| Details | Traditional East Asian ink—used in painting and calligraphy—was previously fashioned from either pine soot or lampblack soot. While these materials are still in use, contemporary inks are also composed of industrial carbon black. These three different soots are chemically similar and can be difficult to identify, despite some variation in their characteristics. In this talk, conservation scientist Jennifer Giaccai will examine samples from modern soot and ink workshops in Japan and China, identifying commonalities and disparities. She will also discuss ongoing studies using Raman spectroscopy to identify ink sources without requiring scientists to remove samples from artwork.
Jennifer Giaccai is a conservation scientist in the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. She previously worked at the Smithsonian's Museum Conservation Institute and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. She joined the Freer and Sackler in 2015. Her current research interests include tracing the introduction of modern pigments in Chinese paintings and analyzing the dyes in the embroidery of Ming dynasty rank badges and the pigments used on picchwai.
This talk is part of the monthly lunchtime series Sneak Peek: New Research from the Freer and Sackler, where museum staff present in-depth, personal perspectives on and discuss ongoing research connected to works in the Freer and Sackler collections.
Register here: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jzpqNBx_SDGSkMN1cfE8Qg
Image courtesy of Jennifer Giaccai |
|---|