Effect of Filling and Sizing Technique to Andong-po and Namhae-po Hemp Canvas on Painting and Fastness of Pigments

Abstract

Traditionally, handmade hemp cloth was used for the production of Buddhist paintings, but now, mass-produced machine-woven hemp is mainly used instead of handmade weave produced in small quantities by artisans. In this study, accelerated aging test was conducted after specimen production and the results were compared and analyzed to evaluate the effects of the glue sizing and background filling techniques of hand-woven Andong hemp canvas(Andong-po) and machine-woven Namhae hemp canvas(Namhae-po) on painting and color fastness of pigments. The results of the analysis showed that Andong-po and Namhae-po differed in the total amount of glue and pigments applied due to the thickness and compactness of threads. Namhae-po was able to be filled with a small amount of glue and pigment. The quality of the filling and color fastness was best with white clay, whereas lead white produced the poorest quality. The stability of the color fastness of pigment was evaluated to be excellent in Andong-po. The color fastness of pigments was excellent when the amount of glue added was high in the case of lead white, cinnabar, and gamboge, whereas, in the case of azurite and malachite, the color fastness was excellent when the amount of glue added was small.