A Study of Song Dynasty Polychrome Statue-Making Techniques and Materials in the Sage Mother Hall of the Jinci Temple, Shanxi, China

The polychrome statues of the Sage Mother Hall at Jinci Temple in Taiyuan city are recognized as one three masterpieces Temple. They also regarded an outstanding representative ancient Chinese temple statues. These possess great historical, artistic, scientific, cultural and social values, they important physical material for study history, culture, religion, politics economy, well science technology. internal structure, plaster layer samples surface pigments were analyzed by optical microscope (OM) scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM–EDS), powder diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy (Raman), X-radiography other analytical methods order to gain understanding production process pigment composition Hall. According findings, following steps taken during that decorate Temple: building a wooden skeleton, fixing skeleton rivets or twine, shaping clay form coarse clay, appearance fine refining molded appearance, white substrate painting. majority inorganic mineral pigments: red include cinnabar minium; blue ultramarine; green lavendulan; yellow ochre; black carbon black; layers lead sulfate. Some can be seen multiple layers, which indicates over history painted Hall, have been subject series repainting, more recent repainting time perhaps having place late Qing Dynasty period.