Throughout Asia's history, sculptural arts have encompassed a variety of processes, including carving, modeling, casting, and assembling. Scientific investigations presented in this volume include studies of Southeast Asian jade, Chinese bronzes, Mongolian deer stones, Japanese polychrome sculpture, and others. Scientific study of sculpture helps us learn more about why, where, and how thse works were made as well as address concerns about the state of their preservation and conservation.
This volume is the third in a series of Forbes Symposium proceedings. The first title, Scientific Research in the Field of Asian Art, edited by Paul Jett with Janet G. Douglas, Blythe McCarthy, and John Winter, was published in 2003; the second, Scientific Research on the Pictorial Arts of Asia, edited by Paul Jett, John Winter, and Blythe McCarthy, was published in 2005. All three volumes are published by Archetype Publications in association with the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Proceedings of the third Forbes Symposium at the Freer Gallery of Art
Foreword
Acknowledgements
List of contributors
Introduction
Jade and jade-working methods
A stone kneeling figure in the Art Institute of Chicago: new evidence from scientific investigations and archaeological finds in China
Francesca Casadio, Jay Xu, Elinor Pearlstein, Katherine T. Faber, Ariel Knowles, and Jing Zhichun
A noninvasive mineralogical study of nephrite artifacts from the Philippines and surroundings: the distribution of Taiwan nephrite and implications for island Southeast Asian archaeology
Yoshiyuki Iizuka, Hung Hsiao-Chun, and Peter Bellwood
The introduction of rotary incising wheels for working jade in China
Margaret Sax, Nigel D. Meeks, Janet Ambers, and Carol Michaelson
A transfer of technology: jade abrasive methods used to create inscriptions in ancient Chinese bronzes
Donna Strahan and Mark Fenn
Bronze, iron and precious metals
Technical studies of Proto-Zhou and early Western Zhou bronze vessels excavated in Guanzhong, Shaanxi province, China
Yang Junchang and Han Rubin
Large cast-iron artifacts in ancient China from the seventh century onward: technology and conservation
Han Rubin and Li Xiuhui
Technical study and elemental analysis of Chinese gold from the late Eastern Zhou period
Paul Jett, Lynn Brostoff, and Laure Dussubieux
Elemental composition of Sri Lankan bronzes: technological style and change
Chandra L. Reedy and Sherry Harlacher
The bronzes of the south of India: a continuing tradition?
Paul Craddock and Duncan Hook
Casting compassion: the technical study of a large Bronze from Tibet
Abigail Hykin, Richard Newman, and Joan Cummins
Earth-based materials
New methods for analyzing thin sections of casting core materials: a case study with Southeast Asian bronzes
Chandra L. Reedy and Pieter Meyers
Mineralogical characteristics of Khmer stone sculpture in the Bayon style
Janet G. Douglas and Sorena S. Sorensen
Tibetan Buddhist clay figures: a technical examination
Lisa Sertic and Louise Bacon
Analysis and replication
Documenting Mongolia's deer stones: application of three-dimensional digital imaging technology to preservation
Harriet F. Beaubien, Basiliki Vicky Karas, and William W. Fitzhugh
The scientific study, conservation, and reproduction of a sacred lion mask
Yasunori Matsuda, Shinichiro Tagawa, Takao Makino, and Miho Teshirogi
Analysis of inlays on Japanese netsuke using Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and visual examination techniques
Odile Madden, Christine Drosse, Ashley Johnson, and Marc Walton
Polychromy and wood
Nondestructive investigation of the polychromy of Japanese sculptures
Yasuhiro Hayakawa, Tetsuei Tsuda, and Sadatoshi Miura
Surface decoration on the limestone sculptures from Qingzhou, Shandong province, China
John Winter
Polychrome decoration on Far Eastern gilt bronze sculpture of the eighth century
John Twilley
Examination and analysis of the Chinese polychrome sculptures in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum
Marianne Webb, Elizabeth Moffatt, Marie-Claude Corbeil, and Nicolas Duxin
The study of Buddhist sculptures from Japan and China based on wood identification
Mechtild Mertz and Takeo Itoh
Chinese Buddhist wood sculptures of Water-Moon Guanyin: a preliminary research in their wood construction and material
Petra H. Rösch
