CHINESE WALL PAINTING
by Joan K. Yanni
MAG's Chinese wall painting, on view for the first time, creates an interesting new focus for the Asian Gallery. Since the piece was probably taken from the wall of a shrine, the spaces adjacent to the painting have been reinstalled to reflect a religious atmosphere. The seated, wooden figure of the bodhisattva Guanyin, a docent favorite, has been moved from its niche and placed on the painting's left; a standing stone Guanyin is on its right. A Taoist deity carved in stone and a fragment of a large scroll compete the new arrangement.
The Taoist wall painting, most likely from the late Ming dynasty (1600-1650), is part of a much larger composition. It shows a female figure dressed in billowing robes and standing against a background of clouds. The movement of robe and clouds reflects the invisible energies of the "Tao," the constant motion of the universe. The figure is elaborately dressed. Looking closely, one can see a pearl in the central portion of her blue headdress and dangling earrings on her ears. The full pink sleeve of her garment makes a diagonal across the painting.
In her right hand she holds a scepter called a ju-i. An object with connotations of longevity and well wishing, the ju-i was often presented as a gift for special occasions. The tiny marking decorating the fungus-shaped, curved end of the ju-i is not clear; it might be the head of a Buddha, or perhaps a small bat, a motif the Chinese use to symbolize happiness. (Phonetically the character for bat is identical with that for happiness.) The identity of the lady is also in doubt. She might be the bodhisattva Manjusri, who personifies Transient Wisdom and is known to have been represented holding a ju-i; however, since part of a flowing sleeve can be seen on her left, indicating that there were other figures in the painting, she is probably simply one of many figures in a large composition.
When the painting was given to the Gallery in 1986, it was very much in need of repair. A major matching grant from the IMS made the conservation possible, and Cynthia Luk from the Williamstown Regional Art Conservation Laboratory spent nearly three years on the project, actually going to China and Russia to research techniques. If you look closely, you can see that the piece has been installed so that it tilts slightly. Because the painting was crumbling around the edges, especially on the bottom, it was decided that installing it upright with all its weight on the base would be unwise. Thus the piece was tilted 10 degrees off vertical, so that its weight is distributed—a technique developed at the British Museum. (The Pompeii fragment in the ancient gallery has been installed in the same way.)
To create the painting, the artist drew the composition in charcoal. Brilliant, coarsely ground natural pigments were used for the paint color: malachite for green, smalt and indigo for blue, cinnabar for red, lead for white, and charcoal or lamp black (soot). Beneath the paint is a layer of fine white ground and beneath that two layers of mixed sand, clay, and vegetable fibers.
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