Restoration study of Dunhuang mural paintings--gaining the scientific understanding of the deterioration mechanism on the murals

这些壁画的画家通过熟练使用有限的颜料材料调色板，涂抹颜料层，混合颜料和有效地定位互补色来提高他们的色彩效果。另一方面，众所周知，在长时间和暴露于各种环境因素的过程中，这些颜色会达到极端的恶化状态，无论是变色，褪色还是剥落。我们的研究始于对壁画作为“物理结构”的认识。我们观察了这些结构的不同部分的不同状态，并观察了每个地方明显的退化状态，从而对壁画的退化机制有了科学的理解。然后，我们利用我们对这一机制的理解，尽可能接近于对壁画创作时外观的理解。

The painters of these murals heightened their color effects through the adroit use of a limited palette of pigment materials, applying layers of paint, mixing the pigments and effectively positioning complementary colors. On the other hand, it is also well known that over the course of long periods of time and exposure to a variety of environmental factors, these colors reach an extreme state of deterioration, whether discoloration, fading or flaking.Our research starts from an awareness of the mural paintings as "physical constructs." We have looked at the various current states of different parts of those constructs and observed the state of deterioration apparent in each of those spots, thus gaining a scientific understanding of the deterioration mechanism at work on the murals. Then we used our understanding of that mechanism to come as close as possible to an understanding of the appearance of the murals at the time of their creation.