method of painting, and the lines drawn are swirling and flowing, light and ethereal. Lacquerware fragments painted with faucets (fig. 3) use the flat painting technique. The dragon head depicted is a deep mouth with a beard on the mouth and two horns behind the head. It is first flat painted with red, and then the main features are outlined with black lines. Painted with geometric ornaments (Fig. 4) uses the dot color technique, using a brush dipped in red lacquer liquid to apply dots to the circular or semicircular blank space of the geometric ornament, a few simple points make the pattern here vivid and lively.
2 Cone paintings
Cone painting, that is, the use of a cone to depict ornamentation on the surface of the lacquered utensils. The term "cone painting" comes from the bamboo jane excavated from the Mawangdui No. 3 Tomb, indicating that the "cone painting" was used to name this technique in the Han Dynasty. Its lines are as thin as gossamer, similar to the marks of needles engraved on the surface of the utensils, so it is also called "needle engraving". The cone painting technology, which sprouted from the cone painting symbols and characters on lacquerware during the Warring States period, reached a high degree of prosperity in the Han Dynasty, and many Western Han tombs unearthed exquisite cone painting lacquerware.
Fig. 5 Three pieces of lacquerware fragments derived from the same cone painting (indicating the fracture of the lacquer carcass)
Fig. 6 A fragment of lacquerware from a cone painting of a two-bird fishing scene
The lacquer fragments using the cone painting process are textured with clamped tires. Compared with wooden tires, the carcass is hard, the paint film is hard, and the depiction is more cloudy and flowing, and generally there will be no hair defects and other phenomena. The primer of the fragments is black or dark brown. The cone paintings are decorated with cloud patterns, animal patterns, plant patterns, hunting patterns and geometric patterns. The next interview will give two examples to illustrate the beauty of the cone painting process. The residual lacquer piece of Figure 5 is derived from the same artifact, and the general appearance of this cone lacquerware can be restored according to the available information. From the appearance point of view, this artifact should be a cover, the outer black paint, the inner red paint, the cover surface from the outside to the inside has two layers of convex string pattern, the cone painting five circles of pattern, the first, second and fourth circles for the geometric pattern, the third circle for the plant pattern, the top equidistant cone painting three climbing on the thin rope to do the roaring beast. The ornamentation is cumbersome and complex, the composition is rigorous, and the thickness of the lines is uniform, which highlights the exquisite skills of the makers. Fig. 6 is two pieces of fragments pieced together, which should be the bottom of the ear cup, the inside of the cup is red paint, and the bottom of the cup is black paint. The bottom cone of the cup draws a circle of grate patterns, two strings as the edges, and the middle cone depicts two water birds fishing scene. The right waterfowl (missing part of the neck) has a long, round-eyed beak, a flowing tail and slender feet, and a beautiful image. It was opening its mouth wide toward the poor fish, as if it had tasted the delicious taste of the fish's flesh. The water bird with the curved beak and big eyes on the left showed no weakness, waving its wings and flying quickly, as if it was inevitable for this fish. Although the lines of this artifact cone painting are not as neat as the previous one, a few strokes have vividly expressed the extremely tense moment of the two birds competing for food, showing the superb painting skills of the makers.
3 Stack of paint
Stacking paint is to use materials such as lacquer or lacquer ash to pile out the pattern on the bottom tire of the lacquer, and then decorate the pattern on the pile. The convex ornament formed by the pile paint has a strong sense of three-dimensionality, and it has a stronger ornamentality than the flat ornament. The earliest physical sample of the pile paint is found in the outer coffin pattern excavated from the Mawangdui No. 1 Han Tomb in Changsha, which is a special tool that squeezes the color paint into a special tool to form a flowing line. The two chapters of "Yang Zhi" and "Pile Up" in the "Record of The Decoration of the Skull" detail the different stacking paint decoration techniques. Among them, "zhiwen" is the meaning of the pattern protruding.
Fig. 7 Front and reverse view of lacquerware fragments containing turtle-shaped ornamentation
Fig. 8 Enlarged view of the turtle-shaped decoration (the small picture on the right is a cross-sectional view of its red circle)
Among the many lacquerware fragments, one of them caught the author's attention. It should be part of a piece of the lid. The outside of the lid is painted in black and painted, and the parts that fall off the surface are metal buckles and persimmon-shaped ornaments; the inside of the lid is painted red with a turtle-shaped decoration in the center (fig. 7). The shell of the turtle is convex, the remaining legs on the right side are curved under the abdomen, the painter uses black paint to outline the details of the dorsal carapace and feet, and the center uses two isometric curves to vividly depict the bulge of the dorsal carapace, but unfortunately the head and tail are missing, and it is impossible to see the whole picture. When touching the bulge, it is found to be unusually solid, and it is placed under a super-depth of field microscope for observation. One of its sections is shown in Figure 8, which is the carcass, the paint gray layer, the paint film layer, and the paint gray layer. Among them, the thickness of the paint film layer is uniform, about 60 microns thick, and the two paint gray layers have similar inclusions, and it is the outermost layer of paint ash layer that gradually increases from the edge of the turtle shell to the center of the turtle shell to form this bulge. Therefore, it can be concluded that this artifact is an example of the zhiwen depiction paint in the "Book of Ornaments". It should be painted in the center several times, polished into a circular convex shape, and finally outlined with color paint. Some Han Dynasty lacquerware unearthed in Yangzhou have similar turtle-shaped decorations inside. The back of the turtle-shaped decoration is a copper shop head, in the production process, the rivet of the shop head pierces the wall of the device, hindering the beauty and use, so it is depicted with paint ash and black paint to form the image of the turtle. The front and back decorations of the turtle-shaped bulges here have been peeled off, and based on the residual imprints, they are inferred to be persimmon-shaped ornaments with ringed buttons, similar to the purpose of turtle-shaped decoration. The use of lacquer ash piled into a bulge cleverly hides the defects of the broken wall, and paints the image of the turtle and turtle symbolizing auspicious longevity according to local conditions, which can deeply feel the unique ingenuity of the maker.
4 gold and silver decals
The decorative technique of gold and silver appliqués is the decorative technique of pasting gold leaf and silver foil on the surface of lacquerware. The earliest archaeological discovery of gold leaf appliqués was unearthed at the Shang Dynasty site in Taixi Village, Gaocheng, Hebei Province, and there is a semicircular gold leaf piece with a thickness of less than 0.1 cm on the side of a decayed round box, which is very thick and primitive in appearance, and has not been made into a specific fancy pattern. By the middle and late Western Han Dynasty and early Eastern Han Dynasty, lacquerware with gold and silver appliqué craftsmanship began to become popular in large quantities. Gold and silver are pounded into gold or silver leaf as thin as cicada wings, cut into various patterns, and used the adhesion of the lacquer or glued to the surface of the lacquerware. Judging from the excavated objects, there are separate gold leaf appliqué lacquerware, silver foil appliqué lacquerware, and gold and silver foil appliqué lacquerware. The contrast between the intense metallic luster and the dark lacquer layer highlights the brilliance and beauty of the lacquerware.
Fig. 9 Gold and silver appliqué animal ornamentation
Fig. 10 Gold and silver appliqué cloud pattern and triangular ornamentation
We sorted out more than 100 pieces of lacquer containing the gold and silver decal process from the fragments. From the material point of view, there are both gold leaf appliqués and silver foil appliqués. From the perspective of shape, it is mainly divided into the following categories: First, animal ornaments, including birds and beasts. There are many birds, such as owls (Figure 9A), geese, spotted doves, ribbon birds (Figure 9B), etc., and some features are not obvious and cannot be classified. They either fly with their wings outstretched, or peck with their heads down, or flutter their wings to fly, or stand still with their heads held high, which is very interesting. Recognizable mammals include tigers, rabbits (Figure 9C), deer (Figure 9D), sheep, etc. They either look back, or forage, lie still, or gallop, or squat, and the shape is vivid and vivid. The second is the cloud pattern and triangular pattern. Figure 10A is a fragment of the remaining cloud pattern. The leftmost part of the gold leaf is missing, the edges are rolled up, and the black paint is outlined in a "few" glyph to depict the soothing state of the cloud, and the details are observed, and the gold leaf exposed in the middle of the black paint is brighter than the other parts (at the red circle in the picture), indicating that the gold leaf as a whole is covered with a layer of paint; the presence of gold leaf can be seen under the paint film cracks and defects pointed by the arrow. We speculate that the maker may have first cut out the approximate shape of the gold leaf and pasted it on the lacquerware, covered the paint and then used black paint to outline the details and cover the unsatisfactory places such as the corners of the gold leaf to modify the specific shape of the gold leaf exposed, and finally painted the gold leaf to blend with the surface of the lacquerware. Figure 10B is a triangular ornament, and in addition to black paint, there are also two pieces of red paint on the gold leaf.
5 Mosaic
Inlaying is the process of embedding a material in other objects to make two objects merge with each other. It has a long history and can be found on jade, wood, bone, ivory and pottery as early as prehistoric times. As far as lacquerware is concerned, the Vermilion lacquer inlaid jade tire high handle cup excavated from the Liangzhu Culture Altar Site in Yaoshan, Zhejiang Province, is the earliest known age of the mainland, and the lacquer fragments excavated from the Shang Dynasty ruins in Taixi Village, Gaocheng, Hebei Province, are also embedded with turquoise of different shapes such as squares, circles and triangles. With the wide spread of inlay technology, inlay materials are constantly enriched, such as screw, jade, jewelry, metal, etc., and the setting techniques are more mature, and the lacquerware produced is more exquisite. The perfect combination of different materials and lacquerware not only increases the ornamentality of lacquerware, but also highlights the noble status of the user.
Fig. 11 Various clip fragments
Fig. 12 Lacquer cover
Fig. 13 A piece of paint inlaid with a copper collar bezel
Judging from the results of the finishing of this batch of lacquerware fragments, it is the "clasper" in the mosaic process that appears more. Metal buckle is a process used to set the mouth, abdomen and bottom edges of utensils. It is common to have a circle of silver at the mouth margin of the ear cup (Figure 11A), at the ear margin (Figure 11B), and at the mouth edge of the disc (Figure 11C). Metal hoops are applied to these bumpy places to make the utensils durable and more beautiful. Another example is this lacquered lid (Fig. 12), the cover is inlaid with two silver buckles, the center is inlaid with a silver persimmon base with a ring of buttons, and each persimmon leaf has a chicken heart-shaped nest, which is faintly visible in the presence of red paint, and it is speculated that there should be a gem inlay at the initial nest. There is also a category of rings that have been paved with only two cases (Figure 13). The whole is gilded, the head of the beast has round eyes, one eye is also embedded with round glass, the double horn is rolled inside, the beard below is also rolled inward, the mouth is ringed, and the size of the ring is comparable to the head of the beast.
The Han Dynasty was the first glorious period of continental lacquerware art, and a large number of exquisitely crafted lacquerware were unearthed from Han tombs around the country. Lacquerware in this period attached importance to surface decoration, and there were many craftsmanship techniques, and only the decorative techniques of lacquerware fragments in the Tomb of Lu'an Shuangdun Han included painting, cone painting, stacking paint, gold and silver appliqué, inlay and so on. And a variety of processes are used comprehensively, such as lacquer cover (Figure 12) with a lightweight and durable clamp tire to shape it, with painting, inlay, gold and silver appliqué and other processes to decorate the surface magnificently, so that it has a high value in arts and crafts. These fragments are like witnesses of the times, telling people about the history that has passed.
Cultural Relics Appraisal and Appreciation, No. 17, 2020