1911 Research Article Received: 1 January 2009 Accepted: 2 April 2009 Published online in Wiley Interscience: 10 July 2009 (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI 10.1002/jrs.2340 Pigment identification and decoration analysis of a 5th century Chinese lacquer painting screen: a micro-Raman and FTIR study Tao Li, a* Yun-Feng Xie, a Yi-Min Yang, a Chang-Sui Wang, a Xiao-Yang Fang, a Ji-Long Shi b and Qiu-Ju He c To investigate the pigments and decoration applied to a wood-based lacquer painting screen from the tomb of Si-ma Jin-long, Shanxi Province, central China, made by Chinese craftsmen in the 5th century, a combination of micro-Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF), and microscopic examination was used. The obtained results are as follows: (1) the black, yellow, and red colors are identified as carbon black, orpiment and realgar, and cinnabar, respectively, by using micro-Raman spectroscopy. The FTIR result shows that the white pigment filled in the leaves is not lead white, as assumed in the literature, but gypsum. Whether lead white was used at other locations remains unanswered and requires more samples for further work; (2) the thickness of each discernable pigment layer, as observed under the microscope, is approximately equal and the differences among them are small, suggesting a superfine painting skill; besides, a noticeable smooth interface between wood and the red grounding substance indicates that a polishing process might have been applied before the painting; (3) the red background was proved to contain cinnabar, but further FTIR analyses found no evidence for the presence of Chinese wood oil; and (4) the most interesting finding, rarely reported before, is that white grains of different sizes are found in both pigment layers and the grounding substance, which are perhaps an intentional addition. Further, in situ XRF and Raman analyses indicate that they are sourced from hydroxyapatite, coming probably from the intentional addition of animal bone ash to the lacquer. But how such a process could be finished and what purpose it served have not yet been answered. Copyright c  2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keywords: Northern Wei; Tomb of Si-ma Jin-long; lacquer painting screen; micro-Raman spectroscopy; FTIR spectroscopy Introduction Worldwide, China is probably the country that made the earliest use of lacquer. The oldest lacquerware known heretofore is a 7000-year-old bowl coated with a cinnabar-containing lacquer film, which was unearthed from the Neolithic He-mu-du remains in Yu-yao, Zhejiang Province, southeastern China, in 1979. [1,2] Based on archeological excavations, [3 – 11] the locations of early use of lacquerware in China (between the Neolithic age and Han Dynasty) are shown in Fig. 1, in which the sites where the lacquerware manufactured or used have been excavated are shown. The Northern Wei (386 – 534 A.D.) tomb of Si-ma Jin-long was first discovered in 1965 accidentally by Chinese construction workers. It is located in central China, close to the Shi-jia-zhai village, Da- tong, Shanxi Province. The tomb bears dated inscriptions of 474 and 484 A.D., and the epitaphs identify the owners as a Northern Wei official in a high position named Si-ma Jin-long and his nomadic wife named Ji-chen. Although it had been robbed, the tomb has still more than 400 excavated artifacts. Both organic and inorganic materials, such as painted potteries, porcelains, carved stones, beads, artifacts made of bronze and iron, and also of wood, bamboo and bone, have been found. The most remarkable finding from the tomb of Si-ma Jin-long was lacquer fragments with figure painting, which illustrated a Confucian moralizing text both in style and content and obviously followed the Han Chinese art tradition. The five largest fragments are roughly of similar size and relatively well preserved. Each piece measures about 80 cm long, 20 cm wide, and 2.5 cm thick. [12] One such fragment, as shown in Fig. 2, has a red background, on which finely drawn black lines delineate the forms. All the faces and hands are painted in white. The figures are accompanied by some inscriptions, written in black ink on a yellow background. Since its excavation, the screen has been in the focus of attention. To historians of Chinese art, the lacquer painting screen fragments are of great significance because • they had a distinctive Chinese character, both in style and content; • the style is very similar to some sections of the ‘admonitions’ scroll by the famous figure painter Kai-zhi Gu (mid-4th to 5th century); • the clear dated inscriptions were rare among their contempo- raries; ∗ Correspondence to: Tao Li, Department of Scientific History and Archaeometry, Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yuquan Rd. 19 (A), Beijing 100049, China. E-mail: tao-li@live.com a Department of Scientific History and Archaeometry, Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China b Center of Printing History Research, Beijing Institute of Graphics and Communication, Beijing 102600, China c Division of Preservation and Conservation, Capital museum, Beijing 100045, China J. Raman Spectrosc. 2009, 40, 1911–1918 Copyright c  2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.